Wednesday 15th July

A game of three halves at Niton. First half was sailing maxed out with a 5m in overhead+ breaking chop, you could bottom turn but then it wasnt clear if you should be top turning on the section in front or behind you. Still managed to avoid munchings, swimmings and trips to the rocks.

Second half things cleaned up a bit, wind dropped to sensible 5.0 and we started getting some decent turns in, also some faster swell seemed to come in so you didnt need to turn as tight to hit the wave on your top turn. Overcooked it on one and had a decent swim as a result, then a long trip downwind in the rip before I could get going. Wind dropped a bit so came in for a bit to eat and a drink and to think about using a bigger board.

As we were drinking, the incoming tide slackened right off and things started to look much much cleaner with swell coming in in lines. By now there were quite a few surfers out in the lee of the cliff and the sets were properly overhead. But it was high tide the tricky keyhole launch was looking like russian roulette. Somehow, more by luck than judgement, I managed to get out on my 78 and had some real clean wave joy in the bonus third half, never masses of turns linked, but with things so smooth some really nice critical take-offs and smacks. We were sailing quite close to the surfers, if they knew how surfers should behave they would probably have been pissed off, but that wouldnt be very Isle of Wight. They did have a good laugh when my mate took off a bit deep and ended up on the rocks though.

Anyway, great fun, and a massive two of us out. I love sailing there; heading out is like sailing into a Turner painting, coming back a Constable.

Noticed one of the surfers had a quad when he put his board in his truck, then noticed they all did. When did that happen?