Storm Lorenzo, previously Hurricane Lorenzo, but thankfully downgraded to a storm, was forecast to hit our shores on Thursday 3rd October. Looking at the surf forecast (Magic Seaweed) I noticed they were forecasting 5 star surf for Friday at Rhosneigr! Surely this cannot be possible? Well, I had to see this for myself and promptly booked the day off work on Friday 4th.
The 5* forecast was not due to hit until after 3pm on the Friday, so I drove over to Anglesey in the wind and rain, arriving around 1:30pm. Rather than go straight to Rhosneigr, I decide to take a look at cable bay! OMG it was a huge mass of boiling/breaking waves. And yes there were already surfers in the water. Noticing the large rip current on the right hand side of the bay I decided to leave them to it. Going out in that would be crazy.
On to Rhosneigr and a similar site greeted me.
"Hmmm" I thought. Perhaps Trearddur Bay will be a little more sheltered and perhaps it is worth a look there.
But no. The only real difference at Trearddur Bay were the number of people out and about watching the waves crashing in.
So, there was nothing for it, I would head back to Rhosneigr and sit it out.
It wasn't for very long though! At about 3pm, high water came and went and suddenly the conditions started to improve. I set off for a surf. Initially, things were a bit messy and not very big either, but as time went on the conditions became bigger and much better, as you can see from the video. The waves at the start are nowhere near as good as later on. Unfortunately I only managed to capture my first hour and fifteen minutes as the battery died in the GoPro. Even if the battery hadn't had died I would have run out of space on the memory card... But I did take these three shots after I got off the water, a little bit broken at 6pm.
At around 4:00-4:30 Ben Brame and Stuart Leslie came out and joined me on the waves. It was great to have some company out there and good to see both Ben and Stu, as I hadn't seen either of them for quite a while.
When I did eventually decided to get off the water I at least was able to give some onlookers a good laugh as they watched me try to get out of the Mega Bullitt S. Have you ever heard Billy Connolly talking about a drink called a "Zombie"? It's the drink where you get pissed from your feet upwards! Well, I get the same affect after sitting in the Mega Bullitt'S for any length of time. It is like my legs are pissed when I try to stand up. They just won't work! After falling out of my boat, scrabbling about with rubber legs on the beach for about five minutes, blood flow is slowly resumed and I get the power back into my legs. Embarrassing, but it happens every time. Especially when there are lots of onlookers.
As for the 5 star surf forecast on Magic Seaweed, well maybe it is a five star for Rhosneigr, as it is as good as it ever gets, but there is no way it was five star surf.
All the same it was worth the day off work to get and paddle it. I was a little bit tired... (Broken Broken Broken... grin... err broken)