Surfing a pancake…

For numerous reasons there was no traditional uni trip to the French Alps this year. However, we were still determined to have a trip to the sunshine to mark the end of the year. A couple of months ago we decided to run a trip to a beach in South Wales for some kayak surfing action – a trip which was duly organised by Emma P.

The weekend was drawing closer and both the weather and surf forecasts were looking decidedly less than favourable. The surf forecasts were predicting pretty much no surf all weekend and the weather forecasts was predicting somewhere between showers and horrendous storms! Thankfully at least one of those forecasts was partially wrong, as we were blessed with almost cloudless skies for the majority of Saturday.

Due to an AC/DC concert taking place at Wembley on Friday and everyone going there clogging up my drive home from Northampton we didn’t end up arriving at Hill End Camp-site until about half-past eleven. After watching Emma quickly putting up the tent we headed down to the beach to meet the others – most of whom had been drinking for quite a few hours by the time we got there! A sedate few hours were spent catching up whilst enjoying a few beers.

Saturday started off way too early – Emma woke up at eight o’clock and decided that it was time we were all up! Looking towards the sky it seemed that the weather forecasters were going to be proven correct as all we could see was a blanket of cloud. A quick trip to the cafe for breakfast was required before heading into Llangennith to experience the local market. This was followed by a day spent mostly enjoying the sunshine on the beach – a spot of rounders, some reading and a swim in the sea. A couple of us also managed to get out on the sea in our boats, attempting to surf what can only loosely be described as ‘waves’ as they were almost non-existent.

Saturday night was spent around a camp-fire on the beach. On of the group had brought along some Fire Poi and much fun was had playing with this, and the accompanying paraffin…. fire breathing… fire balls… all very silly (not to mention dangerous) but great fun none-the-less.

Sunday morning arrived and we were greeted with cloud-covered skies, but after a hearty breakfast at the on-site cafe, we again headed to the beach. As the weather was not as warm as the previous day, trousers and jumpers were more in fashion than the boardies and bikinis of the day before. In addition to the clouds, the wind had also picked up. This allowed Jethro to get his kite out for some entertainment. It turned out that his kite had quite a bit of power – certainly enough to drag me across the beach no matter how hard I tried to remain in full control.

Below are a selection of photos from the weekend – more are available at http://photos.andywicks.com/SouthWalesSurfing