BOXING DAY 2009 ..... The traditional Xmas session!
With my entire digestive tract well and truly ‘log-jammed’ by 15 kilos of “turkey, lamb, gammon, potatoes, carrots, Yorkshire pudding, Christmas pudding, cake, cheese, crisps, nuts, cider, red wine, champagne, chocolate etc etc etc…. I woke up on Boxing Day 2009 pretty much praying for 2ft max of mellow, weak, playful groundswell.
Aaah , B*LLOCKS ……………
I drove up to North Devon, pulled into Puts car park and hauled by straining Xmas ‘pot-belly’ out of the car just as a frigid, gnarly looking, overhead, set came marching through taking everyone caught inside ‘out of the equation’ !!
The big can of Relentless energy drink consumed during the journey up had made absolutely no difference at all. Standing there in the cold watching the surf I realised that I actually had about as much energy as one of those really old, fat, labradors, that you see every now and then – you know the ones – the ones that look like they REALLY didn’t want to ‘go out for a walk today’ and after about 10 steps just give up and collapse in the middle of the street with a sad look on their face! Ha ha.
I had to get my body and mind in gear ….. “Come on Matthews, for Christ(mas) sake!” …after all, the 'Boxing Day Xmas Surf' is a tradition. Mark was on-route and bottling it simply wasn’t an option.
“A little run up to the toilet block and back should get the blood pumping”.....
I arrived at the toilet block just 200m away totally out of breath, having compacted my giblets even more and feeling in need of an emergency C-Section !!!!
Mark and I eventually got it together enough to paddle out and surf for an hour in the SOLID 4ft (with 5ft+ sets), cold, pretty damn heavy conditions. I got totally obliterated twice by big set waves that I failed to duck-dive properly, and got totally smashed by the lip on one wave about 0.5 seconds after getting to my feet. It was by no means our ‘finest hour’ but the traditional Xmas Surf had been achieved.
Absentees: Roz (landlocked), Alex (A.W.O.L), Rob (Loved-Up and unable to surf)
….. see you all next year guys!)
Overhead:
Another big, cold one on the head!:
Nowhere to hide - the 'line-up':
Aaah , B*LLOCKS ……………
I drove up to North Devon, pulled into Puts car park and hauled by straining Xmas ‘pot-belly’ out of the car just as a frigid, gnarly looking, overhead, set came marching through taking everyone caught inside ‘out of the equation’ !!
The big can of Relentless energy drink consumed during the journey up had made absolutely no difference at all. Standing there in the cold watching the surf I realised that I actually had about as much energy as one of those really old, fat, labradors, that you see every now and then – you know the ones – the ones that look like they REALLY didn’t want to ‘go out for a walk today’ and after about 10 steps just give up and collapse in the middle of the street with a sad look on their face! Ha ha.
I had to get my body and mind in gear ….. “Come on Matthews, for Christ(mas) sake!” …after all, the 'Boxing Day Xmas Surf' is a tradition. Mark was on-route and bottling it simply wasn’t an option.
“A little run up to the toilet block and back should get the blood pumping”.....
I arrived at the toilet block just 200m away totally out of breath, having compacted my giblets even more and feeling in need of an emergency C-Section !!!!
Mark and I eventually got it together enough to paddle out and surf for an hour in the SOLID 4ft (with 5ft+ sets), cold, pretty damn heavy conditions. I got totally obliterated twice by big set waves that I failed to duck-dive properly, and got totally smashed by the lip on one wave about 0.5 seconds after getting to my feet. It was by no means our ‘finest hour’ but the traditional Xmas Surf had been achieved.
Absentees: Roz (landlocked), Alex (A.W.O.L), Rob (Loved-Up and unable to surf)
….. see you all next year guys!)
Overhead:
Another big, cold one on the head!:
Nowhere to hide - the 'line-up':
posted by Hellman at 8:10 PM
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