Duncan Coombs battling the storm.
“THERE WAS AN ABUNDANCE OF CARNAGE ON THE WATER.”
Louis Morris going full power!
PRELUDE
I like big storms, the named ones in particular! People that know me, kind of expect me to disappear off somewhere - Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland or even further afield when the weather turns nasty. Storm Brendan was the first big low pressure after Christmas and regardless of what the weather was predicting, I had my mind made up four or five days earlier that I would be hunting this one down. Fellow ‘Motley Crew’ member, Timo Mullen, is on the same wavelength and I knew he would be looking at the weather charts, but unfortunately he had a work commitment the exact day Brendan was due to lash our shores with wind and waves. With Timo out of the equation, I was weighing up alternate options of where to go and who to shoot. I was even contemplating heading to Nazaré to go capture Kai Lenny ride some giant Atlantic bombs, but decided to keep my options open until the last minute.
SATURDAY
While storm Brendan was coiling itself up somewhere off Iceland, another banging low was set to hit Cornwall on the Saturday with favourable southerly winds. Knowing that he was going to miss out on Brendan, Timo was hungry to head down to Gwithian for the day and make it back to Poole in time for tea with the family. Despite the weather calling for overcast skies, I decided to tag along for the day just in case Brendan was a blow out or somehow didn’t materialize. I had decided I could cope with cloudy, not ideal, but better than rain! At least that was what every forecast was saying. I set off at 5 a.m., had a smooth journey and was in Poole by 8 a.m. and straight on the road bound for Gwithian. With low tide around 11 a.m. we were set to arrive at the perfect time for the prime session of the day.
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