5-6’ swells with 11 second period, stacked by a 11-15 knots offshore wind, courtesy of a no-named ocean storm in the Gulf of Maine. A challenging paddle out with waves providing some impactful smacks to the chest and face and multiple push backs. Was at the limit with my current physical conditioning. Took over 9 minutes to get from shore to the outside of the impact zone. Caught two and a half rides and called it a session. Was enough for me for this day!
Need to redouble my workouts to increase stamina for the paddle out.
I went back out today. 3’ stuff and much sloppier with a combination of local winds waves of 4-5 seconds from a diagnonal cross wind, and remenant 12 second swells from the departed ocean storm. Rides were much, much shorter and much more relaxing because paddle out was well within my current physical parameters. There was also no “pucker” factor at all, compared to the other day where pucker was overwhelming the fun factor.
I have two GoPros, one mounted on each end with Ram 1" ball mount bases screwed into the plastic plates that cover up the rope for the grab handles. On good wave days, the breaking wave action will knock the cameras out of alignment in the Ram mounts. So, I further reinforced with “L” brackets shaped from kydex material. But, as you can see from the video, the camera position was rearranged by the breakers. In fact, both kydex brackets got snapped in that surf session and the cameras were left pointing at the deck at one time or another. So far, the Ram mounts have been the mostly fine for me (I use suction bases for my carbon Sterling kayak). For touring applications, these mounts would be perfect. For surfing, the mounts need more and more reinforcement as the waves get bigger. In fact, I have to go figure some other configuration of reinforcement for the bigger days. For me, it’s worth it because because my surfing has improved with the use of video for review of technique on the wave.
