Exit Strategy ( wipeout ). Dictionary of Image, originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

Exit Strategy
Means of escaping one’s current predicament, typically an unfavourable situation.

Click here for part one of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part two of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part one of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

We’ve just come to the end of a great run of waves here on the Isle of Wight, winter is always best for surf here but i cant remember such a run of quality swell for quite a few years. Some big days, some small, some offshore, some glassy, some cross-shore (or even onshore) and bumpy, some low-tide at the reefs, some high-tide beach-break, and it was fun to surf in them all, for different reasons.

Perhaps it was the pure adrenaline of taking the drop on a bigger day and praying you made that bottom turn, or maybe it was trying to find a little space inside one of the hollow waves created by strong offshores, or maybe it was that smooth gliding feeling of that last glassy face just before the sun went down (i cant really think of a good reason to go with the on-shores yet, except that some days even that is better than not surfing!)

But this blog is about the day when it all felt ‘just right’ the goldilocks day, when the swell was a decent size but not intimidating (still strong enough to snap someones board out there though). When it was consistent  and reliable and there wasnt a 15 minute wait between decent sets. When the wind was light offshore, holding the waves up for that bit longer, but not so strong that you had to take off blinded by the spray. And when for some reason the break wasnt too crowded and for the most part there were plenty of waves to go around.

OK, it might have been nicer if it wasnt so cold, and maybe with a few less people you would have got more waves, but if you’re not happy on a day like thursday 21st January 2010, then i doubt you ever will be surfing here up the channel, and maybe you should look into those emigration plans a bit more seriously.

And a real bonus for me is that a good friend and great photographer Paul Blackley turned up with his camera and got some nice shots of me surfing on this day, so for once i dont just have to rely on memories to bring it all back.

He also shot a pretty good sequence which you can see here in part two of the blog

* The Goldilocks Principle states that something must fall within certain margins, as opposed to reaching extremes. It is used, for example, in the Rare Earth hypothesis to state that a planet must neither be too far away from, nor too close to, the sun to support life. Either extreme would result in a planet incapable of supporting life.[1] Such a planet is colloquially called a “Goldilocks planet”. The Goldilocks Principle comes from a children’s story Goldilocks and the Three Bears in which a little girl found a house owned by three bears. Each bear owned a separate copy of many things, such as food, beds, etc. After testing each of the three, Goldilocks determined that one was always too much in one extreme (too hot, too large, etc.), one was too much in the opposite extreme (too cold, too small, etc.), and one was “just right.”

Finally had some time to look through more of the pictures from last weeks big swell, nothing more to say about it all now, will just let the pictures do the talking and hope we get some more soon, probably do have enough to make a part four, if i get the time and motivation.

The shot was taken at a secret spot on the south coast of Cornwall. There was a big swell running on the north coast that day, but the strong northerlies made south coast shelter the only viable option for a clean wave. It was nice but didn’t look that exciting at low tide as maybe 3ft of swell wrapped round, but as the day went on and the tide pushed up a wave would reflect sideways off the cliffs and meet the next one in the set creating a fantastic wedge that broke into very shallow water. There were about half a dozen local bodyboarders (no stand ups, it was a definite board breaker) all charging right into the mouth of this thing and having a great time and I have to say that to this day its still some of the most fun I’ve ever had behind the camera (I didn’t fancy taking my longboard into that!)

Bodyboarding at Porthcurno