SHOT
I wasn’t feeling 100% by any means, I probably shouldn’t have been sailing at all as the Aussie Flu really hit me hard, but I had missed one of the windiest Xmas periods we have ever had in the UK, so I wasn’t going to miss this day, even if it nearly killed me! The conditions were pretty full on for the South Coast. The swell seemed to be focussed squarely into Highcliffe beach. With the outgoing tide the waves were doubling up and hitting the inside sandbar and creating an over mast high shorebreak. I picked up a pretty big set on the outside, I was hoping it would start breaking further out which would have taken some of the power out of the wave, but instead it just kept walling up and got bigger and bigger until it started to reach the inside section. I was now fully committed to this wave, I made my first bottom turn and as soon as I looked up at the lip I could see I was pretty late, the only option I had to escape a mast high freight train was to hit the lip and hopefully air out in front of the throwing section! I actually didn’t realise it was such a meaty section that I had hit, it looked so perfect from my perspective but admittedly from the beach perspective I’m not sure I would have hit it given the benefit of hindsight!! Pretty stoked though that JC got the shot as I’d say it is the best shot I have ever had taken, not bad for a spot 20 minutes from my house! Highcliffe definitely delivered!
