December 2013 just has to go down as the most consistent months for UK wave sailing in decades. With low-pressure systems lined up in an orderly queue out in the Atlantic, the British coastline was duly battered from every angle. After scoring epic missions to Scotland, Ireland and England for our COAST series, it seemed a trip to Wales was in order to represent the four nations at their best.
With Christmas closing in fast, John Carter and Ross Williams pulled open a cracker, snapped on their paper crowns and headed up to the Gower hoping to unwrap some early presents. As usual, when Carter is involved, festivities did not quite go according to plan…
TOTAL DISBELIEF
For the second time in my life I’m stood in the car park at this stunning Welsh Beach looking out over almost flat calm water. It’s a few days before Christmas and, so far today, it doesn’t feel like Santa managed any deliveries. This is hardly the sight you really relish after waking at 1 a.m. and driving through the night to catch a UK winter wave session. But if memory serves me correct, this place is all about the tide and, according to local sailor Ian Pierce, who is confidently rigging up alongside a hardy Welsh crew, it’s going to be firing within half an hour. Even though I’ve experienced this weird phenomenon once before, I still don’t believe it and head back to the comfort of the van to find some warmth and a pillow for a quick snooze. Ross Williams, who is sat beside me in the van, can’t fathom this situation either. His premonition of logo-high, clean offshore waves has been shattered – especially since we were hoping to erase the memory of yesterday’s skunking. You see this story actually emanates over 24 hours prior to this moment of disappointment. A hair-brained scheme of mine to hit two locations in two consecutive days was backfiring in an excruciatingly painful fashion.
Rewind to the previous morning and we had headed to Lyme Regis on the 4 a.m. ferry on a forecast that suggested a 35-knot sou’wester and sunny skies, but, instead, we had been on the receiving end of a 15-20 knot gusty mess with 100% cloud cover and misty rain. Well they say you can’t win them all, but this one was an absolutely miserable day, not to mention a 100 quid’s worth of fuel down the pan and a wasted journey. We did manage to squeeze in a bit of Christmas shopping in the quaint town of Lyme Regis, but that was hardly a reason for six hours in the van and zero action on the water. To make matters worse, I had to be home that evening to look after the kids, so we travelled all the way back to the Isle of Wight before setting out just after midnight on a concerted quest to recover from this wasted road trip. But now, here we are on the coast of the Gower Peninsula, another 4-hr. drive away, minus another tank of fuel, looking out at a thumping shore dump and a Welsh crew that all seem to have a screw loose as they rig up in the car park.
BLINK AND YOU’LL MISS IT
The reason we are here so early is the tide though. According to Ian, the moment the water starts ebbing out, then this place will come alive. Logically I can’t doubt him this time round since, four years ago, I was at this very same beach with Timo Mullen and Jamie Hancock and presented with exactly the same scenario. True to his word, the conditions went off. But even though I’ve seen it happen once before, with still nothing more than a shoredump in front of us, it’s still almost impossible to believe this place will be firing within the hour. Ross, who has not experienced this place before, seems to have resigned to the fact that this is another write-off. It’s a week before Christmas and, just like you tell your kids they have to believe in Santa or they will get no presents, maybe we should put our faith in Ian’s or we won’t get our Xmas stockings full of waves? Surely Ian would never have made us drive all this way for nothing and must be confident in his call? I was certainly hoping so!
Watching from the warmth of the van, the waves are still barely breaking as Ian Pierce, Jim Brookes-Dowsett and the rest of the crew start filtering into the water. But once they are half a mile downwind or so it looks like they are flying straight into the first sets of the day. Where in the hell did those sets come from? Well maybe Santa has got those Reindeers up and running and is starting to dosh out the presents? All of a sudden, Ross is twitching as he sees Ian crack a top turn right under an inviting barrelling lip as finally, this Welsh secret is revealing her true colours under the crisp morning sunlight.
