"Let's get changed man, it's pumping!" I open my eyes and squint in the morning light. Where am I? Little by little my memory comes back. We'd done the Croyde pub crawl from the Thatch to the Manor and then to Blue Groove and for some reason everybody seemed to be out and about which made it a big night. Not having enough yet, we continued to Ed's and Damo's house where Guy had been more than generous with this sailor rum. Right. So must have fallen asleep on Damo's couch then, who is now wedging himself into his wetsuit.
Having a glimpse through the salt-coated windows I see huge, clean sets rolling into the bay. The wind has dropped considerably and the swell has been constantly building over night. "We've got big tides. At some stage it's gonna get too low to hit the banks, let's go!" I hear Damo say and then he's off. Ed comes out his room, sleepy and hanging as me haha. We get changed inside the house where it's warm and cosy and then run down to the beach. 'What a privilege!' I think.
The line-up is anything but crowded. Damo is there with his young guns while Ed and I are chilling at the peak next to them. We're cheering a young lad with very long hair into a bomb and he takes it. The last I saw of him was his hair and arms straight up in the air as he must have fallen out of the sky. Ed is ripping as I've always seen him do. I blame the night before for getting lip-launched on my first one and surfing like I've never done it before in general during this session. However, on the very last wave I made the good decision of getting to my feet at a point that felt quite a bit too early actually. But it wasn't.
Finding myself in a decently stable stance I surf this right to the inside where it surprisingly starts walling up. The water in front of me is being sucked up the face of the wave which now reflects the morning sun as if it was pure green glass. In the next moment this wall rears up and throws the lip. For an instant all the noise of the raging sea is gone. I crouch and aim for the exit but this time it wouldn't let me out. It must have been less than a few seconds but it felt like an eternity. It still does. It's been one of these waves we never forget and that make us move strangely in our beds at night when we dream of them.