Gower Madness Surf Competition

posted by James Gossan on 2011.06.30, under Upcoming Events

30:

The forecast for the weekend wasn’t looking very good when we set off at lunch time Friday. It was supposed to be very windy, big messy surf and raining.

After a couple of hours driving some very dark clouds appeared in front of us and as we got up towards Bristol it started raining. At first it wasn’t very heavy but the showers were quite long and as we approached Swansea it started raining very hard. After several missed turnings because of bad visibility we finally made it to Llangennith camp site at about 9:30 where we found some other kayakers that we knew had arrived earlier and gone out for a surf. During the night it carried on raining and the wind didn’t drop, but thankfully it stopped raining at about 7-7:30am.

After breakfast we were told that the competition had been moved along the beach to Rhossili so we set off leaving the tent to be picked up when we’d finished. When we got there the surf was just as bad as the forecast said it would be – pretty big, messy and blown out. After the introductory speech we all got kitted up and carried our boats down the cliff path to the beach. The path was very long and zigzagged down the cliff with several gates and lots of steps.

Finally, down on the beach, the first heat started and I was judging. My first heat was the third of the day which was the men’s open long final. It went straight to the final as only four of us entered.

Next was the junior short final which was very interesting. I was using a new paddle for the first time which was a mistake. It was the same as my old one just shorter so I thought it would be all right.

I wasn’t placing the blade in the water at the right angle so I didn’t turn when I wanted to. I was getting used to it by the end of the heat but I still wasn’t comfortable with it. I had to wait for the sets to come through to get any good rides and then sometimes they got dumpy so it was hard to find a good one, though I was able to practice my exit moves!

Next was the Junior long final. It was getting bigger by then as the tide went out and it was a struggle to get out back. When the sets came through I found it a bit too dumpy so I stayed inside and caught several smaller ones.

We finished at about 12:30 and had lunch and then we had the prize giving. I came second in the Junior Long, third in the Junior Short and as expected fourth out of four in the Men’s Long.