Having checked out conditions on Sunday, we knew exactly where to go on Monday morning. The huge storm Ciara had now mostly passed by, but in it's wake were waves where we'd never really seen them before. John arrived first, in his surf kayak to make use of the beautiful lines.
A perfect point break had been created by the headland. This meant that the waves were sheltered from the wind and were breaking near the coast. They'd eventually loose power and we were able to paddle back out around the breaking white water. Perfect. It reminded us of Manu Bay, where we'd surfed in New Zealand. (although considerably colder!)
Getting in was part of the excitement - we had to jump in off the slipway and paddle across the waves to get out of the way. This had to be well-timed to avoid getting thrown onto the rock by the white water. After studying the patterns for a bit, we went for it. There was a guy called Barry on the slipway taking photos, which he shared with us after - Thanks Barry! Plenty of other people stopped to watch and a couple of other surfers also turned up to. They'd also never seen the wave here but had heard that it does occasionally work!
I soon started to chill down and after about an hour, even though I wanted to stay in, my hands and arms were becoming too cold to work properly. While we still could, we paddled out back to before the point the waves were breaking and climbed out onto the rocks between waves. I hobbled along the pavement to the van without any feeling in my feet. They just felt like stumps. This photo shows the work involved!
At the van, we had come prepared with a thermos full of warm water which I showered under blissfully, before getting changed. The next stop was hot food and good coffee! Brilliant! Right place and the right time for a phenomenal surf session - possibly my best ever welsh waves?....
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