Channel Islands. Summer. JSSE. The yacht . Friends. Love.
For the UK summer (May to October) I relocated to the the English Channel. I live on a little island 22kms off France and about a 100km of Great Britian. Its basically a rock with some more rocks... stunning place!
This was kind of the reason why I left SA. To be somewhere in the ocean teaching surfing, learning more about myself and my surfing again after giving it a rest for a year. I now work as a senior coach at the Jersey Surf School and do a few surf contests here and there.
Its a rad life in Jersey over summer, all the uni students come back, tourists pour in and well it just heaves everyday all day if you can keep up! At the surf school I work 5 or 6 days a week for some solid hours with a group of awesome individuals. Its not hard work, we get to teach kids to surf all day at the beach. Its a dream job for a surfer. Its cool because you get the kids that have surfed with you all week in our summer programme so you basically just go surfing with for 6 hours a day. But sometimes it can be kak as. Like having to take surf lessons when it raining and cold or when the kid is a nightmare but thats pretty rare. The tides do mess you around alot, Jersey has the 3rd highest tidal range in the world of like 42ft. So to give you an idea... SA has a max of a 6ft tidal range. nuts.
The surf is pretty shit. It never gets over 4ft here in summer but winter apparently does (I have yet to see it). Its onshore 80percent of the time but you still froth when the surf is good and you still go surfing when its bumpy because THERE IS NOTHING A GOOD DAY OF SURFING WONT CURE! The quality of wave is good when its on so it does make it worth while. I reckon my favourite waves here are Barg and Secrets. Barg is a shorebreak barrel that pumps at high tide. The lip throws and its a easy barrel with a sick boost section at the end. Secrets is a long right hander (with a few quality lefts) that is filled with just the old school local surfers. This spot reminds me alot of my home break Nahoon Corner when its on. but most of the breaks in Jersey are alot like Long Beach in Cape Town. Crowded and well...
This summer I made some freaking awesome mates too. We party hard and did weekly JSSE (jersey surf school elite) pissups where we would go out, smash bus doors in (jokes that wasnt our fault at all), have dance offs, mess shit up, make cheese sarmies at 5 in the morning and then go surfing. We were so comfortable with each other... farting was acceptable and graded, sharing a spit cup was common and pretty much anything else you can imagine that could go on in working with a bunch of surfer boys and surfer 4 girls. We were basically a big family that has no secrets! It is awesome! Life is good here. Life is AWESOME!
Everyone here is really really nice. I havent met one person who hasnt offered to help me out in one way or another. The guy who made this whole trip and life in Jersey possible is Chester. He is from Slummies and can smash the shit out of any wave just like a quality Reef local! Chester, his wife Em and their Daughter Jemima, who is now 3, look after Laurie and I. They are the kindest and raddest people I know.... Couldnt ask for anybody as good as them.
There are a good few South Africans living over here now. And a massive amount of the Zaffas are weirdly enough from EL. Its such a small world! Some days you can paddle out and 6 out 8 surfers are from SA. Home away from Home some would say.
There are a couple of cool things in Jersey which I havent mentioned because they dont really affect me such as
I love living here, so thankful for the friends Ive made and excited to come back next summer! This was kind of the reason why I left SA. To be somewhere in the ocean teaching surfing, learning more about myself and my surfing again after giving it a rest for a year. I now work as a senior coach at the Jersey Surf School and do a few surf contests here and there.
Its a rad life in Jersey over summer, all the uni students come back, tourists pour in and well it just heaves everyday all day if you can keep up! At the surf school I work 5 or 6 days a week for some solid hours with a group of awesome individuals. Its not hard work, we get to teach kids to surf all day at the beach. Its a dream job for a surfer. Its cool because you get the kids that have surfed with you all week in our summer programme so you basically just go surfing with for 6 hours a day. But sometimes it can be kak as. Like having to take surf lessons when it raining and cold or when the kid is a nightmare but thats pretty rare. The tides do mess you around alot, Jersey has the 3rd highest tidal range in the world of like 42ft. So to give you an idea... SA has a max of a 6ft tidal range. nuts.
The surf is pretty shit. It never gets over 4ft here in summer but winter apparently does (I have yet to see it). Its onshore 80percent of the time but you still froth when the surf is good and you still go surfing when its bumpy because THERE IS NOTHING A GOOD DAY OF SURFING WONT CURE! The quality of wave is good when its on so it does make it worth while. I reckon my favourite waves here are Barg and Secrets. Barg is a shorebreak barrel that pumps at high tide. The lip throws and its a easy barrel with a sick boost section at the end. Secrets is a long right hander (with a few quality lefts) that is filled with just the old school local surfers. This spot reminds me alot of my home break Nahoon Corner when its on. but most of the breaks in Jersey are alot like Long Beach in Cape Town. Crowded and well...
This summer I made some freaking awesome mates too. We party hard and did weekly JSSE (jersey surf school elite) pissups where we would go out, smash bus doors in (jokes that wasnt our fault at all), have dance offs, mess shit up, make cheese sarmies at 5 in the morning and then go surfing. We were so comfortable with each other... farting was acceptable and graded, sharing a spit cup was common and pretty much anything else you can imagine that could go on in working with a bunch of surfer boys and surfer 4 girls. We were basically a big family that has no secrets! It is awesome! Life is good here. Life is AWESOME!
Everyone here is really really nice. I havent met one person who hasnt offered to help me out in one way or another. The guy who made this whole trip and life in Jersey possible is Chester. He is from Slummies and can smash the shit out of any wave just like a quality Reef local! Chester, his wife Em and their Daughter Jemima, who is now 3, look after Laurie and I. They are the kindest and raddest people I know.... Couldnt ask for anybody as good as them.
There are a good few South Africans living over here now. And a massive amount of the Zaffas are weirdly enough from EL. Its such a small world! Some days you can paddle out and 6 out 8 surfers are from SA. Home away from Home some would say.
There are a couple of cool things in Jersey which I havent mentioned because they dont really affect me such as
- No tax. That means things are cheaper here on the island than they are in the UK and Europe.
- The laws are different, like you can never really get done for stealing a car. You can never drive far enough away to get done for theft because the Island is so small.
- It has to be one of the safest places on earth. You willing sleep with your doors unlocked. Leave your keys in the engine and if you lose something like a cellphone or your wallet there is a 80 percent chance of getting it back in-tacked.
No comments:
Post a Comment