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May was quite a varied and fun month, partially due to the mixed weather we had.
Rather than get fed up because it wasn't consistently good for one particular activity, I decided to grab the bull by the horns and throw myself into whatever pastime the weather allowed.
Climbing-wise, I spent a fair portion of my time training indoors but in saying that, I also made use of the handfull of hot and sunny days with some superb deep water solo sessions over the Torquay area. It was great to get out on real rock and climb over the sea again.
The other activity that I got back into this month was the super-exciting and adrenaline-fuelled coasteering. First off, I took a few mates to Long Quarry Point for a fun-filled afternoon of mad jumps, traversing and aquatic pot-holing. Next up, a group of five of us visited an area we'd not tried before - the section of coast from Berry Head to St. Mary's Bay. What we discovered was; this is a fantastic area for coasteering, with a large quantity of jumps of varying height, some amazing caves to explore and some great traversing too. We had a super morning in calm and sunny conditions and it almost felt like a summer's day, except for the fact the water was still a tad on the nippy side.
Then there was the sea kayaking of course, once I'd repaired the hole I discovered under my seat on our recent trip to Pembrokeshire. The first trip was just out around Berry Head to test that the repair was watertight, then I spent a couple of evenings coaching for the Ibex Canoe Club on a three star course - doing some sea kayak navigation and rescue skills. This month I also did a bit of freelance work for Sea Kayak Devon who are based in Dartmouth taking some families who were down on holiday out sea kayaking on guided trips for the day. Some days the weather didn't allow us to journey out of the shelter of the estuary, but on others we made it out to the Mew Stone and back in sunny and calm conditions in just a morning, even seeing some seals and plenty of bird life en route.
Now May is coming to an end and we are looking forward to June because this is when we head off to Oban for our sea kayaking holiday among the wild and beautiful islands that make up the west coast of Scotland. This place is a true sea kayaking paradise and I literally cannot wait to get up there and set off on our adventures exploring this region.
Check out the blog at the end of June for a full write up of our Scottish sea kayak travels! :)
Less than a week after our Pembroke sea trip I was checking the weather and surf reports and noticed that conditions were coming together for some potentially quality surf down Cornwall way for my two days off. A solid swell with light offshore winds was looking realIy promising! I started getting excited and eagerly packed the van for a few days away in the land of pasties, ice cream, sun and surf. I couldn't wait!
Following a wicked bouldering session at Dartrock climbing centre I was soon on the road travelling west with our dog Guinness, praying that the surf would be as good as predicted.
Arriving around lunchtime on the Wednesday I discovered that the surf was pretty big and a little messy in the cross-onshore winds with no-one out, which was a bit of a give away that it wasn't very good. Still, it was the Thursday that was meant to be the best day, so I bided my time with a few coastal walks with the dog and crossed my fingers that it would be better by morning.
I wasn't dissapointed when I checked the surf first thing in the morning; it was solid overhead and super-clean in a light offshore wind - perfect! I was so amped to get out there, but first I had to walk the dog while I waited for the tide to fill in a little bit. The sun was shining and it looked to be a beautiful day!
I paddled out mid-morning on what I ended up calling 'Epic Thursday', and surfed for over two hours in superb conditions. The set waves were big and powerful and I scored plenty of top quality rides, mostly on the long reeling lefts that rolled through. I took some super-late drops, cranked some awesome bottom-turns and blasted at high speed along some big fast walls of water, dodging the odd section and carving a few cutbacks when the waves allowed. I was hooting for joy and had a massive smile on my face at the end of each ride - super-stoked! Woohoo!!! :D
I didn't really want to come in but I had to grab a bite to eat and take the dog for a quick stroll before I could get out and hit it again. The great thing was; it wasn't all that crowded, with maybe a total of a dozen surfers out at one time, and they were spread out too which allowed me to catch pretty much any wave I wanted, which was fantastic!
I surfed again for another couple of hours in the afternoon with the conditions remaining pretty much the same as the morning session. I was in my element scoring one awesome wave after another, getting some insane rides, and even getting other surfers woop-wooping some of them too. I was buzzing! I didn't really want to come in, but eventually the tide dropped out causing the waves to close out somewhat, and by that time I was basically shattered anyway, so I caught a last good ride in and hiked back to the van for much needed cuppa and a bite to eat again.
