Nick's blog

Just back from a nice session at Livermead. It was perfect cross shore once out past the cliffs. Parked Cliff Road and rigged on the Institute Beach below The  Livermead Cliff Hotel. At low tide you can walk over the sea weed and out of the old rocky harbour. Once clear of the rocks at low tide it's one to two feet so you can beach start straight out to the wind line. It looks really rocky from the shore but all that sea weed is mostly just covering flat rock you can carefully walk accross to the water.With a southwesterly you've got Livermead Beach you can come into or if things go really wrong...Torre Abbey. I innitially tried Preston but couldn't get parked.

It was really lumpy for wakeboarding on Monday with a light NE blowing. Elberry, behind hopes nose were all too lumpy and we couldn't access Torre Abbey because of the 5 knot marker and lobster pots. We decided to get out behind Thatchers but again the sea is a wash with buoys due to the pots. But wait..... there's a  huge wave supressor out in the bay in the form of Cargo ship NYK.  We motored out and took some pics... It was still lumpy but the weather was amazing!

 

 

 

 

We had a fun wakeboard session at Paignton punctuated with tea and chips from the pier cafe and interesting ride on an old surfboard. Danny trying to get me to jump higher and further decided to go full throttle during one of my jumps giving me a brown pants moment. Bring on the warmer weather!

 

 

A Brilliant session... SE winds. Danny on hand for pics. JT was standout with some beautiful jumps

 

It's been a cold winter...! So I've had a rummage around and pulled together my headcam shots from the last two years together with footage shot by Danny. The shot of the jump at Coombe Cellars is another windsurfer... I think it's NickR but I might be mistaken as it was last year. I've been playing around with Danny's editing program which has spurred me on to get out and sail. Last Sundays session at Preston in 10 degrees 25-30 mph southerly was a windsurf joy...It felt positively tropical in temperature.... Unfortunately I couldn't get the head cam working. My new years resolution is to gather in some new footage of other local sailers/surfer so we can create more content.

After sailing in after a light wind session something caught my eye , breaching out of the water, off Paignton Beach.  10 -15 dolphins swam up and down 200 metres off the beach.  I sailed back out  catching up with the pod off Roundham. I had followed an infant dolphin up to the point as it jumped playfully. I stopped 50 m short not wanting to disturb and sat on my board churning water to attract attention. The pod then came back toward me and gave me 5 to 10 minutes of pure dolphin entertainment. An adult  jumped repeatedly doing 270 degree rotations. Definitely the highlight of my year!

Monday Morning at 9 am, an hour or so before high tide, there was only the slightest cross offshore wind with 3-5 foot waves under the pier. The sea was jelly with occasional set rolling in. Warm  water, well coolish, warm air temperature. I couldn't ask for more. I've been desperately trying to improve on my surfing. Hoping that the miles and miles of  wakeboarding and wakeskating would feed through to surfing. And it did! I caught a few rides that's left me hungry for more! 

After not sailing Coombe Cellars in preference to the cleaner waters of the Bay for so long I decided to sail the afternoon high tide on Wednesday 12th August 2008. I Remember now why it's such a great westerly / Easterly spot. Easy parking, great food, channeled and accelerated wind, and I managed to tick off a number rare tractor units on my train spotters guide in between gybes.....

Good cross offshore windsurfing on Friday at Preston and Wakesdkating in flat glassy water at Babaacombe on Saturday....I'm checking the forecast for Sunday....... Some Waves would be nice!

It's a been a good week. Monday Dan and co found some really flat water on a westerly the otherside of 'hopes nose' for a really nice wakeboard session, topped off with a nice windsurf session at Preston today. Wakeboarding's coming along but any tips on getting more air would be appreciated. Not being one to hold back I've picked up a wakeskate at Harbour sports to throw that into the melting pot.