XMAS COMES EARLY AT AVON
XMAS COMES EARLY AT AVON
XMAS COMES EARLY AT AVON
Christmas came early for the Avon Beach crew this year. What began as a low-expectation session quickly escalated into one of the most memorable days the spot has seen in years. Andy Chambers was on hand to make the most of the surprise swell, while Lyndon Clayson, armed with a borrowed camera, managed to capture the drama of this this unexpected early Xmas session!
ANDY CHAMBERS:
The forecast for Saturday looked pretty good on paper for Avon beach in terms of swell. 10ft @10 seconds is usually a pretty solid ground swell. However sometimes it doesn’t quite make it up the channel or can get blocked by Hengistbury Head. So I tried to keep my expectations fairly low as I have been skunked a number of times with a good forecast. The wind forecast was Westerly which can be quite tricky as it means there isn’t any wind on the inside but its cross off on the outside for wave riding which is perfect.
My actual plan was to head to Avon in the morning to sail around the higher tide as it was dropping and then check out Southbourne in afternoon over low tide as the wind was westerly and Southbourne would have better waves …you can tell that I didn’t have high hopes for Avon!
Reports started coming through from Avon at first light that it was pretty underwhelming… In the back of my mind I was thinking I knew it would be, so I carried on with my usual Saturday routine of heading to the gym. By about 9am messages were coming through saying it’s getting better and then by 10am the messages just said, ‘it’s going off!’. I was out the door and at the beach by 10.05 ha-ha! As I pulled into the carpark, I could see waves reeling down the outer sandbar and then linking with the inner sandbar and carrying on going down past the café. It was windy pretty much straight off the beach too which meant there was a touch of WSW, so it seemed all the stars had aligned!
GEAR
I rigged my 4.5 Goya Banzai Surf Carbon and 86l Custom Thruster 4. I opted for the thruster over the Quad at first as the waves at Avon quite often lack power and speed, so you need a fast board with more drive to make the most of it. However after my first 2 waves it was apparent that it was really windy, so speed wasn’t an issue and the waves had a lot more power than usual. I came straight in and grabbed my 84l Goya Quad 8 which was the perfect choice! The waves just kept getting better and better, the swell was solid and there were some pretty meaty (for Avon) ones coming through. The biggest ones were around logo high which never happens at Avon. You could actually sail way out back and gybe on a set swell and cruise all the way into the sandbar on it, then when it hit the outer sandbar, it jacked up and properly broke top to bottom. You could get 3-4 turns on the first section and then wait for the reforms further down and closer in. This was the magic section of the wave because it was so smooth as its protected by Mudeford Beach and sandbank. You could then get another 3-4 turns on this part of the wave with a couple of throwing sections. By the end of the wave your forearms and back leg were burning!
EPIC SESSION
I sailed for three hours! As the tide dropped more and more so did the waves and the wind had increased so by 2pm I was done. The conditions carried on for most of the afternoon just wasn’t as good as earlier! It was great to see so many people out pushing themselves in the bigger waves. That’s the great thing about Avon, no matter how big it gets it’s not a wave of major consequence so if it all goes wrong you might have a little swim and a bit of a tumble under water but it’s over in a few seconds. Unlike Southbourne that just gives you a flogging and destroys everything! Most of the locals were out and the forecast had attracted some people from much further away. The problem is they probably think it’s like that all the time now!
AFTERMATH
Once the pictures started to come through later that evening the messenger group got very excited and chatty with people’s stories of best waves/wipeouts and generally a great feeling from what was one of the best ever days at Avon.
Lyndon Clayson “Andy and all the sailors at Avon Beach are lovely. I am temporarily out of action so borrowed an old camera to give me something to do whilst caddying for my 17-year-old son!! (if I can’t sail, he has no choice but to!) What I have learnt is that you get nearly as much stoke from watching as you do from taking part!!
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