and then we were three
Tim Westall finally arrived yesterday after a total travel time of 27 hours, including 5 1/2 hours on the tarmac at LHR due to a freak 15 cm snowfall.
have a break, have a kvikk lunsj
Stu is getting introduced to classic Norwegian skiing snacks.
on my way to voss
Ready for take-off in my favourite seat, 13a, with plenty of leg room. Ahead is a week of skiing in Voss with Stu and Tim. Conditions are perfect, it is still low season and the forecast is good.
Stoked!
bit windy today
With a seven meter swell and winds of over 60 kph, we just had to take a short break from the Xmas shopping to experience the weather at Bore beach. We were not disappointed, it was wild.
Sitting in a café now, using a double espresso to rinse the sand out of my mouth.
point perfect
Just finished a short and sweet one hour session at Point Perfect. In case you're wondering: no, the tip of my board is not on fire, that is the moon.
Left work at 14:00 as planned and drove out to Sele beach. It was a bit too messy there so I followed another surfer to Point Perfect, just South of Orre beach. Look for the signpost to the Skeie Flystripe (airstrip) if you're not sure where to turn off the main road (Rv 509). The spot is a short 150 meter jog to the North from the car park.
The waves were big and slow and thus not too hard to catch. The challenge was getting out past them. Knowing that I could only spend an hour in the water, I used up all my energy pretty quickly. Had to paddle out beyond the break and just bob around for a while to recover. Managed to get on a great wave but lost my balance immediately. Made up for it a bit later with three not-too-shabby rides.
I'm glad to have been shown another spot to add to my ever growing list. I'll be back!
what was i thinking?
It had crossed my mind on the drive out to the beach that I may have set my alarm a little too early for the time of year. But it wasn't until I arrived at Bore beach at 07:01 and turned off the car ignition and headlights that I realised how very very dark it was.
A quick Google search confirmed that sunrise was some time after 09:00 with first light at 08:20. What was I thinking, getting up this early on a Saturday?
Even though it was too dark to see anything, I could hear the waves dumping so to kill some time I drove to Sele and stumbled around in the dark for a while, listening to the waves; they sounded cleaner than at Bore. Still way too dark to see much at all so I drove to the nearest petrol station for coffee and some empty calories.
By 08:00 visibility was nearly good enough so I drove back to Sele. As I pulled up to the car park I noticed a couple of cars on their way out, leaving just one other car besides me. Out jumped a surfer and asked if I was planning on going out. She mentioned that she had spotted me earlier - must have been when I had my stumble in the dark. On returning home later in the day, I found out that Elisabeth knew her as they studied teaching at the University in Stavanger. So if you are reading this Ingy: "hi from Tim and thanks for the words of encouragement"!
We were in the water by 08:30 and a few minutes later, several others turned up, The waves were quite small, very clean and fairly easy to catch for a beginner like me. As the water began to fill up with more and more surfers, I moved away from the group to another spot about 50 meters further South. I was glad I did because I could soon hear angry noises from the Northern spot as several surfers caught the same wave and tried to claim it as their own.
They mentioned the "right of way" on the surfing course, but I find it easier to find another spot rather than fight it out with the others.
As I was thinking about calling it a day, I spotted a familiar group of four surfers on their way down to the beach: it was Esben with friends Magnus, Petter and Emil from the Jæren Folkehøgskole! With the promise of some tips from the "experts", I decided to stay out a bit longer. Glad I did too as the advice given helped me to catch my best wave of the day; no, the bet wave since I bought my surfboard!
I finally managed to drag myself out of the water at midday, leaving Esben & co. to it.
Note to self: check the calendar for estimated time of sunrise the night before getting up for an early morning surf.
surf buddy
The surf forecast was not great today: swell height 3.8m with a period of 12 seconds and a NE wind at 18 kph, giving 4 stars on the MagicSeaweed swell rating, with 2 subtracted for bad winds.
But it has been quite a while since I was last out in the waves, so I headed out to Bore beach to have a look.
When I arrived I was disappointed to see just one surfer in the car park who looked as though he was about to leave. I asked him (in Norwegian) what the surf had been like and he replied (in English) that he hadn't been out because it looked too messy and there was no one else in the water. We chatted for a bit and then decided to head North to Hellestø to see if it was any better there.
It was better: slightly smaller, but cleaner, waves. So we suited up and headed out into the sea, with no other surfers in sight. Before long we had both caught several good waves without having to fight too hard. But after only an hour in the water (and about 30 minutes after sunset) we decided to call it a day.
Despite the short time in the water I drove home with a big grin on my face: it was the best surf for several weeks. Plus I now have a surf buddy in Callum who, like me, is interested in surfing all through the Winter.
Cheers Callum!
ploughing up and down again
Finally managed to get up and go for a morning swim before work today. This is the first time since early Summer. To "help" my motivation, I bought a 6 month season ticket.
I also went to the gym yesterday evening for a 1 hour cycling/spinning session. So this has been a surf-cycle-swim week for me!