This time last year.....

Remember the good times?

So last year we were graced with decent ground swell from the south and some cranking north westerly wind, and this year we seem to have nothing but light offshores and fog, which is all well and good for surfing but the kitemonster is literally clucking to get out.

Bored out of my tiny mind yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the massive spring tide (0.4m low) and go and see what makes this wave jack up so nicely.

Mordor. Wouldn't want your leash stuck round that.

OK, so you are always aware that it's rocky under there, but I wasn't expecting it to look quite so evil. This is definitely a no leash situation (board or kite leash for that matter) The only saving grace is that I normally only ride this at a highish tide meaning that if the proverbial did hit the fan there would be some safety margin. The wave also isn't exactly heavy so chances of being taken this far downstairs would be fairly slim. So as you walk out west from here, further towards the sea it shelves off pretty steeply down to sand. When I had my mega washing incident a year or two back I swam in and clambered out over similar stuff, the secret being to duck dive the wave as best as possible, and if it does throw you down, protect your head.

The mind boggleth....

Beware youngsters....

Take heed: Too many kite loops and hard landings over too many years knackers your ankles.

I recently had a trip to the MRI scanner, where I spent 45 minutes being scanned in sections by a giant, and very noisy magnet. After declining the option to listen to 'Now 71' to drown out the weird noises, I lay back and managed to relax enough during the scan to nod off, the nurses found this all extremely amusing.

Well, it turns out the middle of my ankle has collapsed and as an added bonus there's a bit of bone floating about in there as well.

So where does this leave me? Good news is I don't have to spend any time off the water initially. I get a flouro guided steroid injection and see what happens. I also get special inserts for my shoes. I always wanted special shoes, so this is a bonus to be honest. Every cloud.

Getting owned (on camera)

I had a nice little swim at Bantham a couple of weeks back. I got munched and rolled by a wave, and binned the kite. My Go Pro HD got blasted off by the force of the wave, and went on a bit of a journey for a few days, and miraculously we found it washed up and it was 100% OK, even the footage was in tact.

I had to release the kite, and it also survived being washed into the rocks during a 3m swell with a couple of small holes. All in all, I count myself very lucky. Big thanks goes to the guys on the beach who kept an eye on me as I swam in.

Big thanks to Go Pro for making such a robust camera as well. We were sure it was mincemeat.

Oh and a big thanks to James at www.kentkiterepairs.co.uk for re-sleeving my bar and sorting the little holes in my kite. He's a legend.