ron-t kayaking blog
24 August 2017 .............. Super surfing in the Swellies
Back at the Swellies again for the next Spring tide - and they delivered.
Yes - this time they delivered - as only the Swellies can do, with some super surfing.
It was a good evening out, quite apart from the epic surfing, there seemed to lots of other things of interest.
I launched maybe about an hour before low water at Holyhead, so had plenty of time to wander around - looking away to the east past the Prince Madog and the other boats moored around that area of the Menai Straits right along to Bangor Pier away at the back - opened in 1896, it is the second longest pier in Wales.
Under the Menai Bridge and into the Swellies now, looking back at the Menai Suspension Bridge - another bit of history - it was built by Thomas Telford, and opened in 1826.
And how busses get through the arches I have no idea, it is scary enough driving through them in a car.
You might notice the sort of lack of light in that picture - here is why - a huge black cloud sitting right overhead, as you can see in this picture looking the other way towards the Britannia Bridge - makes for quite a dramatic photograph.
It was of course still far too early for the wave to form, so I headed off up through all the islands and up the Anglesey side of the Swellies towards the Britannia Bridge - it was against the current so was slow going.
I had got up to roughly opposite Ynys Gored Goch, the island with the house on it, and two Rockpool Tarans zoomed past me - and yes we were going in the same direction against the current, and yes they zoomed past me.
They didn`t seem to notice the current - they must be pretty fast.
I think I am right in saying the speed of a sea kayak is proportional to the square root of the waterline length, but the drag is proportional to the water line length - so although they can go faster, a longer boat needs more muscle power to push it.
It seems rather counter-intuitive, but I believe that you can end up in the situation that a weaker paddler can go faster in a shorter boat than in a longer boat.
Whatever - they were going a lot faster than geriatric me in a modified Isel with lots of rocker was going !
Oh well, maybe I should just stop and take another picture - nice lighting in the sky -
I was struggling to get up to the Britannia Bridge against the current, so gave up, did a ferry glide right across the straits between the bridge and Ynys Gored Goch, and started back down towards the Cardinal Marker.
But then I noticed some small current features around the small rocky islands just beside Ynys Gored Goch, and had a bit of a play, I even found a small wave, so had a my first surf of the evening.
Further down, and an RNLI RIB came cruising along up through the Swellies, slowed down when it got close, we exchanged waves, then off it went up through the Britannia Bridge.
But following along behind it was a beautiful wave train, so I whipped round, jumped onto the train, and got my second surf of the evening.
Then on down to the Cardinal Marker - the wave hadn`t started yet, but it was thinking about it - so time to take some more pictures.
The Menai Bridge was now catching the sunshine, and looking rather good -
A bit more of a classic view of the Britannia Bridge -
Looking into the sun, and the auto exposure on the camera has shut the aperture down a bit so technically, the picture is under-exposed.
However it means that you get a good view of the lighting in the sky, and the shafts of sunlight behind the Cardinal Marker.
No more pictures - the wave had started - and so did my surfing - and maybe for about ten minutes I had some good surfing on it.
Eventually I lost it, survived getting washed down through all the rough stuff, and headed round to the seaweed below the Cardinal Marker.
Just at that point, two jet skis came down through the Swellies, saw me heading into the seaweed, and slowed down and asked me if I was okay.
They must have thought I was a bit gooky - I am afraid I was a bit gobsmacked by this, not being used to jet skis slowing down and asking me if I was okay, so only sort of muttered some kind of response.
So whoever you were, many thanks for asking, yes I was fine.
And then back onto the wave - it was magic - it was hard work staying on it, it had a very pronounced desire to throw me off either to the right or to the left, but I clung on for a long time - 15 minutes maybe - 20 minutes maybe - I don`t really know - but it was a long session as the wave slowly deepened.
Eventually I lost it, it was getting quite deep, my bow was starting to catch, and it was getting harder and harder to correct if the wave started to take control instead of me being in control.
I went round again into the seaweed, and had another look at it, but it had now turned into a playboat wave, it was beginning to sport a pile - so I reckoned it wasn`t worth the effort of trying again, and headed off.
It was by then about an hour after low water at Holyhead.
But what an excellent evening, the Swellies at their best.
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