Top Wave River Dart 15 Jan 08

60mm of rain since midnight and Tuesday morning the Dart went massive. Will pulled a sicky and me and him were joined by local paddler Nick East on the Wave. Half way through our wave session we decided to run the end of the Upper which also had some nice big waves on it. Top wave never videos very well but heres some footage of the three of us surfing it. The level dropped quickly while we were there so the wave sometimes looks alot smaller.

The Anvil

It had been ages since I last went to Anvil at a decent level but I gave it a go today and found it well good. I thought the weir had started to break up a bit and it wasn't as good these days but I was totally wrong.

New Webcam levels (so I remember)

THESE LEVELS HAVE CHANGED DUE TO THE EA REPAIRING THE WEIR DOWNSTREAM (I THINK LEVELS ARE NOW A BIT HIGHER THAN THEY SAY ON THE GAUGE)
(there's 5 mini bars to the main bars so 7.5 is 8 by my way)


10.1 (culm ave/low flow) - still a hole just but starting to become a wave with shoulders for blunts either side, fast and fun but hard to stick moves

9.3/9.4 (when the culm was doing nothing) - just starting to lap the path by the pub - big and fast but still a hole

8.3 - perfect flowerpots level - nice fairly chunky well formed hole

7.3/7.4 - flowerpots still a well formed hole with a small wave to the surfers right

7.0 - flowerpots a line stopper without the usual washout (to look at anyway)
7.0 - spot x as good as it gets - goes left and right (stay forward on the back end to help keep the next front end back from the pour over), loops never touch the bottom

6.2 - spot x ok - becomes a bit more annoying as the eddy is flushier and shallower and you tend to hit the bottom when trying to come up vertical off loops

5.4 - spot x pretty shit - too shallow for anything expect carefully placed right cartwheels

http://eathorvertonwebcam.org.uk/index2.html

A session at Becky Weir my secret local playspot at a very low level

Today the Dart was really low (a few inchs below the slab/under 4ft) and flowerpots was just too low so I went for a quick session at my local playspot I discovered last year. The level of the Teign was low but there was JUST enough water for the spot to be working. With more water all hole moves go at Becky Weir but at the level it was today any moves involving looping would hit the bottom = right handed cartwheels.

This level was 0.94 on the gauge at Chudleigh (1.43 is its highest level before it becomes too flushy).