Returning to a familiar theme for this blog, and probably for most surfers too, the old ‘you should have been here yesterday’ routine.

Over the last 20 years I’ve built my life next to the sea and the West Wight in particular, with the simple (and now not so secret) aim of leading a quiet life and surfing whenever possible,  as well as trying to avoid hearing that dreaded sentence ‘you should have been here yesterday’ as much as possible too.

But sometimes life has other plans for you, and after a few weeks of niggling broadband complications and lots of support calls and emails (involving a long boring story of telephone exchanges being upgraded to ADSL+, a ten year old router not being able to keep up with the change, and then a mystery line fault that pretty much seemed to me to have lots to do with a very windy and rainy night)  i couldn’t really be out when the engineer was finally scheduled to come and test the line and put me out of my misery.  I wanted to but couldn’t really hang a ‘gone surfing‘ note on the door and hope he would come back later (why don’t BT introduce that as an option when you sign up?)

Of course the only time-slot available on the morning of Friday 16th December, coincided with the biggest swell in weeks, and of course it was also the only day the wind blew offshore after endless days of howling onshores.

So, the day after triple overhead clean sets were reported as being ridden at my local break (from reliable local sources, who wouldn’t exaggerate the conditions) Saturday morning found me at Freshwater bay bright and early, full of hope and excitement for what i might find. Inevitably the classic conditions from the day before were long gone, and to be honest what was left looked pretty unappealing out there with the wind now blowing cross-shore and the swell not really doing it with the sets barely head high.

BUT… remembering my last blog and how i ended up kicking myself for passing up what turned out to be the last waves for a few weeks, this time i didn’t hang around in two minds and encouraged by a couple of hungover locals, pacey & sam, who turned up for a look too, decided to get in there and blow away a few cobwebs anyway.

The good news is that the swell picked up a bit and although it certainly wasn’t anything like the classic conditions of the day before, we had a few overhead sets, and a few bumpy but fun rides, and of course, its always better to have been in than sat around thinking about it.

After a quick surf and to make the most of the morning, i grabbed my camera and headed up onto the cliffs and got a few shots from a different point of view (away from my old favourites of the cabbage patch or right in front of the albion hotel) Whilst Andrew Court, Matt Harwood, Ian Pacey and James Ranson made the most of what was left before it really did get a bit windy. Even managed to get a few shots of some local birds and a random fishing boat in the line-up.

Sitting here today, on a miserable grey December day, looking out the window at howling on-shores blowing out any chance of getting any decent waves, and i’m looking back over a few pics from a surf session that i voluntarily missed out on a few weeks back. I wasn’t too busy, i didn’t have to be somewhere else, I wasn’t feeling poorly, or even lazy, and i didn’t even have a hangover as the title suggests… it’s just that I had recently had too much of a good thing, and for some reason (that seems insane now) I decided the little clean waves weren’t worth the effort and spent half an hour not making my mind up on the beach instead of just getting suited up and going in for a bit of fun. What a knob-head.

My reasons seemed sound enough at the time, I’d surfed some amazing waves the night before (so only about 12 hours previously) and for most of the previous week (November was an epic month for surf this year on the South Coast), and as the swell had dropped off so much, i didn’t want to erase and replace the great waves i still had in my mind, with the little tiddlers on offer in front of me.

In my defence, i didn’t completely waste my time, at least i took a few photos, managing to catch a few rare photos of Paul Blackley surfing, the even more rare sight of Pacey on a longboard, the quite common sight of chris court falling off a SUP and  few nice ones of a puppy playing fetch on the beach, but looking back at the pics now…. just stop thinking about it and get wet and have some fun, you never know when the winds gonna turn, and its been blowing onshore pretty much ever since.

Tidying up my old hard disks with tens of thousands of photos on them, and i found a few shots that got overlooked, neglected, or fell down the back of the sofa from a lovely swell that hit Freshwater Bay back in December 2009. I’ve cross-checked and i dont think any of these have been published before, and i think / hope they might be worth seeing the light of day!

My photo (Offshore, Empty wave @ Logan’s Rock, Porthcurno, Cornwall) is featured in this months (December 2010) edition of Digital Photography Enthusiast Magazine.

I know pride comes before a fall, and i do try to keep a good sense of perspective on any ‘success’ i might have with my photos, but i will admit to being a bit ‘chuffed’ (thats english for happy for my global friends) when this popped through my letterbox at the weekend.

I’d been asked to be in the magazine quite a few weeks back, but had no idea what sort of size the image would be, so it was a really nice surprise to find a double page spread inside.

The mag itself is billed as a “digital lifestyle magazine” and looks like a pretty good mix of product review, how-to articles and interviews with photographers (i’m not on the payroll

Digital Photography Enthusiast Magazine

Empty wave at Porthcurno

The thing about having a surfing blog / website, is that every now and again you feel obliged to write something to justify all the trouble you went to in building the thing in the first place and all the other time you’ve spent filling it with content in the past. You’ve got to have something to accompany all the surf photos you’re taking, and the search engine robots want to see regular updates and they’re not very good at indexing images alone, so for all those reasons, here’s another dose of my aimless soulsurfer ramblings.

