Barrelling waves greeted us on arrival, at what is locally known as Honeycombs Beach. Promoted on tourist sites for various features, including being a ‘fantastic surfing spot’. The surfing sites however don’t ham the place up as much, simply saying it has ‘quite reliable surf’ adding it is an ‘often challenging surf’ spot. Looking at the waves I feel I can tell if they are surfable or not, but I really have no idea what I am looking for or talking about. Howsie has a better idea, as he surfs whereas I do not. No surprises we didn’t come here to surf:
Today I did increase my understanding of what makes a good surf break, and also why this particular beach can be a challenging surf spot. As a climber I know the place as Moses Rocks Beach, but the real beach of that name is approx. 1km to the north. Where there is a more consistent and forgiving surf break being better, they say, for beginners. Not that any of this makes me want to take up surfing. With the rocks we were aiming for being so close to the ocean, big barrelling waves can result in challenging conditions for climbing in two ways:
The first being access. Fortunately while the waves were impressive, the tide was low resulting in the mass of water hitting a rock bar well before they got close to the rocky headland. With the energy taken out of what looked like power waves, we were able to boulder hop without the fear of waves crashing in. The second is the spray. As the water evaporates from the spray on the rock it can make the surface feel greasy. This reduces the friction and makes the climbing much more insecure. This can occur for one of two reasons:
Pure salt, is dry in nature. However, left on the rock is becomes hygroscopic, which describes a substance that can absorb moisture from the air. It is the moisture and not the salt that can make the rock feel slippery. Then there are the other minerals in the ocean, which can also contribute to this unfavourable outcome. Amongst other minerals, seawater contains magnesium, calcium, and potassium. Again as the water evaporates, the build-up of these can result in a slickness forming. You could say it’s a double whammy:
Being early morning, the land was cooler than the ocean and with no major atmospheric lows or highs to interfere, the wind did what we expect. Coming off the land and out to the ocean. Combined with the waves of today, this resulted in long streaming manes coming off the white stallions, as they galloped towards the coastline. Taking with it, the spray back out to sea. Salt residue could be found in small low down pockets, at times providing intricate patterns. Not from the spray but pools left to dry out, after the tides and swells receded:
We can also bring our own moisture, to reduce the friction. This will generally occur on humid days and/or when climbing in the sun. In an effort to cool down our bodies naturally release sweat. Our fingers have a very high concentration of glands that produce the sweat, more than armpits. Added to that fingertips have the highest density of sweat pores on the entire body, which are the holes through which the sweat is exuded. For climbers as we wear skin off our fingertips, this can interfere with this process and release more sweat:
Today however the humidity was low, we were climbing in the cool of the morning, and the face was shrouded in shade. In short the rock was dry and the friction was great. The at times flared and rounded holds were feeling great, resulting in building our confidence to trust them and go for it even when the gear in the same flared features were not so inspiring. All of this lead to one route after another falling, and we worked our way through a healthy number of quality lines. Nothing too serious, of course. I’m still being sensible:
That said this area does have a few good puzzles that are not straightforward to unlock, requiring focus and a bit of grit. The fingertips never wore down so much as to bring on extra sweat, but the arms started to wear out just as we took on a couple of the real brainteasers. Getting to them just in time to be able to pull the moves, after which we knew we were done. I guess just like surfing, climbing is a bit of a balance act. A whole bunch of things need to come together for it to work, which it did today for another splendid morning out:
Sandbagged 