So… Just back form a week riding the powder in Val Thoren. What a good week.
Crew
VT
The village has slipped into dormancy, happily, after a busy summer. The weather is cold, the days are dark and short. There is snow on the ground as I write this post.
The surf has been pretty average for autumn, a few clean swells but mostly junky cross-shore, small period mediocrity. Ive still been getting in, but more out of desperation than desire.
December was a massive month for surf news, with Hawaii firing with epic huge swells. The ASP tour was won by Mick Fanning after Parko stumbled in the Pipe event which was eventually won by Taj, for the first time, with Kelly coming second. Parko, although pipped at the post for the world title, took the Triple Crown Title for a second year, after Sunset and Haleiwa both produced quality entertainment.
And finally, the Eddie ran. 5 years in the waiting, with 30ft+ swell, it went off, massively, with Greg Long winning in the last heat to steal 1st place form Slater. Epic.
I watched all 8 hours straight on the web, one of the best live streams ive ever seen.
I was doing some tidying-up the other day and found these shots from the end of summer, and so thought I should share them.
Hope you like the flash-back to a warmer, sunnier Beadnell.
So, back to reality. at least the winter solstice has now passed, and its officially getting warmer and lighter everyday.
As everyone knows, England, despite having an average summer, never does very well for surfing conditions in summer.
Or as we thought.
For the second year in a row, we’re going to get some of the potentially largest and best swell ever seen in the summer months on the east coast.
Ive just returned from the water having decided i should get the board out and get the arms ready for the rest of the week. It was huge – overhead and barreling all down the beach. You just don’t get waves like that on the East coast of England.
So, the rest of the week is supposed to get bigger and bigger… the charts look like this –
Swell forecast
Remember today was at least 5-6 foot.
And with the radar looking like this…
Chart
Im pretty sure we will have decent overhead surf for the next week… with a ten second period. That means getting the jetski’s out and towing-in with the sun shinning, and seeing all those secret reef’s lighting-up.
Well, the weather has been getting better and better, and is providing many opportunities for water-based-tom-follery and collecting nice-looking media….
It was a stunning evening last night as I went and collected a few photos at the beach.