Later that evening I took a long walk along the beach with Guinness and watched the sun set over the sea, reflecting on all of the good rides I had that day, and day-dreaming of more quality surf sessions like that in the future. It had been an epic and awesome day of surf for me and I was super-amped for more! :)
Next morning I had a quick surf in some not quite so good conditions before heading off on the long drive back and an evening of work. Still, at least I could mind-surf some of the rides I'd had to get through the shift, and I was still on a massive high so it all went pretty well really.
Can't wait to ride some more waves like that again so I'm regularly checking the surf forecasts now in eager anticipation of scoring some more super surf in the not too distant future. :D
Early April saw us heading off to South Wales for a week to do a spot of sea kayaking along the wonderful coastline of Pembrokeshire. Our aim was to kayak around the majority of the Pembrokeshire coast, including St. Davids Head and St. Govan's, as well as the main outer lying islands of Ramsey and Skomer.
For the first few days there the weather was far from ideal, with winds reaching force six or more accompanied by large swells and crashing seas, so we spent a couple of days at the start of the trip prepping our gear, going on coastal walks, and even managing a spot of climbing at the intimidating Mother Carey's.
Eventually the weather window we were looking for appeared and we decided to give the trip a shot. The main problem with kayaking around Pembrokeshire is the number of military firing areas along the south coast, rendering paddling these sections out of the question until the weekends when the firing ceases. The other issue we had, was the fact that the bus service we were relying on to do the shuttle back to the van at the end of the trip didn't run on Sunday's. This meant that we had to paddle this section on Saturday, come what may.
So, to make best use of the tides, we set out from Fishguard in the dark at 0515 on Thursday morning, complete with head torches and glowsticks. We rounded Strumble Head just before 0700 into a fresh westerly headwind and slogged our way down the coast for a couple of hours to arrive at Porth-gain for a sheltered and much needed break and bite to eat. Not wanting to waste the favourable tide, we were back on the water within half an hour and making our way towards St. Davids Head. As we drew nearer to the headland and it's accompanying mountains the sun slowly started to make an appearance, and before long we were rounding the head to get our first views of Ramsey Island. We tried to push on southwards through the sound but the tide was already turning against us quite strongly, so we opted to call it a day and pull in to Porthselau for the night instead, ending our 35km paddle for the day by 1130. The afternoon was spent chilling out on the beautiful little beach, drinking tea, and plotting the next days trip.
We were on the water for 0630 Friday morning, and with trepidation we headed out towards Ramsey Sound which houses the infamous 'Bitches' tidal race. However, we needn't have worried because arriving on slack water as we'd planned the race was practically non-existent, bar a small section of breaking waves far across the water from us near Ramsey Island itself. Soon we were speeding southwards in the ebbing tide with the wind on our backs in a following sea. Progress was rapid to say the least, and we covered the 15km's across St. Brides Bay to Jack's Sound between the mainland and Skomer Island in just over two hours, clocking an average speed of over 7kph. Rounding Gateholm Island we pulled in to Marloes Sands for a welcome brunch break around 10am. Being so far ahead of schedule we allowed ourselves an extended one hour stop, soaking up both the sunshine and the breathtaking views in the process. By 1200 we had arrived off Ann's Head, and after waiting for a couple of tankers and a ferry to pass into, and out of, Milford Haven, we crossed the shipping lanes safely to arrive at our last section of coast for the day towards Freshwater West, right on the edge of the military firing area of Castlemartin. With live canon-fire booming off to the south of us and paddling in through 4 - 5 foot crashing surf, it really felt like we were on a secret mission into a proper war zone. Still, I caught a wicked wave from way out back and had a brilliant surf all the way into the shore on it, arriving right on 1330. Woohoo, stoked! We soon established a camp in the dunes at the back of the beach and spent the afternoon sunbathing, chilling out and doing the essential route planning for the final day of the trip. A slightly longer 38km day today meant we slept soundly despite the sound of surf pounding on the beach through the night.
