SUP: While it seems you came out of nowhere to attack this wave, you’re bringing experience from a lot of other sports…
Nick: I go out surfboat rowing; we have a team of four rowers and one guy steering out the back and we go out in some hefty surf. The teams line up on the beach, you paddle out through the surf and get round a buoy. On the way back to the beach you don’t even have to still be in the boat.
Also shortboard surfing and windsurfing for some years now, kitesurfing, I try and do it all really. (SUP Mag prompts Nick about his boat handling experience) Oh yeah, I’ve sailed across the Atlantic a couple of times, moving boats around that’s sort of what I do really.
SUP: Tell us what this wave is like.
Nick: It’s a pretty intense experience. Because I’m on my stand-up, I can see waves coming and I can paddle quite fast. I thought I could use that to my advantage out there. But because of the different swells that were coming in, the peak was shifting around and it was very easy to get caught out, and I think I’ve got a bit of experience in not getting caught out. So it’s quite intense I think because of the way the peak can move around.
You do get a bit of a strange feeling, even though you’re a long way offshore, you get this presence of the rocks inside.
(These ‘rocks’ are in fact the end of the looming granite Towan Headland. Water sucks back to reveal seething 20ft fangs of
jagged rock amid a swirling cauldron from hell.
There’s no way to climb out). If you get dragged with a paddle board, or any board that you’re gonna be riding that kind of wave with, the whole time you’re under there you’re thinking ‘I’m going at those rocks’.
It took me by surprise how quickly it jacks up, and how long I had to paddle to get to a point where I was actually going down it. Then once I was going down it, I was realising still how much of a drop I’ve got, and how steep it had got. Then I was thinking, ‘right, I’ve gotta make this’, because you do feel like you’re going along the rocks. It’s not a wave where you can straight hand it out of there, it’s not really option.
