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Caithness Kayak Club |
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Strathy East 18.05.07
Matthew Bod Anthony
Looked on the Magic Seaweed website and saw that the
surf was perfect for North coast on 18.05.07. 3 metre high swell with
off shore wind holding up the waves... Phoned Matthew and Bod and both
were up for some extreame surfing.
We decide to meet up at Thurso harbour to
take a look at the surf. When we get there we are dispointed as there
was no surf!! Other surfers were also supprised as there were a few with
boards on their cars roofs while they sat in their cars watching a calm
sea. I decide that maybe we should just go onto Strathy East where at
least we can get some nice scenery. if there was no surf.
On the way Matthews New £700 boat came untied
at Reay and came off my roof rack while driving at 40MPH!! The strap
must have loosened during the journey. Never had this happen before and
Poor Matthew was quite upset as his virgin boat had some serious
scratches on it!! I am so annoyed at myself for this happening but its
never happened to me before so I dont know what went wrong. Lesson leant
is that I now tie the 2 end loops to each other so they cant slip off
the ends of the boat.
We got to Strathy east and could see from the
top of the dunes....some surf maybe a few feet high... We take our boats
down to the beach. The tide was low at 230pm and high about 830pm so we
had the in comming tide too to help with the height of the surf. We head
out onto the surf which have that spray that comes off of the top of the
wave due to the off shore wind blowing it. Looks pretty but when your
surfing off of the back of the wave you get soaked and cant see where
you are going.
As the evening went on the waves got bigger
and bigger till they peaked at about 6 foot. The waves were very safe
smooth and tidy waves. There was a kind of lull in the waves in the
centre of the beach so you could paddle out with out getting waved upon
too badly then catch the big waves at either side.
Matthew was delighted with his new boat and
could be seen doing cart wheels off of the back of steep waves and
bouncing down the face of waves. Bod had a grin from ear to ear, never
seen him smile this much before. This smile did stop suddenly for 5
minutes on one paticularly steep wave. Matthew and I looked on as Bod
got caught on a very steep 6 foot wave. The nose of his boat got stuck
in the wave and Bod cart wheeled his boat. This stunt is not normally
possible in a Rockhopper but Bod made it look perfessional and in slow
motion!! Bod then came out of the boat and body surfed into the beach
with his boat in tow.
The sun set in the blue sky over the cliffs
surrounding the bay. We carry our boats back up the steep dunes to the
cars. At Strathy east beach carpark there is a log cabbin where you can
get changed in out of the cold wind. I gather all my stuff and head to
the cabbin. Its locked... Back to the car to get changed in the cold
wind...... We are all still grinning from the 2 hours of great surfing
with tails of how we caught the best wave and head back home feeling
tired but very happy.
Anthony
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