I resume my mission with renewed vigour, motivated by an image in my head of us arriving at the deserted point by the most circuitous route possible with the remains of Al’s Land Rover intact just enough for us to get the boards off the roof and a great story to never tell our wives/partners. Three hours later, we are there, well sort of, there’s plenty of swell but the tide doesn’t look right, too low ?. I’ve never been here before so I’m guessing. The best course of action would be to take some time, sus out the lineup and wait for the tide to push in and light up the break, just like the photo on the website. I’ve just spent 3 hours living the dream off roading in my mate’s Land Rover though, I’m hyped up on my own hype and jump in the water without checking anything other than there’s waves and I’m not even sure I checked that properly. I love opening new boards, picking up the owner’s manual and casting it as far away as the manual says not to. Sometimes it’s fun to head into the unknown. My first wave is rocky, very rocky, like how am I actually going to make a turn that is up and down the face rather than between that big rock and that other bigger rock that has just poked up mid face. I have a few more waves, there’s so many rocks it’s like surfing in Fred Flintstone’s back garden. It’s still a lot of fun though, it’s a steep slabby take off and just as I kick out of one of my longest waves, the inevitable happens. I was paddling neatly back out, watching for sets, when suddenly the water rushes out from underneath my board, draining off the reef from the fast sucking wave behind me. It’s a pretty basic schoolboy error, I’m now standing on a £1000 something carbon board on a dry rock, marooned except for a chorus of laughter behind me. I’d love to bring you shots of this but as Al said himself, he was too busy wetting himself to hold the camera steady. I jump off, figuring I might have one less ding if I stop applying 90kgs of pressure to the rock supporting the bottom of the board. Remarkably there is no dings. People often ask me if Carbon is too fragile in SUPs, I often say if it is strong enough to build planes out of Carbon is plenty good for SUP, now I know it’s rock proof too ! I climb back on the horse, even though I’m pretty sure the horse doesn’t want me to and wishes its owner was the sort of guy who reads a manual.
