Myself and a few other welsh boys made the annual pilgrimage to Scotland and managed to score some epic conditions!
Despite the contest being cancelled, we lucked out on a pumping Scottish swell chart and made the long haul to the Highlands for a week of goosing about scoring some super fun barrels.
We didn't get perfect, crisp 6ft offshore waves every surf. Half the time we were battling with switching wind and swell directions, which left us with less than ideal wave quality. But myself and the rest of the boys made the most out of conditions and surfed 3 times per day most days! The westerly wind we experienced in between offshore currents provided a few fun ramps, blowing right across the waves helping to keep our boards stuck to our feet in the air!
Smack bang in the middle of the trip, we had Big Wednesday! A solid North swell greeted the gloomy Scottish waters and just barely south of John O'Groats, Thurso East was hit right on the button and received pumping 8-10ft waves that lined the bay all day. I used my Puravida Rockstar 6'2 this day and it was perfect. The board handled the bigger size no problem and got me into the sets way earlier than I expected.
Myself and the rest of the boys racked up 6+ hours of water time which is no mean feat with limited daylight hours, thick wetsuits and freezing temperatures. We all ended the day with sore shoulders, cold fingers and massive smiles! :)
With regards to equipment for the trip, the start line was warmth. I took 3 wetsuits with me and every last inch of rubber was needed. I had two 5/4/3mm Animal Phoenix Pro suits which I would use for most every day sessions where I would be paddling a lot and catching lots of waves. But for the longer, marathon-esque surfs, I wore the Assassin 6/4mm which kept me in the water for 3+ hours. If I could only have taken 1 suit with me, I would've brought the 5mm. I was never once cold in the water, fatigue would take over before the temperature played a factor but the option of the hooded or non hooded feature on the Phoenix was really useful. I took 2 pairs of booties, however I only ended up using the 3mm Custom pair and my feet were fine the whole time.
If you're thinking of hitting Scotland for a surf trip, pack warm sh*t! Extra socks, extra jumpers a good dry bag and a super warm eskimo jacket are essential.
For the rest of our stay, the aim was to get some tunnel time and we certainly achieved that! We were able to find little golden windows where the wind, lighting and swell all aligned, sometimes only for an hour, and we would jump on those opportunities and surf our guts out!
We got seriously lucky this trip and had a full week of puuuuumping waves! Thanks to all the boys for such an awesome time, my dad and mark for all the shooting and filming and all of my sponsors for making the trip possible!
Check out 22 Medias VLOG of our Scotland trip HERE and make sure you like, comment, SUBSCRIBE and check out the other clips on Callum's channel.
Hope you enjoyed... next blog I will be talking all about the new Bristol Wave pool!!
Stay Tuned
Logie ;)