[granticus]

Big boy drops in to the line-up at the least secret, secret spot in England.  Check this out, not keen to get in the water with this diseased beast festering away so close to the break! 

http://www.eyeballhq.tv/2011/08/10/experts-carry-out-autopsy-on-lynmouth-whale/

[SA Chris]

Cool. Shame they aren't going to blow it up like in that classic vid clip



Aberdeen pretty shite last night. Lumpy brown mess with gusty crossshore and choice of either smaller waves breaking at shorebreak or larger ones closing out. Yum. Managed a couple of decent rides, but also wrapped leash round finger being careless retrieving board; now a nice pork sausage and going a bit blue. Deep joy.

[sjw]

I have nothing constructive to add, but would like to just share my excitement that last weekend I lost my surfing virginity and it was CLASS, enjoyed it loads. Also happy that I have something else to do on rainy weekends now instead of sulking about wet boulders. I do feel a bit daft that I've lived 25 mins from Saltburn all my life and never tried it though.

[philo]

we had half of saltburn up our way on tuesday, some perfect waves on the morning but a bit choppy on the night.  Today was really clean off the pier wall and only a handful in.  Feels good having some swell in august.

[gme]

Four days of good surf for me. Sunday got a sneaky head high session at the local beach on my own. This was a class example of an invisible swell that didn't even register on the charts yet was really good for a few hours on Sunday PM. I only went to check on a whim with my new longboard in tow but luckily i brought a real board along as well as it was shoulder to head high and pretty sweet.

Monday was a bit wind blown but still got wet.

Tues am. wild and big, not really doing it but i had got out of bed early so i got in, had a few OK waves but to many floggings to call it a good session.

Tues pm - raw solid 6ft swell hitting the reefs, got some proper bombs but loads of shut downs, not really barrelling as tides not right but long fast walls, so busy though 16 in at one point all from tynemouth and all a bit hasslely. 9 of them came up together in two cars, all arriving over the hill on mass. I had got in early so had had my fill and got out. Still don't know why people do this on mass thing as it really spoilt the vibe in the water. I even got an phone call apology of another tynemouth lad who comes up a lot over how they had behaved.
Anyway i still Had a great session on my 6`10" which hardly ever comes out in the summer. smashed the nose on her again though so she will be up for replacement soon as she is held together with glue, only a matter of time before she snaps. (two other boards snapped during the session, not by me though, it must be one of the most expensive waves to surf in the country).

Wednesday am was a different story, same wave on my own for 3/4 hr, tynemouth lads obviously dont like getting up at 5am. The swell had cleaned up and was serving head to head and half clean barrels like we haven't had since the winter. total heaven. Was joined by a few others by 6am but only 6 of us so we had a ball.

Finger crossed for more.

[philo]

I agree, some of the best waves ive had in 2011.  Tues morn was the best for us, the reef at the top of sunderland sheltered some of the raw swell and thinned out some big waves to be clean, breaking in a horseshoe. 
No shortage of visiters this time though, we escaped it the other week but there were 30+ in on tuesday night - some welsh lad said that its 10x worse where he was from 

[SA Chris]

some welsh lad said that its 10x worse where he was from

If it's Caswell or thereabouts, he's probably right. Crowded up here isn't really like crowded in the SW.

[dobbin]

Surfing is so fickle, and so confusing. Yesterday all the signs were mint for Cayton, light offshore - positively still in the car park, reasonable swell size, period etc but it was just a big mess. I suppose this was because of the swell direction which was north yet the beach faces ene? Is it also about bad tides as well?

South bay was much better. Smaller, but clean and organised which is what i need at this stage of floundering.

[SA Chris]

Fickle beast word. If yu want to learn more read one of Tony Butt's books - Surf Science or A Surfer's guide to waves coasts and climates.

There are so many potential factors; sometines a swell can get cleaned up by wrapping round into a bay, it could be the state of the beach bottom, could be that one bay has deeper water in front of the beach, state and stage of tide, localised winds etc etc.

Best you can do is is observe things yourself and try to figure out what's happening with the wind, tides waves etc and try to work out best conditions for any break, and build up a picture in your own mind. Also a bit of local knowledge if you can glean any works wonders.

[gme]

The swell was too big for the beaches, anything that MSW states is over 4-5 ft will either make the beaches be a general mess and hard to paddle out or if its a super lined up swell they will just close out. The reefs deal with the swell a lot better or places where the swell raps into, hence why my favorite spot was rammed on Tuesday as most other spots were to big and messy.

The N-Ne direction we just had should be good for yorkshire

Cayton is best from 2-4 ft any bigger and start to look elsewhere.

You will get to know where to go after a while but it takes a good bit of time to suss it out, so many variables with the wind, tide (this has a massive effect that i dint think MSW software accounts for) and swell direction. But once you suss it out it will save you a fortune in fuel costs and time from driving up and down the coast.

Re the crowd issue. I am aware the SW and Wales has much larger no of surfers but its mainly all beach which spreads everyone out. The spots up here have a take off area about 10 foot square so if people dint take there turn and stay mellow it just gets depressing.
I watched for about 1/2 hour after i got out on Tuesday and due to how they were all behaving, paddling round each other etc nearly every wave had someone taking off miles to deep and not making the section. I would guess that 60%+ of the waves were wasted like this.

I am thinking of installing one of those ticket machines you get at the deli counter in tesco to try and sort out the problem.

[philo]

Exactly, when the swell first hit i checked my fav left reef but there was alread 8 people in and I couldnt be bothered to hastle for a wave or be a dick and drop in on them.  All it takes is a few people to ruin the atmosphere, especially if they are from ss

[Baron]

Back from 4 days Whitby way on.

Properly broke my reef/point cherry. Feels good to be progressing from the beaches after serving the apprenticeship.

Also watched my mate (see below) killing it at a famous left-hand reef of death. Double head barrels - in a kayka! Unbelievable. Better than most of the surfers. Legend:

http://www.chrisharveyonline.net/

[Dr T]

Not sure if this has been linked to (I do trawl through this thread a lot) but this program from over-caffeinated sugary drink company TV is cool - some vaguely interesting (i.e. heard most of it before but good to hear again) sports performance coaching stuff on it too.

[Baron]

Chris, from the swell this week in NE:
http://www.youtube.com/chrisharveyonline

[Probes]

Hey up chaps. Injury forces sale of soul to the surf holiday. Im after a few recommendations. Foreign surf destinations/warmish water/cheap flights/none brain uself breaks/chilled no knob heads. Never surfed anywhere but uk and sw spain, was thinking maybe canaries but somewhere further a field could be good.   

[johnx2]

lanka:

warmish water - bathtub

cheap flights - about £350 a couple of years ago

none brain uself breaks - surfing over corral on the east but mellow. Not indo.

chilled no knob heads - pretty much. Bar mad Cyril.

[SA Chris]

What time of year? You want to drive or fly?

We are thinking Portugal in Octoberish, and from research so far Ericiera looks like a good option; variety of breaks in walking distance / short bus ride, so no hire car needed.

[Probes]

Sometime between start sept & xmas..  fly or drive really which ever works out the cheapest, although ive driven to south spain before and dont fancy doing it again.
I had thought portugal, a mates been and rates it, not sure where though.. somewhere near a load of dws. Water apparently was a bit parky? although it was feb/mar time. When I say parky I mean full suit job.
I do fancy the idea of sri lanka..

[SA Chris]

I think the developed DWS bit is near Sagres, which is apparently good for surfing too. Not looked too closely at it as the lass has been already and wanted to go somewhere else. I think cheap flights to Faro are a good drawcard.

[Probes]

Yep Sagres was it, recognise the name. Just had a look at some of the stuff on msw for ericiera, looks good. Given me something to think about... 

[SA Chris]

dream about. Some good info on both areas in Stormriders too. I know gme has done quite a lot of surfing in Portugal, hopefully he will be along to impart some pearls of wisdom.

[johnx2]

Sagres is good. The Algarve's a bit warmer than further north, being on the tip Sagres has a good selection on nearby waves - south coast is good for when the west's maxed. Everyone was in full suits in Easter, the only time I've been.

Lanka's a different experience. You can fry eggs on your knackers. Up to October is West coast, where I've not been, after Oct it's the East. MSW summarises...

http://magicseaweed.com/Sri-Lanka-Surf-Forecast/54/

It's half a day in a taxi from Columbo to Hikkaduwa dude...



Small day on the most crowded wave. Locals come out later in the afternoon. You've pretty much guaranteed surf like this every day, though it got to double over for a bit. I somehow managed to snap a board.

[SA Chris]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-14571388

Oil leak from Gannet continues. Just in case you are wondering if the water in the N Sea looks dirtier or smells worse than usual.

[philo]

got my van sorted, got lots of spare time, where to go for a week?  Pref UK.  - hardly any swell anywhere by the looks of it. 
East coast looks like it might have one day of onshore wind swell shite midweek but where should I head.  Ill be alone and keen to surf every day.  North or south is the question, west side looks like its getting a bit of atlantic at the moment.  Im keen to avoid the shite at newq etc

[SA Chris]

Bit of solitude, fairly reliable swell, loads of free wild camping spots for trying out van, and pretty much deserted breaks; Lewis is the place to go.