This was supposed to be a sea kayaking trip. Like last years paddle to Svetac island (and part II). But the weather had other plans this time around. Right in the middle of our paddle around the Lastovo archipelago weather forecast bad weather, rain, and south winds appeared. So we threw some surfboard in to the trunk of our car, tied our sea kayaks to the roof and headed south. I knew there are waves down there and I knew they were surfed before. So it was not really a surf spot discovery. I have seen a few nice looking photos of waves from this bay, but I haven’t seen a single photo of someone surfing. And the wave photos can be really deceiving. They were all shot in a way to make the waves look epic, cutting out everything that would help you see how the waves and conditions really are. So I was not really sure what to expect.
We spent 3 days surfing the spot, tbh the last day was so small that I barelly had a session. You need at least 3 waves for a session. But the other two days were…. interesting. First day it was classic south wind swell. I mean, the forecast was classic, I have no idea if the conditions were classic. In the morning when the waves picked up, there was a mix of no wind at all and some gentle offshore. It was clean and fun. The bay plays games with the wind, making it offshore instead of onshore. When the wind picked up it started to blow from the expected direction – onshore. But even with the onshore wind, the wave is quite powerful, so the south wind doesn’t bother it that much. The only problem is that the wave tends to close out. A lot! Long lines come into the bay and close out over the rocky ledge. So you have to be really fast to put in a few pumps down the line or even a top turn into the closing section. Every now and then you get lucky and you have an open wave with a sick wall.
In the afternoon I had another go. When I arrived to the beach I was expecting some swell leftovers but what I got was even bigger waves than in the morning without any hint of wind. And not just no wind, the sea surface was as smooth as a mirror. This made the waves look so sick I was running for the sea as fast as I could. Waves were still closing out and were even steeper than before. There was this one set wave that really stuck in my mind. When I saw the wave approaching I paddled towards it to get into position, I turned around in the last moment paddled twice and that was it. I had it. I made the steep drop and did a little pump and then I saw the wave just suck the bottom of a long section straight up into a closeout. I turned towards the shore and the wave detonated right behind me. Suddenly I had that ocean feeling. A thought that this wave might break my board crossed my mind. Could you get a tube ride here? It would be really hard but not impossible. I had so much fun throwing myself into these walls for two hours until the waves dropped towards the evening.
The next day the swell turned direction and was coming from NW. Which meant that strong wind was blowing straight into the bay. The swell was much more peaky than previous day and waves were breaking more on the beachbreak side of the bay. This meant that surf wise the waves were even better, more open walls and way less closeouts. Although, they did look way less sexy than the day before.
Third morning it was just some leftovers.
South Adriatic Island, 28.,29.,30.8.2023