ron-t kayaking blog

20 March 2015 ............ Epic surfing at the Swellies

Totally epic surfing on the Swellies wave this afternoon / evening - I was a bit late arriving, but the wave hadn`t started, so I didn`t miss anything.

These Springs there are some very big tidal ranges, and some very low low tide levels - down to 0.0 metres.

Shortly after I arrived, the wave started - very slowly - and it built into a beautiful smooth shallow green wave that was just fab for layed back easy going surfing - and I surfed it continuously for maybe about 25-30 minutes or so - never lost it once !

Considering how big the tidal range was, it was quite surprising that it stayed like that for so long.

However eventually it shortened, became a lot narrower, and really wasn`t worth the effort of trying to stay on it.

After I came off the wave, I realised just how much the tide level had dropped - all the seaweed around the Cardinal Marker was high and dry.

So I went off to see what I could find elsewhere - considering the tidal range, I found it surprisingly easy to paddle right up through the Swellies close to the Anglesey side, right through Britannia Bridge - I crossed over to the other side above the bridge, then came back down on the mainland side.

I found a lovely grade 2 rapid between the island with the house on it and the mainland, with a rather nice looking wave at the head of it - I got onto the wave okay, but the surfing only lasted 10 seconds or so before I lost it, and headed down through the rapid.

My intention was to just paddle straight through the Swellies wave, head back to Menai Bridge, and get off.

However I found that there was now a fabulous green wave about 10 metres wide - so I cut out of the rapid, headed back up to towards the Cardinal Marker, out into the current, and dropped down onto the wave.

And there I stayed - it was totally awesome - I don`t know how long I sat on it - maybe 10, maybe 15 minutes, or something like that - it was quite hard work, as I had to do an almost continual stern rudder to keep on line, but until I was just too sore to carry on, it was some fabulous surfing.

I don`t know what it will be like tomorrow - it will be a slightly larger tidal range, but with a lower low tide level.

I also gather that there is a front coming our way, with winds speeds of 4 to 6.

So maybe tomorrow it will be good, maybe it won`t, but today was epic - one of the days when the Swellies wave delivers !

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