STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON!
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON!
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON!
HEAVY-WATER SESSIONS ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT
Ross Williams and Timo Mullen take on a pumping southwest swell at Compton Beach on the Isle of Wight, where the conditions may have slightly spiralled out of control. John Carter looks back on two days of proper heavy-water action.
Words: John Carter… Photos: John Carter and Peter Heather / PH Imagery.
Click on any picture to enlarge and scroll through the gallery!
DIALLED IN
JC: “Unless you’re permanently glued to weather maps and forecast models, some wave-sailing opportunities can easily slip through the net. I’ll admit I hadn’t really clocked the incoming southwest swell paired with south to southeast winds…until a message pinged on my WhatsApp from Ross Williams, confidently suggesting that Compton Beach on the west side of the Isle of Wight could be firing on Thursday and Friday (29th and 30th January).
A closer look at the charts suggested he might actually be onto something, although the setup was far from perfect: lightish winds, a long-period swell and the kind of gloomy, wet weather that can kill the wind and make conditions unpredictable. Not exactly the turquoise imagery I’d recently been drooling over of Thomas Traversa and friends slaying the perfect points breaks In Cape Verde. Still, colour is a matter of perception and visual appeal is subjective…at least that’s what I kept telling myself.
More likely, Compton was shaping up to deliver thick, brown waves under dark, rain-soaked skies: a long way from the turquoise point breaks of Cape Verde… but potentially heavy with a different set of photographic opportunities. Game on!
THURSDAY: THE BUILD-UP
I headed west just after midday on Thursday, my trusty VW Polo was loaded to the brim with camera gear…I was clearly optimistic. As my Polo happily trundled into Compton car park (It doesn’t get out too much these days!), Ross was already there, in his truck, enjoying the luxury of warmth while giving the sea a long, thoughtful stare.
The tide was low, but there were some solid, clean sets marching in under side-to-side offshore winds. Not bad at all. Ross, fresh from a winter largely spent running his café rather than charging down wave faces, was the first to admit his water time had taken a hit. Still, today looked like the perfect invitation back and he seemed quietly up for the challenge.
Conditions were deceptive. Light winds and a low tide turned the impact zone into a washing machine, making every attempt to get out back a test of patience and commitment.
Once on a wave, though, Ross still had plenty of fire and determination, driving down the line with speed and power, eyes clearly scanning for aerial sections.
Timing was everything and a bit of rustiness showed; a few misjudgements were punished swiftly and without mercy. Compton has never been big on forgiveness.
But perseverance paid off. After two solid hours of graft, Ross came in smiling, having banked a handful of proper turns and a couple of airs…exactly the kind of session that reminds you why you keep coming back.
HEAVY FRIDAY
By the time I got home Thursday night, my phone was already buzzing. Timo had scored a late Kimmeridge session on the same swell and signed off his message with the immortal words: “Compton tomorrow?”
The forecast had shifted slightly. Light south-westerlies and sunshine to start, rain moving in, then stronger south to south-east winds later. What really caught my eye, though, was the swell: building from 1.5m at 14 seconds to a rather more serious 2.6m at 17 seconds by afternoon. In my book, that has the potential to get spicy. Very spicy. In the midst of winter you sometimes have to just put your faith in the forecast. This one was giving us a tiny window of opportunity in the late afternoon when it would most likely be fading light and miserable weather. Would the wind swing to the SE or would the waves arrives…we really had no idea aside from trusting a few maps and graphs on all the forecast models. How they can be that accurate, who knows but sometimes you have to take a chance…right?
Timo didn’t need much persuasion. By 9pm his ferry was booked and he was officially all in. Still, nothing about this forecast was guaranteed. We needed the wind to fill in and swing, the swell to funnel neatly up the Channel, all lining up after a 1:40pm low tide. A lot of ingredients, one volatile recipe. Risky? Absolutely.
Friday morning started exactly as promised. Sunshine gave way to a thick blanket of mizzle and low cloud as I headed west…hardly photographer-friendly, but at least the forecast was behaving. Timo rolled off the ferry at Cowes at 1pm and by 1:30 he was pulling in beside me at Compton in driving rain. Ross, delayed by a school assembly (his daughter was star pupil…some moments you just can’t miss…even for potential epic windsurfing), wouldn’t be joining us until after three.
First glance: similar size to Thursday, but the tide was rock bottom and Compton on the push can go from polite to gnarly very quickly. Reports from Cornwall suggested things were already going nuclear, so we weren’t too worried about a lack of swell.