—- Winter’s here, I should have been here yesterday! —-

Seems like every week since that first september swell arrived here on the isle of wight that we’ve been blessed with decent waves, and I think i’ve been spoilt this autumn by an unusually high number of days with good surfing conditions. The right size swell (not too big or too small), at the right angle (not just closing out), combined with the right tides and obliging winds blowing gently offshore. It’s been an amazing run, and i’ve enjoyed every wave, but it’s made me complacent and fooled me into thinking that there will always be another good day along soon.

But this week has reminded me that winter surfing here is different, the window of opportunity is smaller, and you need to be patient as well as alert to make sure you’re on it when everything comes together, and sometimes you just got to get in even when conditions aren’t right, because that’s what its all about here, getting in and enjoying it no matter what. And you have to put the work in on the hard days, because its the days getting battered by big pounding close-outs that make those good days all the sweeter when they do come.

Everyone knows the expression ‘you should have been here yesterday’ when you turn up to the beach and all the talk is about how good it was the day before (when you were working, or sick, or stuck somewhere you couldn’t escape from) but whats the expression for those times when you were here yesterday, and you didn’t go in because you were fussy and the conditions weren’t quite right and you thought it would better later or the next day? and then of course you woke to find that it wasn’t.

Whatever it is, I’ve been kicking myself for the last few days, I can sort of blame the dentist for missing out, but really i’ve only myself to blame. I drove past the bay early Tuesday morning to see it absolutely firing, big hollow waves being held up by the strong offshore’s and the lines seeming to come marching in in an endless procession. I knew it wouldn’t be too long before the big spring tide would be making bouncy backwash from the sea defences, and the vision of heaven would become a frustrating mess, but i really couldn’t blow off the dentist as i’ve still got a great big hole where my wisdom tooth extraction became a dry socket, and i really needed to hear that was getting better (the pain of exposed nerves and an infection in your jaw bone can focus the mind)

So two hours later, after driving through torrential rain along the military road, and getting the all clear from my dentist, i’m back at the bay after seeing every point along the coast doing its thing on my return trip to Ventnor. And thats when i first got it wrong, I stood around and watched for a while but spoilt by remembering all those lovely clean peeling sunlit autumn waves in my mind, i turned down the chance to join the few brave souls out there in the big challenging semi-close-outs in a freezing cold howling north-easterly and went home for something to eat and get a bit of work done while the wind and tide sorted itself out.

But as the saying goes, time and tide wait for no man, and this isn’t a story with a happy ending, i’d waited to long (4hrs) and by the time i got back there, the swell had left the bay completely, the waves that a few hours earlier had been breaking boards, were nowhere to be seen and all that was left was the cold wind and puddles from earlier. I drove on to Compton hoping for a few leftovers, and there was still a few out there, but i let my disappointment at what i missed cloud my judgment, and i didnt even go in there, telling myself that the best plan was to wait for the pushing tide in the morning with the promise of sunshine and lighter winds. I took these pictures whilst hanging around debating whether to go in or not, and now i’m here looking at them i cant help wondering wtf i was thinking and why didnt i just get wet whilst there was still a wave at least

So Wednesday morning came, and the sun did shine, but inevitably my early start wasn’t rewarded and i had plenty of time sitting around in weak messy cross-shore 1ft surf to think about the real waves i’d let pass me by just 24hrs before, and now i’m looking back at them on my camera and monitor it seems really dumb as there was clearly still the odd nice wave coming through.

Still, its early in the winter swell season and another big swell is probably already brewing somewhere in the North Atlantic, and i’ve re-learnt the valuable lesson of south coast surfing…. I should have been here yesterday, and he who hesitates is lost… (rodney)

Silhouette Sailing on Shimmering Seas of Shiny Bokeh, originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

SUP interlude between sets at Compton

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©2010 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved
This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

Got there in the end, this is the final batch from the afternoon of Friday 3rd September, just after low tide with a pretty stiff offshore breeze making it good fun as the tide pushed in, Fingers crossed for some more waves on the way (this weekend if we’re lucky).

September Swells on the IOW, looks can be deceiving (1 of 2), originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

Fingers crossed we have more waves on the way this weekend, so i’m clearing out the archives in expectation of them.

Is Ross Williams just about to slip into a little barrel? or does that look suspiciously like a closeout?

———————————–
©2010 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved
This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

Fingers crossed for some new hurricane swell on the way (this weekend if we’re lucky), and i’ve finally got around to sorting out a few more photos from the great swell at the beginning of the month.

This batch are from the afternoon of Friday 3rd September, just after low tide with a pretty stiff offshore breeze making it good fun as the tide pushed in.

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OK, this is not my story, but its a pretty good day for isle of wight surfing so i wanted to cover it here, and the first thing to do is to get the right people credited for the words and images.

Thanks to Paul Blackley (my partner over at wight surf history) for putting this story together, and thanks to ‘the Newquay Surfer’ (http://www.newquaysurfer.org/) for allowing use of the video, and thanks to Annemarie Hughes (http://www.annemariehughes.com/) for allowing use of the images.

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So, the swell has peaked now and there’s time to look back at more photos, here’s another batch of shots from Thursday 2nd, shot straight into the evening sun again so there’s a few more mono edits trying to make the most of the back-light and silhouettes.

The next batch will be from mid afternoon and the pushing tide on Friday 3rd which although it wasn’t what you’d call really big, we still saw a broken board, a broken head and a snapped leash!

Back-lit Split Tone Mystery Surfer Shimmering Silhouette Saturday, originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

September Swells Lighting up Compton Bay!