All pics by Farrel Oshea.
Turned up at 10:30 to find a very disappointing amount of wind, it was nearer 15mph than the forecast 25. But thankfully and more importantly a pretty decent amount of swell was running -logo high on the sets. It was high tide when we arrived (just Farrel and me), so the waves were breaking a bit soft, then dumping viciously near the shore. The dunes were also making the wind light on the inside, so getting out was going to be sketchy to say the least.
Farrel hung out and took pics for about an hour before he got too cold (I had hot aches at first, it was pretty bloody cold) and left me with the place to myself for the day, no other bugger turned up!
I sailed with the 5.7 and the 85 DaCurve. The 85 doesn't really like having a big sail on it, but it worked pretty well in the clean waves (better than in the onshore gusty stuff I sailed before at Gwithian..)
I could plane about and get the occasional jump, so the wind wasn't too bad.
Unfortunately there's no pics of when things got considerably better! The tide dropped, the waves picked up and cleaned up, and I sailed further upwind towards the Southern End and on the reef. (the wind was also more offshore up there)
I had two super memorable waves, both almost identical, where I came up under the lip and got spat 10ft straight out the front in very little wind. The first one was so violent and I landed so over my kit and out of shape I banged my head on the boom! Those two waves made my day for sure.
I've now had 2 really good days at Hell's -one last year in a NNW and this one in a SE. It really can turn on the goods when you catch it right, but it's a really hard place to get the swell forecast accurate.
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