Still Stoked Longboard Skates For Surfers

March Severn bores 2009

This entry relates to: [ Skating ] [ Surfing ] [ Travel ]

Thursday, Apr 09, 2009

A Huge turnout of bore riders in the Newnham - on - Severn area were'nt too disappointed by mediocre bores during the first spring tides of the month. We counted 40 surfers, including a few kayackers, which was a pretty crazy number. I had a short, 250 yard or so, ride in the Newnham channel. This was on the first day, on a small wave which glassed up for a while, allowing a bit of footwork on Tom's massive eleven six log, especially custom made for the bore by Mike Peet at Atlantic Surfboards. That first day I've never seen so many surfers not catching the bore, but on the Friday a good number had stand up rides at Boatyards, with hoots carrying on the wind to the White Hart at Broadoak.

At the back end of the month in super low water I had a cruisy ride at Submarines, helped by a northwesterly breeze, which cleaned the bore up for some noseriding time. The next day I saw Bendy in the distance catch that same wave, while I waited a mile upriver to catch the bore in the channel, as Katie and Ocean watched from the Vostells sluice. That was a real small wave too, but I got a cool solo ride.

Is that the Severn Bore Donny?

It's definitely not happening in the horseshoe at the moment though. Low water and westerlies really have'nt helped and despite the 10 metre and higher nines, the bores just are not anything on February, when on the backend of the month I had a super solo ride fromSubmarines all the way to the Silver Fox, on an 8.9 metre tide.

As I write this I can see from the caravan window the steam rising out of the woods of the Forest of Dean. Although we've had a bit of rain the last couple of days it's going to do nothing for these April bores. Yesterday evening I went down and had to paddle at the head of the tide for 200 yards before there was enough to even knee board it. How I stayed with that bore I just don't know and by the time Bendy came on there was just enough to attempt a stand, but we both wrapped together and came off as it started to die again. I'll go out again this evening on the biggest tide but don't hold out much hope. As for the river levels my predictions have pretty much hit the mark. I never remember seeing the ford at the Silver Fox so exposed in April with only inches covering the stones. It would not be a good place to wipeout.

I guess the highlight of the last month for me was a great surf session at Rest last Thursday the 2nd April. We got there a bit late with the neap high tide at midday, although I planned to surf the turning tide and it was well worth it. Some 13 waves some 13 rides on shoulder to head high waves. The southeasterly had got up a bit and was definitely not the offshore wind forecast, which would have made it absolutely awesome and was the main reason for our going. Anyway I was stoked and even more so when I got out to find Katie had got a stack of pics.

Donny surfing Rest Bay 2nd April 2009 as the tide turned.

Donny gliding a line at Rest Bay 2nd April 2009

Done a good bit of skating too, sold several boards and more than the average number of films, so March was a real good month. After Easter Still Stoked is going to start making wooden surfboard fins, something I prototyped at Llangennith in 2003, so its high time we made some, as they look really nice, wear well and are a lot cheaper to market than glass ones.

Posted on Thursday, Apr 09, 2009 at 13:18:56