Andrew Cotton

Monday 14 January 2013

Postcard from Nazare


Dear Katie,
As you can see Al and myself are having a lovely time on the beach watching the waves and looking for the jet ski even though the sun isn’t shining. Things haven’t gone quite to plan since I left home but we seem to be dealing with whatever comes our way, as you do.
However it was quite stress full getting here due to a small scenario of getting the dates wrong when I booked my plane tickets but after a small panic attack at the Easy Jet desk at Gatwick as they insisted the flight to Lisbon was full, I managed to buy a last minute ticket online. Isn’t the internet just brilliant sometimes.
Being really well looked after by the Nazare Qualifica crew here as usual and Celeste has been cooking us up some treats and the Policia Maritima have even requested to see us tomorrow morning, which is something to look forward too. Maybe they want an autograph of some kind?
Forgot to mention earlier but I can’t seem to find a flight home tomorrow as they are all fully booked back to London so will possibly have to fly back via Dublin but I promise to try and make it back for Monday and the meeting with the bank manager. Hopefully on the way back we’ll crack the windscreen on the hire car and have to pay the excess, get robbed at the Aer Lingus check in desk because our board bags are over 15kg then when I’m teetering on the edge of completely losing it, as I’m going through security I’ll get loads of hassle about the diving weight in my hand luggage and they’ll insist even though it’s not a sharp or a liquid and I’ve travelled with it in my hand luggage for the past 4 years it’s not allowed on the plane so I have to throw it away.
Can’t wait to see you all.
Love
Andrew xxxxxx

Thursday 3 January 2013

Home in time for tea.


I haven’t surfed Mullaghmore for nearly 9 months, think it’s broken a couple times and a few people have paddled it when smaller but it’s really rare to get 8 meter plus swell with decent winds which is when Mully really starts to get interesting and can scare the living daylights out of you.
When I saw the chart for this swell it was always going to be a gamble, a quick pulse of swell which was predicted to reach 10 meters at one point with the wind gale force and slightly onshore instead of cross off but there was a window of opportunity which I just couldn’t pass up. So Red Bull very kindly hooked us up with a ski and I did a 24 hour mission with Lyndon Wake to wait it out on the headland, just in case.
I’m not gunna lie there was a lot of driving and at points spirits were low but just before dark the wind dropped enough for us to get out and get a few, the swell was dying fast but there was still a couple sets. I got this bomb and Lyndon possibly got the wave of his life and definitely one of the better waves ever surfed out there but unfortunately no one captured it. Hard to believe as usually there's shots all over the internet before you even get out your wetsuit, but he hasn’t mentioned it much. Hopefully something will turn up.