True Blue Travel loves this epic descriptive wander through the art of winter surfing written by Spike :
Between stormy bouts when fierce ocean storms hit Cape Town, wisps of wood smoke drift into the air from a myriad of fires fighting the cold.On these days, when the city chokes in a layer of smog trapped by the heat inversion of winter, you need to head for the hills … for health reasons of course.
These hills are no shrub covered bumps in the fynbos. These are wet hills. They are made of water that glide through the ocean glass before they dissolve on the granite rocks of our cold, kelpy coast.The Cape Town winter brings a unique reversal to the temperature of the ocean and the air. In winter, the air cools down and the water warms up, in contrast to the freezing seas and stifled heat of summer.Many do not know or understand this, but – barring bouts when cold fronts bludgeon us with northwest gales and heaving storm seas – winter is a beautiful time for Cape Town surfers.And so shall it be on Friday, with an absolutely epic long range 15′ bombswell due to land in perfect light winds, starting glassy and puffing a mild N, an epic set of conditions for many of the Cape’s most famous reefs, not least the grandaddy butcher slab they call the Dungeons.
And so shall it be this Friday, with an absolutely epic long range 15′ bombswell due to land in perfect light winds, starting glassy and puffing a mild N, an epic set of conditions for many of the Cape’s most famous reefs, not least the grandaddy butcher slab they call the Dungeons.Because the nights are cold, the offshore breezes in the morning are brisk as the cold air sinks towards the warmer ocean, where the air gently rises.
All around South Africa, these land breezes work their magic in the night, particularly where mountain ranges form an inland spine parallel to the coast, such as the Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal, where the water is warmer.These katabatic winds brush back the waves, grooming the corduroy grooves of the big wave swells marching in from distant storms in the Roaring Forties, Furious Fifties and even the Screaming Sixties. It’s surfing heaven.
But pity those in colder climes. In the northern hemisphere, from Oregon on the west coast of the USA to Canada and Alaska in the North, and Massachusetts in the east; from the western and northern coast of Ireland and Scotland; and across the sea to the Viking lands of Sweden and Norway, surfing in winter is a vastly different kettle of cod.Trudging through the snow drifts, you’re glad for your bootie socks beneath the 5mm neoprene booties, the 5mm full wetuit steamer that sports built-in hoodie and optional aquatic gloves. You kitted up indoors. You’ve bared the smallest patch of facial skin to the elements.
Like an abominable snow duck, or a shiny black version of the Michelin man, you waddle towards the sea.
The air is -10 degrees C and the water is somewhere around six. After half an hour, an ice-cream headache threatens to cleave your skull in two, which is just as well. In some places, daylight is an oxymoron. In Norway, you have have a tiny window to surf, when it’s not quite dark but almost twilight. And yet you still squint into the gloom to catch the dark shape of an oncoming swell.In Scotland and Ireland, you’re better off by a few degrees of temperature, some lumens of light and several notches in consistency and quality, at spots like Thurso and Mullaghmore, respectively.
But the exit from the waves remain a mind- and body-numbing experience. Peeling off layers that kept you warm provide a bizarre challenge. Teeth chattering and body shivering, the frozen air engulfs your torso while you hastily remove your wetsuit, but your frozen digits cannot grip the sleeves or legs and you hop around like a startled rabbit in the snow as you slowly turn blue.In Cornwall, we would stagger from the freezing surf across a vast beach to get to a kombi, where a friend kept flasks of hot water. These provided a life-saving thaw to hands and feet.
So next time you think we have it bad in Cape Town, think again.
The city changed its logo. Can we change the pay-off line?What about the Cape of Occasional Storms, or the Cape of Excellent Winter?
Words by Spike
Image : Screenshot from the film Alaska Sessions
Original Article : http://www.wavescape.co.za/news/breaking-news/winter-is-coming.html
To read more awesome articles and to keep up with surf world news : http://www.wavescape.co.za/index.html
