A five hour blunt fest at Hurley

On Wednesday me and Will headed up to Hurley for the day. The level was good, a really nice and retentive 3 gates. The sun was out all day and there was no wind making it fairly busy for a week day. We made the most of it paddling from 12 till 3 and then again from 4 till 6.

A crap day at pots - thanks environment agency

On wednesday the Exe was at a level which would usually make flowerpots sweet, however the environment agency had kindly drained the river downstream of pots by opening the flood gate at trews weir. This made the pool level at pots lower which increased the height of the drop making it more vertical and turning the washout into part of the hole.

I decided to give it a go anyway, it was hard work getting out because as well as not having the usual washout the back flow of the stopper was carrying river-right, towards the pit. My tactics were do one move and then try and get out.

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).

My new All Stars first time out at pots on Saturday

Both me (Green) and Will (Orange) have recently got new All Stars and this weekend was there first time at Flowerpots. We had it too ourselfs on Saturday morning and on Sunday we were joined by Dan, Bailey and Darren. Saturdays level was perfect (the "messed up" webcam read 8.3). Heres some stills and a video from Saturday.