Another "early surf" on Sat 26 Sept 09, "Crooklets", Bude.

With the swell still just about holding in there and a forecast for "0"mph winds it was looking like a rare GLASSY surf could be on the cards. With high tide at 10:50am, and Bude's beaches notorious for only really working up to about 1-2 hrs before high (unless the swell is big), the only way to catch it good for a few hours was to sacrifice sleep and get up at 5:40am. Zzzzzzzzz.

After a 1.5hr drive (most of it in the pitch black) I turned up at Black Rock to find it decidedly 'average' ......... so I headed over to Summerleaze and Crooklets to see if it was better there. Glad I did as Crooklets was looking really nice at 2ft with regular 3ft and totally clean sets. The peak was a little bit crowded with some really good local surfers, and it was a bit of a mosh-pit but it was worth it.

The rip was dragging everyone eastwards towards the rocks and with the "right" working, if you wanted a wave you needed to go as deep as possible, taking off in front of the rocks - or someone else would (!), and you'd be dropping in to catch waves. One guy on a red "mal" messed up the take-off, snapped his leash cord, and watched his board get washed in over the rocks doing nose-to-tail cartwheels (ding-ding-ding). Doh !