Alps Alternative Week 1 Pembroke.
Day 5,6 & 7 (Cardiff WW Course 4 and 6 Cumecs, Surfing at Whitesands Bay and Cardiff WW Course 10 Cumecs)
Day 05 Cardiff WW Course 4 and 6 Cumecs
Some went to the beach surfing, some walked around the coastal path and mooched about. Later that day most of us loaded up the cars and headed off to Cardiff for that evening`s “park and play session”. Some of the artificial rocks had been taken out to compensate for the lower flows. The course was on 4 Cumecs for the first hour and 6 Cumecs for the second one. At this level it was less intimidating but there were more kayaks and rafts on the course for the midweek session.
Soon everyone was up to speed with the course layout and paddling around in laps. We began to play with each feature, popping out, surfing waves and getting ever tighter breakouts. Some of the features were very shallow but the directed flow was at speed over the smooth concrete artificial bed of the course. The speed of the water meant that the depth was irrelevant here as you were speeding over a film of water only 6 cm deep and then into a deeper section. We kept going until after 8:15pm when the water and escalator were turned off. The handy retail park and Maccy D`s allowed us to enjoy a chat and some food before we drove the 2hrs back to the campsite.
Day 06 Surfing at Whitesands Bay
Roy had been up all-night checking “Magic Seaweed” and the surf was going to be up – 4-6 feet and massive. Excitedly Roy exclaimed that we must go – he was going to take all 4 of his surf toys on his roof (Short and Long surf boards, Surf Jet 2 [SOT] and his Ripper kayak). He was going to try all of them before the day was out. We headed for Whitesands Bay early to get parking near the white shell sandy beach. Even the long pointy boats with the hatches were going to practise in the surf.
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Day 07 Cardiff WW Course 10 Cumecs
After storm Evert hit Lands’ End and South Wales overnight, we awoke to two family tents flattened and abandoned in the middle of the field – the families had up and left during the night. Several other tents around the edge of the field were looking worse for wear and many were packing up and leaving. We enjoyed a late breakfast and slowly began to pack up ourselves. Craig and Aleksander had driven to Haverford West to find a place open, St David`s does not wake up until 10:00am on a Sunday.
We enjoyed brunch in St David`s at the Mill Café – small but to be recommended. After a final wander around the shops, we headed for Cardiff and the Friday evening promised 10 Cumecs release on the White-Water course.
We were now down to only Craig, Aleksander, Sara and Keith. After a quick sighting run, we got stuck into the big boily water and stronger stoppers. Although similar to 8 Cumecs pumping of the previous weekend the extra 2 Cumecs did fill it to the brim. Some of the holes were more retentive and the waves were all larger. This was really like the Alpine water we had all missed out on this year. We played right to the end to get the most out of our ten pounds access fee. After getting changed, we drove back to Liverpool in a very quick 3.5hrs and enjoyed some very quiet roads.
