MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: PAGHAM

 

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: PAGHAM

John Carter likens himself to Tom Cruise, setting out on a Mission Impossible of his own, all in the name of scoring epic wave sailing conditions at Pagham amongst a crop of the UK’s finest talent.

MISSION 1: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

“JC, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make your way to Pagham Beach and somehow infiltrate an isolated sand bar a mile out to sea and then take pictures of any rogue windsurfers who have made it to the break. As always, if you get in trouble with the coastguard or drown, Windsurf Magazine will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This message will self-destruct in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… good luck, JC!”

JC

Rewind to a few days before New Year’s Eve when I had seen an Instagram post from none other than Nik Baker stating that he had just had his best windsurf session in ten years! In Nik’s words: “Full on down-the-line, wave after wave, logo high sets, if not even bigger by the end. Air’s, 360’s and turn after turn! A simply amazing session with so many great sailors out too. I can hardly walk now!”. If those words had come from anyone else then I may not have taken it quite so seriously, however, when it’s Nik Baker saying that, you have to listen. I have heard plenty of whispers about Pagham being epic over the years, but without actually witnessing it myself, it can become a little hard to believe. Surely all the rumours had been from excited locals talking it up? However, that all changed late last year and the beginning of this…

STORM BREWING

As luck would have it, there was another very similar forecast brewing for Pagham with a storm expected to make landfall on New Year’s Eve of all days, which was the only potential snagging point as I’d already made various promises to the wife that I’d be around that day, mainly to help clean the house, as we had friends coming over that evening. I knew if I decided to go and investigate, that this mission could create a few problems at home, so in true JC fashion, I thought it was best to keep everything under wraps for as long as possible and only bring it up, if and when, I knew that Pagham was going to be given the green light. Of course, come the morning of New Year’s Eve, it sounded like every windsurfer on the south coast had heard through the grapevine that Pagham could be firing. All I knew was that if I were to undertake this mission, it would have to be carried out with military precision, and I would also have to make sure I returned home with some epic photos to justify my actions. The news did not go down too well at home, hardly unexpected, but I promised to be home by 3 or 4pm at the latest, which would mean I would be back in plenty of time for the celebrations, so somewhat begrudgingly, I was given the golden ticket to go!

As it happened, Timo Mullen was flying in from Ireland that morning to Southampton and the timings all aligned perfectly for him to pick me up in Portsmouth en route to Pagham. From my previous experiences at Pagham, I knew that shooting the action was going to be tricky. There is a large shingle beach in front of where you park and then about half a mile out to sea there is a huge spit that wraps around the coast and that is where all the action takes place. If you can’t setup headquarters on this spit, then it is a very long way out to score any decent shots from the beach. So, after studying various maps, it seemed the only solution to reach the shingle spit would be to somehow cross the lagoon on the inside with all my expensive camera gear in tow. I threw caution to the wind and decided that an inflatable SUP should suffice to get me over the lagoon and I also planned to bring a large plastic case to keep my camera gear safe and dry. Too easy!

TIGHT SQUEEZE

Timo had failed to mention that he was bringing his runaround car, which was literally loaded to the brim when I arrived in Portsmouth. There was barely enough room for my bulky paddle board bag and large plastic case, yet alone me as well, but somehow we managed to ram it all in after a game of real life Tetris. We had already heard that Pagham was firing and there were already plenty of guys out scoring it early on! Word on the street was that Nik Baker, Paul Hunt, Chris Audsley, Lucas Meldrum and many others were also en route to Pagham!

UP SPITS CREEK WITHOUT A HOSE

As soon as we arrived, I decided to scramble up the track behind the beach with all my equipment, so that I could paddle across the lagoon directly to the spit. It was probably blowing about 35 knots and it looked like the waves were easily logo high to perhaps even mast high out off the spit. I had not anticipated how tough it would be to carry my paddle board bag and camera along the rough track behind the beach – especially when it turned out that it was at least a mile slog to get to where I needed to be. To cut a long story short… by the time I was at a vantage point at the water’s edge opposite the spit, I was totally destroyed. The lagoon did not look too friendly either, choppy, seriously windy and tonnes of current thrown in for good measure. To add to my woes, the spit had a gap in it and the critical part I needed to reach was far more difficult to access than I had anticipated. I did not really feel comfortable paddle boarding over there, but I had come this far and it was my only viable option. So I hesitantly unrolled my paddle board and then prepared to pump it up. However, something was missing… the damn hose that connects the pump to the board: “Ah for God’s sake”, I screamed. Now I was up spits creek without a hose, Tom Cruise would never have made such a gross error, but that was the end of that. I had no way of getting to the spit! Needless to say I was gutted, especially after putting in all that effort, but perhaps not having that hose inadvertently saved me from getting washed out to sea and destroying all my camera gear, who knows?

AN ARDUOUS TREK

As a second resort, I decided to take a few shots from the beach, even though the sailors were probably over half a mile away. To add to my frustration, the sun came out and I could see that the waves were pumping! After fifteen minutes or so, some passersby mentioned to me that I could get most of the way round on the spit, aside from a last little bit to the island, but it would require a long walk through the harbour and nature reserve. With severely limited options, I packed everything up and started to drag my 50kg baggage through the reserve. However, battling the wind proved too much and eventually I could walk no more! I was forced to abandon the paddle board bag in the bushes and continue with my 25kg plastic case.

