Monday, November 09, 2009

Back to Belmullet


Well it seems like it has been all about Belmullet lately. Well I cant help that... I love the place !
With a 9.7m swell forecast from the NW, and wind upto 30 knots, Falmore was looking like a good call yet again. Driving down, we saw the main beaches at Elly and Drum were closed out with massive swell, which was breaking over the islands offshore, but Falmore would get a wraparound swell and cross off wind.

When we arrived the tide was still pretty high, and the big sets were closing out the bay. But as the tide retreated, the waves looked more manageable and definitely worth a go.
As it turned out the wind was pretty offshore, so it was hard to hook into the really clean bowl at the start of the wave up at the point, as it meant sailing straight into the wind, while trying to find the speed to drop down the face stay in front of the wave.

In Falmore, the wave is horse-shoe shaped, and if you start high, it's a super clean cross-off racetrack all the way down the beach to the pit of death at the end, or kickout before the closeout on the beachbreak. After my 2nd wave I got eaten by a set and had a nice 10 minute swim after my kit, but nothing broken... so straight back into the action.

Carlos the mexican joined me after a watching for a while, and got the wave of his life with a good few decent snaps before finally getting blown off the back with too much power on the lip. Even though he swam back, he could not help smiling, which sums up the day :-)

The local crew (Cormac, Laoise, Michheal) hit the water around the back of the penninsula at Blacksod, and caught the smaller wraparound swell.

Pic is a frame grab from the video camera, as my Nikon is broken at the moment (probably 5 years worth of salt water spray inside the body is not helping)

www.surfdock.ie

No comments: