With the forecast of strong westerlies today a trip to Bakers seemed a possibility. As one of the few places on the north coast to provide genuine cross off wave riding it should be a pretty easy choice but I have found Bakers to be a little fickle in the past.
I arrived around half twelve and Felix, Lockie and Mitch were already on the water ripping up the fantastic conditions. With 4.5s rigged they were getting as many waves as they could and some pretty nice jumps too. I took a few photos and rigged up, Jeff arrived and rigged up as well. The wind was really starting to pick up and there was a bit of a rain storm. Before we could get on the water the wind stopped......nothing for 30 minutes. I began to regret leaving Low Head.
With a gentle 5 to 10 knots we caught a few waves and slowly the wind picked up but it was very inconsistent though at times the wind and waves arrived at the same time.
By around three everyone was packing up. I figured I would give it another half an hour and sure enough the westerly started to kick back in at over 25 knots. I ended up getting an hour of premium down the line sailing. With the sun out and no one else on the beach it felt a bit surreal screaming down the line, it was like some endless aqua autobahn. I definitely found the point where speed and my ability to turn off the lip were exceeded, like trying to do a hand brake turn on the highway at 100km/h. It got a bit messy.
After about an hour and with the breeze starting to ease. I drove home regretting all the bad things I had said about Bakers earlier in the day and will probably not say bad thinks about the place .........for at least a couple of weeks.
