Stand-up-Paddleboarding from Borth
Another lovely summer’s day here and although I have work to do in both the garden and the new shed I decided that not all sunny days should be spent doing outside chores and opted for some ‘recreation’ instead. After a short 25 mile bike ride I headed into Borth with my Stand-up-Paddleboard. I’d packed a picnic and a drink in my camelbak so, put that on and jumped on my SUP and headed out towards the point. It was a little choppier than I had expected as there was a bit of a SW wind. Typical, I had planned to paddle south so would be heading into it and no doubt a NW seabreeze would fill in later so that I’d be heading into a headwind on the way back as well.
I had my Garmin Fenix 3 set to open water swim mode. I could set up a paddleboard mode but the swim mode works well enough and it also counts my strokes which is nice to know. I didn’t have my heart-rate monitor on though as this was supposed to be a recreational activity and not training. I was making good progress though. My watch beeps at me every time I complete 100 yards and I was ticking off each 100 yards in a little over 1 minute. It wasn’t long before I was out of sight of Borth and it was just me, the cliffs, the seabirds and the deep blue sea.
There were a few large jellyfish around again as well, although I’ve yet to persevere to get a decent photo of them. There were at least three different types, large Barrel Jellyfish, the smaller Moon Jellyfish and the distinctive Compass Jellyfish. Here’s a blurry, murky picture of a Barrel Jellyfish as I passed over the top of it.
Before I knew it I had made my way to Wallog where I decided to haul up onto what was my own private beach for a while. I stopped and ate my lunch. The sun was shining, there was no one around and had I more patience it would have been a lovely spot to just sit and chill. I did so for about 30 seconds but I’m no good at such things so soon jumped up and headed back out to sea ready for the trip back to Borth.
The wind had eased now and the water calmed down but I think I must have been heading into a current as my 100 yard times had dropped to around 1 minute 20 seconds now. I also trailed a mackerel trace out behind me, for the journey back. I didn’t catch anything though. I was still making good progress however and soon rounded the cliffs back towards Borth.
Once back at Borth I decided to explore the reefs a little. In behind them were the water was calm it was gorgeous, just cruising gently over the tops of the rocks. The visibility through the water was really good and I could see that the rocks themselves are now quite well colonised with various seaweeds and I could see a large Spider Crab as well. I should have caught him for dinner really but had plans to go Spider Crab hunting at Ynyslas a little later on so left him alone.
If you look closely you can just about see the Spider Crab in the second photo above. After a bit of a cruise around the reefs, I headed back to the beach, packed up and after about 6 miles on the water headed back up to Ynyslas to look for Spider Crabs.