Surfing

October 3, 2007 on 8:48 pm | In Kayak Surfing, Uncategorized |

The weekend served up up an unexpected pleasure, one of lifes magic moments.

The tides were big and we had been looking at going to play on the wave which is created by a tidal overfall in Loch Seaforth on the border of Harris and Lewis. It was all going to plan until I made the school boy error of leaving one of the spray decks (which we use to stop water going into the cockpit) in the barn. Trouble was were were half way there passing Lochs when I realised, so by the time we had turned round and arrived back at the barn it was too late. There is a resticted tidal window when the rapid works.

So Graham and I were sat in wall to wall blue sky in t-shirts outside the house wondering where this left us, so I suggested we should take a spin over to the west side of the island and see if there were any waves. So a quick swap of the boats to the surf boats (they have fins and are a very different shape, more like a surf board with the the shape of a stealth bomber fibreglassed on) and we drove like mad men over to Barvas.

On the machair we began to suspect there was something happening with all the cars and vans, so when we arrived there was perfect green waves at about 6 foot. Folding ourselves in to our wets suits it was a dash to the water and several hours of perfect surfing, some of the best in the world.

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire