It’s all too easy to sit and wait for the wind to come knocking, but sometimes you’ve got to meet it half way... Unless you’re in the van with Timo that is. Having left at stupid o’clock we were stood on Gwithian beach by 8.00am and in time to greet the wind on its arrival, though to be fair it didn’t really come knocking.
The first hour was more about catching the moment, and I have to confess to seeing my boards submerged most of the time and was starting to think we’d blundered when wind and waves started to pick up. It’s at this point I’d like to apologise for the lack of pictures. Timo’s are from those early moments when I couldn’t get going while the others were taken from the cliff just as we left.
When the conditions came through I wanted to get out on the beach more than stand clicking on the beach, plus the spot of choice was way down the beach were the waves were more consistent. I was trying to work out how many years it was since I was here, and I’m guessing about ten. Sure the beach hasn’t changed, and neither has the banter that went with the post sailing cup of tea, but the numbers out on the water have really grown.
Surf schools I guess made up a large proportion of the numbers and the white water in the shallows looks more like icing sugar sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. The windsurfing numbers soon started to grow as the tide came in though, as most wait until two hours before high tide for the better conditions before heading out.
The wind never really kicked in full power, so there was a lot of bogging out to catch the next wave back in, but then that’s when sailing with Timo can get a little frustrating. Not only did he appear to be catching biggest wave of the set, he was getting three times the amount as me.
Even if I followed in on the wave behind he seemed to be riding another set before I’d had chance to get out over the white water. Not that it’s a bad thing - you know he’ll never let you rest. Even when we made it home there was still enough light for a quick blast on a slalom board outside his house.
