COLOSSAL CYMRU
It was early February; for me, the darkest and bleakest time of the winter. The days are getting a little longer, but by no means is it Spring.
With Glyn Ovens Photo S.K.
Wales is not known for its big waves (well most of the UK isn’t either), but on this one day, it came good. I had just flown back from Nazare, Portugal, as there was a chance that this wave was going to break. My good friend and SUP-Bike-Run champ Kris Day had seen the swell and had given me the heads up a few days before. Arriving home to the cold, but to see the waves pumping, I struggled not to abandon my warm-up routine as more sets poured in.
I was greeted by a dry hair paddle out through the ‘channel’, but with so much water moving, I lost position, got caught inside, and endured a hold down which had no business being in Wales.
“ With so much water moving, I lost position, got caught inside, and endured a hold down which had no business being in Wales. ”
A few watched on as I took up to eight waves on the head, before it finally deposited me back to where I started: at the beach. Not the best start. Welsh Super Swell 1 – Glyn 0. Meanwhile Kris was tearing into wave after wave. I was frothing to get back out there. Round two, back out, and this time keeping a close eye on the shore for positioning. The period was giving the swell so much power, and the waves really stood up in the stiff cross offshore. Early entry into the waves was not possible. The wave in question was one of the larger ones to come through. I stood waiting for it to come to me, trying to not paddle out to it, I needed to be under it to catch it. Paddling as hard as I could, wind whipping under the board and spray peppering me in the eyes, shifting back to keep the nose up, shifting forwarded to keep the nose down!
Sticking the weightless take-off I got to the bottom. The wave started to tear off down the line and setting the rail correctly dictated success or failure in making the section. We surfed for about four hours, soaking up everything we could get our hands on; a swell like this doesn’t come around often so we had to capitalise. We all agreed that this had been the biggest surfable swell we had seen for at least nine years. All was forgiven by the local surfers for the lacklustre winter. SUP