FROM BAD TO WORSE

After forty minutes of blood, sweat and tears, I finally made it as far as I could go. The vantage point was far from ideal, but at least I managed to score a few distant shots, mostly from behind the waves. As far as the mission had gone, I had failed dismally, and just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, while still out on the spit, I realised that my brand new £300 camera bag, which was on the ground next to my feet, had been caught by a savage gust and it was now floating in the sea. I had to act fast and thankfully I managed to retrieve it, but in order to do so, that meant wading into the water to desperately snatch it back. The water went well over my wellington boots and from that point on I was soaked and freezing cold. To top it all off, I somehow had to make it all the way back to the car park, which was probably two and a half miles away, dragging my massive load of equipment with me. By the time I made it back to Timo’s car, I was done for.

I finally made it home, after missing the 5pm ferry by two minutes, at 7pm, so it was needless to say that my wife was none too pleased. At least I was back just in time to see the New Year in though. What I did know by now though was that this myth that Pagham could be all time down-the-line was indeed true. By the end of the day there were clean logo high sets reeling along the shingle bar and the conditions looked epic! I knew I had to go back and get it right next time!

MISSION 2: GONE ROGUE

After recovering from the New Year celebrations, come January 2nd, Pagham was back on, but this time the wind was storm force and out of control due to Storm Henk! A separate mission was carried out with only two courageous windsurfers braving the elements, but that escapade will need to be told in a separate story. Watch this space!

MISSION 3: PERSISTENCE IS THE KEY

January 3rd: Yep, you guessed it, Pagham was set to be firing again, and despite being fatigued after facing Storm Hank in 60 knots, I knew I had to go again. Even my wife saw that look of determination in my eye and didn’t bother to raise a protest. I still had not made it out to that rogue island and felt that there was still a score to be settled.

Plenty of lessons had been learnt the hard way by this time as to how to make it out to the stranded shingle spit and now I felt truly prepared. I was carrying a much smaller camera and lens, all wrapped in a bin liner, inside a waterproof bag, which was inside another waterproof bag! I was taking no chances this time round. I brought my wetsuit, fins, hood, gloves and boots… and the plan was to either wade or swim across the gap between the shingle spits.

One way or another I was going to finally make my way to that pesky island! So, for the third time in four days, I paid my £31 pounds to Wightlink Ferries for a day return and set out on Mission 3 to Pagham. This time around, Chris Audsley was waiting to pick me up in Portsmouth and the whole way there his phone was being bombarded with messages of other crew, who were also en route, so it’s safe to say that Pagham was no longer the south coats best kept secret, that’s for sure. Once at the beach, I wasted no time getting changed and set along the well-worn track that would take me out to the nature reserve.

The tide was still low by the time I had walked across the shingle spit, and I was actually able to make it to the island without even getting my feet wet. This was all going suspiciously easily… perhaps too easily?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED – A RICH CROP OF TALENT

At last, I had made it to the promised land and was finally in range to score some close-up action. The sun was shining, the waves were clean, being perfectly groomed by cross-offshore 20-ish knot winds, which was a welcome relief compared to the savage conditions I had experienced on the previous two occasions. Once again, the likes of Nik Baker, Chris Audsley, Paul Hunt, Lucas Meldrum, Jamie Hancock and plenty of other hardy wave sailors, made the most of this new year’s feast of wind and waves.

The waves at Pagham were surprisingly clean and powerful on the inside, offering some beautiful hollow sections, which were just begging to be hit. It was great to see Nik Baker sail in cross-off conditions as opposed to the normal cross-onshore conditions he scores back home in Shoreham.

Of course, Nik rips in all conditions, but being a previous champion of the prestigious Aloha Classic, it was particularly cool to see him sailing up close and personal in prime conditions and it’s safe to say his level of sailing is still extremely high.

Meanwhile, former UK Wave champion, Chris Audsley was also nailing some awesome airs and charging hard. He has spent a few months this winter getting back into his windsurfing, and you could tell he was enjoying the conditions. In fact, we also had another former UK Wave champion in the house in the shape of Jamie Hancock, who was also tearing up the waves together with current UK champ – Lucas Meldrum to add to the rich crop of talent. Yep, that is four UK Wave champions all at the same spot, enjoying some epic UK wave sailing – not too bad for an early day in January on the south coast!

OUT OF MY DEPTH

Somehow this final mission all felt a bit too easy after the last two episodes, which had taken me to the brink of my physical limitations. I was far too engrossed with shooting the action that I was completely oblivious to the fact that the gap between the spit and the land was slowly disappearing as the tide rose, so much so that by the time I decided to head back it was already over waist deep in the channel. The current was raging, and if it had been any deeper, I think I would have genuinely struggled to make it back across.

I thought by this time that I was home and dry, but Pagham had one more sting in its tail left for me. I decided to take a shortcut back over to the track home by wading across a narrow gap in the lagoon. However, I had not anticipated that crossing the five-metre wide strip of water would take me out of my depth and then into a strong current, which started to rapidly sweep me towards the harbour. I just about managed to keep my cameras above my head and finally crawled up the far bank in front of a family with their dog, who seemed quite perplexed to see me washed up on the shore – much like a drowned rat.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

So, after three missions, I think I can say it was mission accomplished, although there is still always room for improvement photo wise, bigger days etc.

As to the challenges of photographing and sailing at Pagham, there were definitely plenty of lessons learnt, so hopefully all of that knowledge will stand us in good stead for the next mission. So, personally 2023 ended with a bang, and 2024 opened with fireworks, let’s hope that 2024 continues on that trend!

 

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