Hmmm....well....righty oh
Scotty, you were right "
huge step up from the Bay" and "some of the more experienced paddlers could offer you some advice" I definitely 2nd that and the more experienced paddlers did give me some advice, you said it would be hairy and over the phone Sam also said that I might be pushing it.
Mate, todays conditions made the 20knot bay conditions feel like a lake. They were more than epic IMO, they were downright WILD!!!
Did anyone else get outside or was I the only fool who was out of their comfort zone?
This is how it went........launched at La Perouse at 12.30pm, paddle around the corner into a wall of wind and chop. After about 5 minutes I'm doing it tough but the misses has left and my car is at Maroubra so i'm thinking no big deal just toughen up and commit. Well before the bommie I had to do the unthinkable and drop to my knees just to keep going forward and the swell was very evident at the bommie. I'm thinking if I can paddle to the heads then I owe it to myself to continue. After zig-zagging in a semi-tacking manner for about an hour or more (2km), which also took me directly into the middle of the heads, I made the final turn well wide of Cape Banks but headed for it and only just made it through with a gap of about 100m to the rocks by the time I passed it. Waves were huge at this point. Got cleaned up by a couple of walls of white water before I had even gotten to this point and I was pretty damned flogged already.
As soon as I turned to point north the board just started cranking at about 3-4knots without even paddling. I needed to recover from working so hard for an hour and there were a few times that I thought i may not be able to sustain the effort but I never had thoughts of turning back. At this point I sat in "kayak mode" to stretch the legs and did a little paddling like this. Pretty funny catching a few smaller swells in this position, and would have looked like a complete NOB (or noob).
After a bit I stood up to find that either all the fatigue I had accumulated, or all the adrenalin that was pumping made my legs feel like jelly in those conditions. I lasted about 30 seconds before falling in then decided to kneel for a bit longer. I then regained my composure and stood only to feel like I was a bull rider that did not stop after 10 seconds. I gradually improved and stayed upright for longer and longer but realised that the glides that I had seen in Molokai videos were not coming like I had hoped. So much water was coming over the front and side of the board despite me standing well back from the centre of the board, and the board has a decent rocker but maybe not enough for these conditions. I fell in many, many times and on one of them I managed to hit my face with the paddle. Later on I noticed a little blood was coming from somewhere and later realised that I had hit my eyebrow and had a small graze on it. Later would reveal a small black eye as well. Every now and again I also noticed that tiny clear baitfish were being washed onto the deck of my board.
I had more success in the surf stance but naturally the side chop/swell would send me flying with minimal lateral stability. I found that due to the swell size being so big and moving fast that getting on one was hard, and when a huge wind wave lined up with a big swell it was luck whether i was ready with stability combined with a solid paddle stroke and technique. It was downright hard but I did experience some very nice moderate runners, probably more so from back wash lining up with the swell and wind in the right direction to form a decent peak. So I never got into any of the big waves that were out there (and there were plenty all around) but looking down the face of some of them from above was very impressive and it was like that movie "The Perfect Storm", and it felt like it too. I'm not sure but it seemed like the strong wind would not allow the wind chop to really stand up but rather forms the swell with larger wind peaks forming all around. Sought of flattening the smaller stuff.
Passing Malabar headland was out of this world and I had a very large big billed bird (Booby Bird?) swoop me and I had to duck as it scared the crap out of me. At this stage I had assumed a kneeling position from the get go as it was like a washing machine. However, just passed that point became great as the backwash was just at the right angle to form some nice A frames that cranked up some nice glides. Was also a little hairy getting back in at South Maroubra but got a nice wave in but also stretched the leg rope a little.
It was a great paddle and a defining moment but......I was kidding myself as I do not "
know my limits" yet as I said I did, and I need to go out with experienced guys so they can tell me how I can improve, and also what ideal conditions look like. At no stage did I feel unsafe, more just on the edge of my SUP for most of the time.
NNSUP, yes there were some "
BIG BUMPS" out there.
Until next time, I'm staying dry tomorrow and going MTBing instead. I'm still frothin about SUP though!!!
cheers
Potty