The wind had backed to a fresh to strong southwesterly by Saturday morning and under overcast skies we launched out through the surf at 0745 and slogged our way on towards Linney Head. Conditions off the head were quite rough and choppy due to a mixture of wind-swell, ground-swell, and backwash off the cliffs, and even on the section of coastline down to St. Govan's Head we experienced a great deal of clapotis. However, the wind and waves were a little more in our favour now, and with a favourable tide we made good progress once more along the stunning and distinct cliffs that make up South Pembroke. In the shelter of a small cove near Broad Haven we stopped for a food break and a cup of tea around 1030, before setting off again at 1115 to pass Church Rock and head east towards our final destination of Tenby. Arriving at Lydstep Point around 1300 we noticed that there were red flags flying either side of the rifle range at Giltar Point, so we decided to head out towards Caldey Island to hopefully get out of the firing line a bit (if they were actually firing at all). Here we discovered the tidal flows were quite strong, possibly almost 3 knots, and we only just managed to break out behind St. Margarets Island after a furious ferry glide to get there. After a quick breather we set out for the ferry glide back to the mainland, and after an exciting and energetic paddle in some choppy waters we managed to pull in behind Giltar Point and into the calmer waters of Penally Burrows. With the tide still in our favour we sped easily onwards to Tenby, arriving just after 1400 into the safety of the harbour with another 35km under our belts for the day.
After a two and a half hour bus journey, followed by an hours drive in the van, I was finally reunited with Elisabeth again, and after loading all the boats and kit up we walked into town for a much-deserved fish and chip supper, which we devoured back down at the tranquil and pretty harbour side. What a great end to a great journey!
The last day of our trip was spent surfing our sea kayaks at Freshwater West and meeting up with some old friends at their farm just up the road. Oh, and thanks to Pete and Lydia for the omelettes and copious amounts of tea! Much appreciated!
Due to the strong winds we experienced in Pembrokeshire, either side of our kayak journey, we didn't manage to get out and around Ramsey and Skomer on any day-trips to view all the wildlife out there as we'd planned, so there's still what I'd call unfinished business up there as far as that goes. We'll be back to Pembroke for more, so watch this space! :)
Early March saw me notching up my 26th Solo Upper Dart run, followed by a sociable 2nd run with paddling mate Jez. Shortly after this the rains eased off and the river levels dropped, putting an end to all the river kayaking for the rest of the month.
With drier weather towards the middle part of March, I turned my attention back to a spot of climbing for a bit. With the bird ban in effect from the 1st of the month at Berry Head, this rendered most of the best Deep Water Soloing out of bounds there, so instead I focused on a couple of trad routes at the Red Wall area instead - a great HVS 4c, climbing a shapely arete, called 'Cod', followed by 'Oggie', a HVD in the groove next to the arete. It was kinda weird climbing with ropes again and I didn't like having to put trust in 'equipment', so on the last steep section of Cod I just pretended I was soloing the route and blasted relaxed and easily to the top.
