Wight Surf History

A Great Day and Night

What a day Saturday the 9th of October turned out to be. The swell started to grow from only a couple of foot first thing to an epic swell that saw Compton, Freshwater Bay and The Pearl all fireing. I checked Compton early and a few of you were either in or going in and it was about 2 – 3ft and building. The wind looked a little strong, making the waves hard to catch but as the swell grew it got better and better. I knew I was only going to get one go at getting a few waves so opted to come back in a couple of hours in hope my timing would pay off. Will still alot of things to finalise for the movie night I did about 15mins filming and the shot off to try and get as much done as possible in 2 hours.

While I was away my phone didn’t stop. I had messages saying nearly every break from Freshwater Bay right round to Sandown were breaking. When I came past Freshwater Bay there was too much water and I couldn’t wait any longer. At Compton I met up with Andy Haworth (Devon Lanes and Longboards) who was already on the cliff top filming (Can’t wait to see the footage Andy). After quick introductions he exclaimed that in all his times on the Island he had never seen Compton like that. While talking a set came through and I hadn’t seen anything like that at Compton for a very very long time. I then ran back to my car to get changed and get in. With only about 15 – 20 people in the water it was perfect, I managed to get a couple of the big set waves right to the beach. When I wasn’t catching waves it was just great to watch some of you guys getting some great waves and the standard of surfing on the Island is very high. I don’t know all of you, but being out there on Saturday really showed that all those days surfing in small wind chop, onshores and just getting in when there was any wave has produced some excellent surfers on the Island.

I only had a short time at the beach and only managed to photograph Compton for about an hour. If any of you have any good photographs of anywhere on Saturday please send them in to us and we’ll put up a gallery of all your shots. I have seen some great shots of The Pearl and Freshwater Bay on Facebook so send them to us too.

Havig such a great swell during the day it couldn’t have been any better for the Movie night. With everyone buzzing from the waves earlier in the day the Sandpipers was soon full to the brim and a wall of noise as everyone talked about the waves. We started the evening with ‘Devon Lanes and Longboards’ by Andy Haworth (If you are interested in buying Andy’s movie go to his website here Devon Lanes and Longboards ). This was followed by a great movie by Sid Pitman ‘Surf Rats’. We also had Strat Cat Productions who very kindly set up a screen and played movies in the Sandpipers big hall all night from ‘Brown Water’ by Sid, ‘Isle of Wight Surf Club’ by Annie Macpherson and Andy Haworths footage from the day. A big thanks to Mark, Nigel and the boys for helping making it a great night. The evning was to finish with ‘Fusion’ by Ross Johns and you can also buy his movie at surfclips.co.uk. At this point I think most of the Ale in the bar had gone and people still wanted more, so by popular request we put on Bert’s ‘Wight Water’. We went on playing movies well into the early hours and raised over £100 for the Freshwater Lifeboat. Many thanks to all who came and especially Jason, Andy, Ross, Annie, Sid, Bert, Al, The Sandpipers Hotel, the West Wight Landscape Partnership and all who helped to make the evening a great success (Apologies if I forgot anyone).

If anyone took any photos during the Surf Movie Evening we would love to put a few on here too, so send them in to paul@wightsurfhistory.co.uk

Oct 12, 2010 | Categories: Surf Blogs, The Noughties | Tags: "jason swain", 9/10/10, 9/10/2010, 9th October 2010, Al Reed, alan reed, Andrew Haworth, Andy Haworth, Annie Macpherson, beach, Bert, blackley, blog, Brown water, compton, Compton Bay, Den Butler, Devon Lanes and Longboards, Doug Saunders, Dougie Saunders, Epic Swell, Freshwater, freshwater bay, Freshwater Lifeboat, Fusion, history, Ian Hutchinson, IOW, IOW Surf Club, Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight Surf Club, Lifeboat, longboard, Martin 'Bert' Spencer, Martin Spencer, Mike Hutchinson, MOVIE, movies, paul blackley, people, Perfect waves, photo, photographs, R.N.L.I, RNLI, Rog Butler, Roger Butler, Ross Johns, Sandown, Sandpipers Hotel, Saturday, Sid Pitman, stoked, Strat Cat Production, surf, Surf Movie Evening, Surf Movie Night, Surf rats, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, swell, The Noughties, The Pearl, video, waves, West Wight Landscape Partnership, wetsuit, wightsurfhistory, WWLP | Leave A Comment »