PULLING THE TRIGGER!
By 2:30pm Timo was rigged…5.3 Duotone, trusty 106L Grip, otherwise known as the “get out of jail” card…and heading into the abyss.
The waves were already detonating in the shallows, exploding onto the sandbar with proper intent. I wasn’t convinced there was enough wind for him to escape the impact zone, but after a couple of heart-in-mouth moments he punched through the chaos and clawed his way upwind.
Choosing his moment carefully, Timo soon dropped into a set wave, screaming down the line on a chocolate-mast-high wall. Glory beckoned…briefly. The wave was hollow, ugly and in absolutely no mood to be messed with. Any attempt at an aerial would have ended in a swift, humiliating beat-down. Sensibly, Timo straightened up as the wave avalanched behind him in a brown, angry mess.
For the next 45 minutes, he danced on the edge of the impact zone. The swell had doubled since our arrival, and the power of the waves hitting the sandbar was heavy, relentless and deeply intimidating.
Ross arrived around 3:15pm, wasted no time rigging, and charged straight into the chaos. By now the waves were even bigger and heavier…but just to keep things interesting, the wind had started to back off. Ross fought his way out, taking several full-force poundings along the way.
Cold water, dropping wind and a high likelihood of broken gear made it very clear this was not the day for heroics.
After a few more waves…and a few more reminders of who was in charge…both Timo and Ross called it. Sometimes the smartest move is knowing when to walk away.
By 4pm it was almost dark. The wind had nudged back onshore, rain lashed sideways again, and the brief window slammed shut. A short session, brutal conditions and plenty of drama…classic Compton. One of those days that doesn’t deliver the glory shots, but leaves you buzzing all the same.
THE AFTERMATH
We rounded things off with a proper debrief in the Albion Hotel bar, perched right in front of the crashing surf in Freshwater Bay. Pints in hand, we replayed a few moments of the session debating whether any of those lips were actually hittable… or whether they were simply suicidal gear destroying beasts.
TIMO MULLEN
“On this day I decided to roll the dice and head to the Isle of Wight. A similar forecast the week before had left Kimmeridge too onshore and pretty uninspiring, but I’d heard from JC and Ross that Compton had been epic. With a big southwest swell and south–southeast winds, I knew K-Bay wouldn’t work, so I grabbed a discounted ferry ticket, jumped in my little car and made the trip. It’s actually a pretty easy run…Southampton to East Cowes, then about 35 minutes to Compton…I was on a 12 ferry and I was on the beach by 1:30, which is a great option considering the waves were as good as Cornwall without the four-hour drive.
As soon as I arrived, the weather flipped from beautiful to torrential rain and the swell jumped fast…from head high to solid mast high with some bigger sets. I sailed the first hour alone in some seriously heavy waves, thick, unpredictable and exploding on the sandbars at low tide. In hindsight, a three metre swell at 17 seconds really needs a reef, not a beach break, but even if it was too big to do anything truly rad, it was still 100% worth it because nowhere else was happening. It was solid mast high but the lip of the wave was incredibly thick. Low tide made it even more heavy and it was exploding on the sandbar. It was just too big to do anything rad! It was great to visit JC’s home spot for a change and catch up with Ross.
I was on my fail-safe setup…my 106-litre Duotone Ultra Grip Quad and a 5.3m Duotone Super Hero SLS, because the current was so strong you needed the float just to get moving.
Getting out meant using the rip on the left of the bay, scraping over mast-high walls, staying patient, staying confident and above all not falling in. I took a bigger board to help me get out. I also chose to try and sail out where the rip was. I could see that it was mast high but there was almost a channel because of the rip. There were a couple of hairy moments but I survived. You need a board that floats you and when you go over the top of a wall of white water, you need to use all your strength to not get blow off the top of the wave. At all costs don’t fall in. If any wave had hit me I would probably destroyed all my gear. Once out the back, I waited for the best sets so that energy that I burned getting out was worth it!
It was gnarly but unforgettable and finishing the day with a beer at Freshwater Bay with Ross and JC made the trip complete.”
Super_Hero D/LAB 2026 ᐅ high-end wave sail | DUOTONE Windsurfing
ULTRA GRIP SLS 2026 ᐅ wave board in SLS construction with focus ground swell | DUOTONE Windsurfing
From the safety of the warm bar, the waves suddenly looked almost inviting. Winter windsurfing is always a challenge…at least until the next time!
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