It doesn’t take Williams long to throw together his 5.0 Gaastra Manic, attach an 80-litre Tabou Pocket Wave and, within 10 minutes he is out on the water tacking onto his first set wave.
WELSH MAGIC
With stunning cliffs downwind, pristine dunes, woodlands and even a couple of castles nestled into the landscape, this stunning bay typifies the all the best ingredients the British Coastline has to offer. Throw in clean, half-mast-high waves – which are suddenly starting to pile through the bay – and it’sw not hard to see why Ian owns one of the houses up on top of the cliffs and has no intention of ever moving.
The real magic of this location as the tide whips out is the fact the waves are so clean, cross-offshore and throwing, with enough power to nicely stir up the adrenaline. No wonder the canny Welsh crew don’t boast too heavily about the location of their most precious spots. This beach is a real gem, with the magical formula as to when it works a closely guarded secret. Within the hour, the tide has passed the golden slot and the waves start to drop off. The surf was still as clean as a whistle and great fun to ride, but show up now and you would wonder what all the fuss was about. One thing that kind of bothers me about winter sessions, is that the daylight hours pretty much allow you to score just one phase of the tide. Normally in the summer we would be more than happy to string the day out for the incoming session, but, looking at the watch, by the time it’d be properly on the push again, Ross would be sailing in the dark.
With that in mind we decide to head towards Cardiff and sail another spot closer to home – after a tip-off from Jim – which should be working right through low tide. We both had to swear to secrecy as Jim handed out the sat nav co-ordinates and, with the location locked in, we are back on the road, racing across the Gower to catch a second session before the sun goes down. As luck would have it, we arrived an hour before dark, with the tide just starting to turn and half-mast-high sets peeling down an exposed reef/point break. With dramatic cliffs, drenched in the warmth the wintery sunlight provided, as the backdrop to this awesome location, there was time enough for Ross to build an appetite for this break and leave him with the desire to return. After a quick bowl of leek and potato soup (well we just had to since we were in Wales) we were back on the road one last time headed back home just in time for Christmas! I wouldn’t say Santa had totally unloaded all the toys out of the sleigh while we were at the Gower, but that magic hour was enough of a taster to leave us both hungry for more.
WATER OVER THE BRIDGE
On their day, the reefs and beaches of Wales are as good as anywhere in the UK – and usually less crowded. Throw in the fact the drive is pretty much the same distance for most south coasters as Cornwall, heading over the Severn Bridge to Wales is certainly well worth considering, especially on those days where the West Country might be maxing out and too big. The Gower in particular is a stunning area of beautiful, unspoilt scenery and designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. LLangennith faces dead west and is the first beach to cop the brunt of any swell, but search around this peninsula and there are beaches to accommodate most wind directions.
JC
WALES FUN FACTS
Mount Everest was named after Welshman Sir George Everest from Gwernvale, Breconshire.
The population sheep in Wales is four times greater than the Welsh population of humans.
The Welsh motto is “Cymru am byth” which means “Wales forever”.
The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff has the largest retractable roof of any sports arena in the World.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the name of a town in North Wales, which translates as “The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio’s of the red cave”. It is believed to be the longest place name in the world. (No problem for Windsurf’s spell checker!)
Wales has a population of around 3 million, but only 21% of the Taffys can speak their native language!
Famous people from Wales include Richard Burton, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Tom Jones, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Shirley Bassey, Timothy Dalton and Charlotte Church.
A Welsh tradition reckons that the person who first spots a flowering daffodil in Spring will be blessed with more gold than silver during the coming year.
Wales is believed to have more castles per square mile than anywhere else in the world. It is also the land of the mythical King Arthur.
42% of the South and West Wales coastline is designated as ‘Heritage Coast’.
Major Walter Clopton Wingfield is generally credited with inventing lawn tennis when in 1873 he designed and patented a similar game for his guests to play on his estate of Nantclwyd in Llanelidan Wales.