In fact, there is a more direct version of Cod that goes at F6b+ as a DWS route, staying true to the steep arete all the way up called, funnily enough, 'Cod Direct'. About a week later saw my return, in a perfect weather window of high tide and sunny conditions, to climb the route. First I inspected the route on a top-rope and chalked up a few of what I thought looked like holds, as being both 14 metres high with a fairly small splash-down zone and at the end of winter with sea temperatures at their coldest, I wanted to minimise the risk of falling in as much as possible. Once off the rope I started up the steep lower part of the route, climbing relaxed and smoothly through a bouldery section, followed by some cut-loose jug swinging with a massive grin on my face, to arrive on a ledge below the last 6 metres of the route. I didn't hang around here for long, maybe less than a minute, before blasting on up the steep juggy arete to a nail-biting finish on slopers, as I topped out high above the icy cold sea. Woohoo! What a great route! :) Then I realised I'd left a sling on the sea-washed ledge at the bottom of the route, so I ended up abb'ing back down to retrieve it and climbing the whole route for a second time. Well why not, it was great climbing!?! :)
When I wasn't able to get outdoors climbing, ie; most of the month really, I spent a great deal of my time training on my home wall - doing power endurance circuits and lots of pull-up training. Regular sessions saw me racking up 48 minutes of 'climb-time' in the roof on the power-endurance days, followed by sets of over 260 regular pull-ups and 14 one-arm pull-ups, each arm, on the strength training days. Bring on the summer DWS!!! Yeeharr!!! :)
The other main focus for me this month was my van. Having decided to spend more time this year ticking off DWS routes here in the UK instead of abroad, to save money, I realised I ought to finish off getting my van kitted out so I'd have a nice comfy mobile home to base myself from. Already I have wired lights and power into the back of it, finished off the insulation and padding in the roof and walls, sealed up the leaky back doors, and fitted a decent mattress in the back to facilitate a good nights sleep. Now all that's left to do is; fit a wind driven roof ventilator to reduce condensation build up, fit a window in the bulkhead to gain a bit of natural light into the back, and to carpet it out so it's nice and snug and cosy. Hopefully this will all be completed by May, just before the main DWS season starts here in the UK! Can't wait! :)
Well, that's all for now. Next month should see us, weather permitting, heading off to South Wales for a spot of sea kayaking around the stunning and dramatic coastline of Pembrokeshire, including a clash with the infamous 'Bitches' tide race. Super excited! Watch this space folks! :D
With persistently wet and windy weather continuing for much of February, this meant that the river levels were up a lot of the time, allowing plenty of kayaking activity on the Dart. By the end of the month I'd notched up my 25th solo Upper Dart run this winter, as well as having enjoyed plenty of playboating sessions on the Loop. One particularly good day was when I'd forgotten my helmet funnily enough. I borrowed Elisabeth's helmet for a superb run down the Upper, before handing it over so she could run the Loop. Then I hiked up to meet Elisabeth at Triple Falls to take pictures and some video footage, but it wasn't long before I was squeezing myself into her tiny kayak for an absolutely wicked session in the bottom wave - surfing, spinning and carving it up with a massive grin on my face! Awesome fun! :)
Some of the stronger gales we experienced during this time produced some reasonable waves on some generally quite sheltered beaches locally, allowing me to score a couple of nice surf sessions on my new surfboard which was fantastic! Got the stoke back! :)
Most of my climbing training during this period was undertaken indoors on my home wall. However, only a couple of days before the bird ban came into effect I managed to bag a quality DWS session at Berry Head, smashing out a bunch of great routes in the sunshine in my boardies for a few hours! What a perfect end to the month! Happy days! :D
Most of my time during January was spent either kayaking on the Upper Dart or Deep Water Soloing at Berry Head. I will finish a more detailed write up over the next few days - watch this space!
The first few weeks of December continued with the run of dry and reasonably sunny weather for the time of year, allowing me to carry on deep water soloing at Berry Head despite the cooler water temperatures by then. I had some great sessions down there with the rock in perfect condition, and for some strange reason had the place all to myself too.
The nicer weather also allowed a few more coasteering trips around the Berry Head area, and on one of those trips, with good friends Carl, Josh, Jack and Stef, we had a real up close encounter with a wild Dolphin which was pretty amazing!
Then as we approached Christmas time the rains came again, allowing me to dig my Raptor out and score a series of solo Upper Dart runs in superb slab covered levels. Awesome!
On one occasion I solo paddled my Riot Dominatrix playboat down the Upper Dart in a nice lapping over the slab level, before joining Elisabeth on the Loop for a fantastic playboating session of surfing, squirting, and spinning. Wicked fun!
Probably one of the most enjoyable things we did around this time on the higher level days (ie: 3rd arch levels) was when we took the boogie boards down the Loop - just for a laugh. Surfing the top and bottom waves on the boogie boards was so much fun, and a nice change from kayaking it all the time. Running the river on them was hilarious fun too - bashing through stoppers and bouncing down rapids - all super-close to the action. We were grinning from ear to ear! :)
With wet weather forecast for Christmas and into the new year, looks like we'll be hitting the river some more before the year is out. Excellent! :)
