Yesterday afternoon I had one of the worst surfs of the past year. Harry and I paddled out into onshore head high surf at Playa Grande and I had a nightmare. My wave selection was dreadful and those waves that I did catch mutated into a weird ledge shape, so that as soon as you'd paddled and caught the wave it adopted a horizontal platform structure, which instantaneously became a vertical and, in my case, totally unmakeable drop. Harry figured it out but I came in depressed and feeling like I'd rather venture in search of exotic parrots or even a big old Costa Rican crocodile than go for another surf.
But today's another day. We were up at 5.30 and found Playa Grande looking glassy, clean and 3-4ft with about 10 people out. I misread my first wave, got spanked and thought 'Here we go again.' But my second wave was a nice right-hander and despite a couple more nailings over the next two and a half hours, I emerged having had a good surf. In a large part this was thanks to Colin Briers of the Una Ola surf lodge, who joined me in the line up, with his girlfriend Andrea, and got me sitting a lot further inside than I had been. The outside waves were bigger but less regular; the inside wave was fun, fast and frequent. My wave count went up hugely, albeit that, in a remarkable near death experience, Andrea ran me over while I was paddling back out. Astonishingly, no contact, between boards or her fins and my head, was made. Truly, the surf Gods were with me today.
However, as is the way of things, there's a lot to figure out at a new spot. Playa Grande is a punchy beachbreak whose waves change their shape and direction at the last moment. Again, I'm reminded of Porthcurno, but the difference (apart from surfing in boardshorts) is that here, if you get the line right from takeoff, you will have a good ride, as opposed to finding that just about every wave closes out. By the end of the session I was getting it right and even found myself thinking that I was getting on pretty well with the Surftech 7"2', a board which is a lot lighter than those I have at home and which, for a man of my stature (or, as the kids put it, fatness) is fairly loose under foot. Needless to say, after one lovely right which walled up with exquisite glistening beauty and a couple of good lefts, I got a couple of nailings just to remind me that there's a lot more to turning up at a decent spot like this and having it wired immediately. Well, there's a lot more to it for the likes of me (pictured thanks to Colin).
More soon but to Mr Penfold, you were right. Both Harry and I have severe inner thigh 'we don't surf in boardshorts' rash.
A healthy smear of vaseline on the inside of your leg should stop that nasty board rub...is the giant pig still living on the far end of the beach ?
Posted by: phil | April 02, 2009 at 02:11 AM