Beach Structures

Borth and Ynyslas are supposed to be getting some new sea defences soon. In fact they should have started work on them already and the plan is to create a couple of offshore reefs at the south end of the beach and some large rock groynes on the beach. I don’t think too many people are that keen on the look of them or the impact they will have on the beach aesthetics. Some of us aren’t convinced about the effectiveness of them as coastal defences either but if they work I’ll guess we’ll get used to the look of them.

Afterall, when the existing groynes were installed it must have completely changed the look of the beach but now we couldn’t imagine Borth and Ynyslas without them.

It was a gorgeous Bank Holiday Monday here. Clear blue skies saw the temperature drop to 4ºC over night but the sun was up early and it soon warmed up. With no wind at all it was a perfect day for the beach.

My parents were still here along with my sister and her children Kia and Shaun so we had breakfast and headed across with surf boards and such like. It’s rare for us to sit on the beach in holiday-maker style as we tend to just walk across, do what we were going to do and come home again, but as there were lots of us we set up camp on the edge of the dunes and Morgan and I went for a surf.

Morgan had fun and managed to stand up well, but the sea was a little cold so he didn’t stay out long. I then went out, and had a good surf with some decent 2-3 foot sets coming in. I don’t surf that much these days as I tend to windsurf so its good to get back to my roots now and then and make sure I can still do it.

Time to hit the waves

Surf's Up

I’ve just been out for a stroll on the beach to check the surf. There wasn’t much surf but it was a gorgeous autumnal morning. Cold with a light easterly wind and clear blue skies. I couldn’t resist taking some photos of the patterns in the sand.

Windy Miller

I’ve just got back from another windsurf session here at Ynyslas. Today for a change the wind was South-Westerly so we were sailing on the opposite tack. Much nicer for me as I prefer jumping on that tack.

Despite the high expectations the wind wasn’t quite as strong as we had hoped and was hovering around the 20 knot mark, so my big wave board (Naish Hybrid Freewave 85ltr) and biggish sail (Gun Nexus 5.6m) was the order of the day.

To start with it was perfect and I was able to blast in and out through the waves and even gain some ground upwind. After about an hour on the water Dave and Sarah came over to the beach and started rigging so I stopped for a rest and wandered up the beach to sea them. Once they were rigged and we got back on the water the wind had eased and it was a struggle to get going in the water-water for a while, but out the back there was still enough wind most of the time.

Thankfully after ending up a little way downwind the wind did come back and I was able to sail back to where I started from but it never quite filled back in to make it into an epic session. Still I covered over 30 miles and painted lots of red lines on the sea via Google Earth!

Painting the sea red

I do love living here sometimes – well, all the time actually -  but now and then when it all comes together it is just perfect.

Thursday and Friday this week were just great. More wind than expected, warm, and even sunny on Friday so it was off to the beach windsurfing. Anna was at work, Morgan was in holiday club, I didn’t have much work on and being a freelance website designer I can choose what time of day to work anyway.

So, I made an early start, got some work out of the way and around midday on Thursday headed over to the beach. It was a little cloudy and didn’t look that windy but Simon was down for a couple of days and was keen to get out so I thought I’d join him. I even persuaded Dave and Sarah (from next door) to come out for windsurf on the seafront, and there were a few windsurfers from Bristol out too.

The wind was fairly light (by my standards) so I went out with my 5.6m sail and my big (85 litre) Naish Hybrid Freewave board. It was only just enough, I was able to stay upwind but a little more wind would have been good. Also, my achilles tendon was sore from a run the day before and the twitchy nature of that board didn’t help, so after a while I went back home and got a bigger board (Starboard S-type 104) which would get me going quicker and would be a little more comfortable.

I used that for a while and had some good blasts out through the choppy waters on it but then the wind picked up so I changed back to the smaller board and then changed down to a 5m sail. I then spent most of the day sailing perfectly powered up with a 5m sail and big wave board which is just about perfect.

Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Simon was out kiting, the guys from Bristol were having a good sail and Dave and Sarah were pleased with their progress in the ‘waves’. In the end I covered nearly 37 miles which is a fair way in choppy conditions.

Friday turned out even better though. The wind was stronger, a little more northerly and the sun was shining. Simon joined me windsurfing rather than kiting and Dave, Sarah and the guys from Bristol were all out too. There was no messing around with bigger kit, just my 5m sail and big wave board. If I’d had my small wave board with me I would have used that but the bigger one was fine.

GPS Track

Once again it was a bit of a marathon session covering over 40 miles of sailing and with a top speed of 31.77 which in the waves and on wave kit is pretty good. Click here for the stats.

I may not have got a huge amount of work done or earned much money, but that it the whole point of me living the life I live. Being by the sea and a freelancer means that I should (in theory) be able to get out for a windsurf and make the most of good conditions whenever they arise. I certainly made the most of them on Thursday and Friday and now can’t wait for more wind!

I’m not sure if this is just a summer storm or if we’ve had summer and this is now autumn. It certainly feels fairly autumnal out there and the fact that I’ve been out for a windsurf on my wave board and 5m sail seems to confirm it.

I’m not complaining of course as it was a pretty good session, well powered up on small kit with decent winds and decent waves. It was shame there was no one else around but I guess it was mid week and fairly early in the day so that I could get in and out before the tide was on the pebbles.

I did manage to hurt my ribs / chest a little as well in a fairly violent coming together of body and boom in a big crash – All part of the fun I suppose but it’s pretty sore now.’m not the only one who’s been out either as there are plenty of people around the UK planning a session and a few are popping up in the Forces-of-Nature windsurf session diaries already – It’s good to see everyone getting out and having fun. I’m looking forward to ‘autumn proper’ now!

One of Morgan’s friends, Lotti, invited us to her house for a little party on the beach yesterday. They had all had their reports this week and as they were good they were having a treat.

We all had a little surf, Morgan managed to stand up briefly and had good fun, as did Lotti, Yo-Yo, Emma and Guy. I even caught a few little waves.

Afterwards we had a BBQ and then the kids had a water-fight. Morgan seemed to enjoy getting wet – again!

A damp 5 year old!

Morgan has suddenly decided that he wants to learn to surf. I had been careful not to push him too much towards surfing, but this is of course great news. He has a wetsuit and so far I’ve been taking him out using one of my ‘proper’ surfboards but I may well have to get him a nice foam board that will suit him better and be a little safer if (when) it hits him.

So far I’ve just been taking him out a little way, lying him on the board and pushing him onto waves so that he can ride them in. he seems to love it and does try standing up from time to time. His swimming isn’t really strong enough for much else yet so he isn’t going to be able to paddle out on his own for a while but no doubt the ‘surfing’ will help his swimming and the swimming will help the surfing too.

If he carries on like this it won’t be long before he’s better than me. Laird Hamilton – watch out!!!

Here are some photos from our last surf session.

I took Morgan surfing again on Wednesday – Here’s the best of his photos. Looking good!

Morgan Surfing at Ynyslas

Summer must be here – I’ve just got back from taking Morgan for his first surf lesson. It wasn’t that much of a lesson really, just getting him used to being in the sea and riding a board. I gave him a push onto most waves, but got him steering whilst lying down and as you can see from one of the photos below he even tried to get to his feet at one point.

He now wants a ‘surf lesson’ from me every Saturday and was asking when he can have his own board!