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Early on Sunday morning nine paddlers ventured north to
sample the thundering surf of Widemouth Bay in Bude. Surf
reports did not look overly optimistic despite high wind and
rough seas earlier in the week, but we decided to go anyway
as there was bound to be more than in Weymouth. The day did
not look promising with an early morning frost and the usual
build up of rain clouds as we approached Honiton. Things
improved as we made fast progress with no traffic problems
and without getting lost. The omens improved further when
the beach café opened just as we arrived and coffee and
bacon butties brightened the prospects markedly. The day
continued to improve with some nice clean waves and a bright
blue sky. The beach was unusually quiet with hardly any
board surfers and paddlers in the majority- surf probably
not big enough for the hard-core locals. Much riding of waves followed accompanied by occasional
swimming although not nearly so frequent or as painful as
the whitewater swimming practice of previous months. Bertie,
Steve and Matt showed off their skills in their glass-fibre
surf boats while the rest of us did our best in the plastic.
Ken demonstrated his patent T-Bone rescue to good effect and
a fair amount of rolling was evident. The surf had been about 12feet by the time we got back to
Dorchester (measured in the 'proper way' from the sea-bed to
somewhere above the crest of the wave). The day was
unfortunately without any real drama or tragedy, although we
did scour the beach for possible accidents and photo
opportunities but everyone enjoyed themselves and returned
exhausted which all adds up to a pretty damn good day on the
water, which is what it’s all about.
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Dave, Ian, Barbara,
Ken, Matt, Jake and John. |
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John and Ken
ready to rumble |
Bertie, one of the
fibreglass hotshots |
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| Barbara, getting serious. |
Ken...he just smiled all day! |
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| Dave, taking it easy. |
Steve. Ready to make the rest of
us look rubbish! |
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Barbara, battling out for
another ride. |
Ian riding high, just before yet
another swim! |
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| Ken |
John and Jake |
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