2001 was a good year for wave and, for me, there were two particularly memorable days. Wednesday 21st February was the middle day of what subsequently became known as insanity week. This was the first time I had flown in "proper" wave—I got to around 10,500ft with no real effort (or indeed understanding) on my part. The day was also notable for Andy (amongst others) getting his gold height. Tuesday 9th October was another midweek flying adventure. This time I got my gold height and silver distance, resulting in a retrieve quite as epic as the flight that cauased it.
Yet despite the superficial similarity there were some significant differences. The first day was a classic wave forcast: North Westerly winds, nice straight isobars etc. We could see it coming for about a week. The second day on the other hand was a brief window after the passage of a depression. It wasn't obvious the previous day that it was going to be flyable, let alone a good wave day. Yet as it turned out the wave was more extensive, less cloudy and went higher. The conclusion is presumably that the likelihood of wave occuring and the quality of wave when it does occur are not strongly correlated.
