Hello all and Happy Christmas!
Well the glorious winter sunshine we’ve been blessed with has finally broken with a couple of drizzly days and a full on lightening storm. Won’t be long though, you can always be surf that the sun comes out to play in the happy islands!
There seems to have been loads and loads of pretty good surf, maybe just lacking a few world class days but all in all right on! On the 10th we got another tow day out at La Santa… nothing like as big and heavy as the October tow day but still great to get out there and have a couple of fun ones. The regular tow monkeys (Sven, Gonzaque, Joff and yours truly) met up down in La Santa and were greeted with some good solid 10-15ft waves at the Point. El Quemao was looking very, very solid too, with just the local sponge chargers and La Santa hellman Marquitos taking it on. With some north in the swell the infamous inside death section was nasty. No one in our group was in the slightest bit interested and focus stayed on the right. With work and family commitments keeping the other guys out of the water until the afternoon I opted for a paddle.
Coming out from the harbour (to avoid getting clipped sneaking out in the usual channel) I skirted past the El Quemao madness and headed out to the La San Cristia peak out the back of the Point. After about an hour of playing cat and mouse with some fairly hefty chunks (and a beating, of course) I gave up and caught a little one in. Better save some energy for the pm session.
Gonzi had just got his ski up and running again so we launched from Ghost Town and made the run to La Santa. Over lunchtime it had looked like the swell had jumped a bit and with the stiff offshore there’d been some big barrels. However by the time we got out there I think the swell had eased off bit and the wind had changed to a light south. Ok it wasn’t quite what we’d expected but it certainly wasn’t too shabby either. Gonzaque put me into a couple before we found a good one. Once again my tow board went great, really good in fact…. Something I’m stoked about, as it’s hard to get ‘em right! Still it wasn’t all-good, kicking out of me last wave I got caught by the next one and had the mandatory Smally beating. Still it was like a gentle caress compared to the last one and Gonzaque came and picked me tout suite! Cheers buddy! Out the back again I saw that I’d blown a footstrap and that it was over for me for the day. I was relegated to spectator, along with Sven who was hanging out with his kid Marlon while Gonz towed Joff into a few mini bombs.
With a small window this week there’s a chance of some bigger stuff this week, hopefully we’ll be on it and able to enjoy Santa’s seasonal pressies!
Happy Crimble, Rob.
