ROCK HOPPING

“Just paddle alongside that rock will you…” Moments after a good sized wave had poured over a break in the skerries, Brian had followed me into a narrow channel that opened into a sheltered lagoon on the Lleyn Peninsula. He hadn’t seen the pour-over. I had a few seconds to line up the shot and direct my unsuspecting companion into the perfect position. “Just a bit to your right… a bit closer…yep…just a second…”

I stalled, waiting for the wave. It was bigger than I expected. Brian was expecting it at all. I got the shot, but the wave kept coming and shoving the camera roughly into the hatch I grabbed the paddle. Meanwhile, the stern of Brian’s boat lifted at 45 degrees as several tons of water crashed on the front deck. A few seconds later and the lagoon was still once more. The conversation however remained quite animated.

Paddling around Scarp in the Outer Hebrides, Tim needed little encouragement to line up a narrow slot. There was fair swell running on the west coast and it was another manoeuvre that seemed likely to end badly. As it happened, it proved an easy passage. And glancing over my shoulder to see our two companions climbing the face of an enormous wave surging through the main channel, one I had little hesitation following Tim through.

A cold day on Anglesey and with a bitter wind on the water, Chris and I hugged the cliffs, exploring the nooks and crannies of the cliffs beneath South Stack. An unreasonable amount of entertainment was had reversing into the entrance of a blow hole, and waiting for the surge to blast out as the boat shot back towards open water. If we were cold to begin with we were frozen soon after.

Dragging the boats up a snow covered beach after a few near misses on the return trip was a new experience for both of us.