Back home

I am now back home after an excellent few days at Newquay, I got home yesterday afternoon after a 4.5 hour drive, which included traffic queues at the M5/A30 junction at Exeter and at Ferndown and an argument with Red Funnel ferries at Southampton after the gits wanted to fleece me over and above what I'd already paid for the return crossing for going on a slightly earlier sailing than booked.

I had a further 1 to 1 session on Thursday, again at Towan, and made further progress. I am getting up faster and more consistently. One of my problems was my stance not being wide enough, i.e. my feet too close together. With that sorted I was making great progress. My balance is also improving. Now all I need is time in the water, surf permitting.
The tide was going down (mid tide and low tide are the best times for surfing there, high tide is no good) and, when the tide is low, you can practically walk to the line out. That way, I got longer rides without resorting to paddling. The downside was that the shallow water made for often painful wipeouts. One such wipeout resulted in my left lower back/hip area hitting the sea bed so hard that, two days later, I have severe pain in my sacroiliac joint on the left side and can barely sit for long or move! I don't think the 4.5 hour drive helped, either, but it should improve over the next few days, with plenty of ice and pain killers.
My favourite wipeout, though, came at the end of a good ride with a perfect stance. Unfortunately, I slipped and fell across my board, banging my nose and twisting my ankle. No harm done and it was pretty funny; I wish I had a photo of it. I also got tumbled, along with my board, several times. Funnily enough, I quite enjoy being tumbled...but, that said, I doubt I'd enjoy it much in huge surf!

My aims are now to get consistent, and better, on the big NSP board and then graduate to something smaller. As I've said before I don't see myself charging on a very short board but I'd like to eventually get something in the 7 ft to 7' 6" range.

I'm not one to advertise, usually, but if any UK-based beginners or improvers are reading and want instruction, then you can do no better than the Rip Curl ESF Surf School at Newquay Activity Centre. There were friendly, helpful and brilliant instructors (Shaun and Dale - I had Shaun on Tuesday and Thursday and Dale on Wednesday) and they were also kind enough to look after my board for me until I picked it up yesterday morning, which saved me keeping it in my car or wrestling it in and out of the B&B's board store. Thanks to Rob Barber and his colleagues there. :-) I am now planning to go to one of their surf 'boot camp' weekends, maybe in spring. I also still have plans to go to a surf camp somewhere warm in the winter (never did catch up with Errant Surf as I never got round to it, although I still plan to book something with them).

Looking north-east along Great Western and Tolcarne Beaches.

Fistral Beach in the evening. It was largely blown out when I was there, so I went to Towan instead

Towan Beach at high tide.

While I was there, I also spent an hour taking photos of other surfers at Towan on Thursday afternoon. Photography is another interest of mine and I'd taken my Canon 7D and 100-400 mm lens with me for that reason. I am a better photographer than surfer!

I got a couple of nice sequences. This bloke gets up and wipes out almost straight away, which is what I did a lot of!

And a guy on a nice green board, which I like very much.

And then he's gone.

I have some more photos of other surfers and I'll put those in a post sometime over the next few days.

Progress

Another session down at Towan (Fistral was closed out and big, thanks to the strong winds that had been blowing all night). Towan is a nice spot and probably my favourite, except for the flights of steps to get down to the beach and get back up again!

I made a lot of progress today. My big epoxy board has finer lines than a foamie and is made to be manoeuvrable and, due to this, it is less stable, mainly because the tail is narrower. I had also been too far back on the board and not on the widest, most stable point. Common sense of course when you think about it, but it hadn't occurred to me as I'd been concentrating on not nosediving! Once that was sorted, I could stand up easier and faster and I was neither stalling, going off-balance or nose-diving although my feet are still a little too close together, which is something to work on. My final few waves of the day weren't hugely successful but that was due to tiredness setting in, and I had succumbed to the 'one more wave' syndrome. I am pretty pleased with today and feel more like a surfer than I had in a long time.
The waves got more powerful and dumpy, just like the ones at home (only those lack power, with the English Channel draining them of energy) and more closed out, due to a large swell arriving, which was predicted to get to over 10 feet later.

I have another session with ESF booked tomorrow, that was a last-minute decision, and I hope that I can pick up where I left off today. Conditions permitting, I will try and get out to Compton next week. I'm now in the ranks of the unemployed (temporarily I hope), so I'll have some time, if not money, on my hands.
By the way, thanks to Rob Barber and the others at ESF/Newquay Activity Centre for looking after my board for me. I can also leave it there tomorrow night, before taking my car along there to pick it up Friday morning.

I still intend to book a foreign surf trip for late January/early February. Two weeks somewhere warm, where I don't have to wear a wetsuit, and with consistent waves will do wonders for my surfing, with the added bonus I escape a couple of weeks of one of our epically dismal winters. Maybe then, I can have another few  days down here in the spring.

I've taken a few pictures with my DSLR, I'll upload them when I get home because I didn't bring my CF card reader with me.

Lines

Great Western beach, Newquay, taken with my mobile. On a hot sunny day, which this wasn't, you could probably imagine you were somewhere exotic, rather than a windswept seaside town in England! Look at those lovely lines! I was in there, slightly further to the west at Towan, not long before...

Anyway, after a boring but thankfully incident-free drive, I arrived yesterday. I'm staying in a nice surf hostel, Goofys, on Headland Road, which is a nice hostel, comfortable, clean and not horribly expensive (the digital tv in the room could do with a new remote as the existing one is knackered, meaning I have to endure the ads, rather than pressing mute) but they could do with having a bit more parking; my car is parked in another road and I am hoping it won't get bashed or broken into. Headland Rd has changed a lot since I was here last. Gone are some of the surf hostels, such as Fistral Backpackers, not just the businesses but the entire buildings have been demolished and in their place are posh apartments, no doubt only affordable to rich bastards looking for a second home (coming from the Isle of Wight, second homes are a sore topic!) because there's no way these are affordable homes.

The wind has been strengthening and, as I type, it sounds like a full gale out there, but this didn't affect the surfing. Fistral was too big and closed out, as the wind was onshore, but we went to Towan Beach by the harbour. Due to the angle of this location,the wind was cross-shore/offshore.

The instructor from ESF was a South African, named Shaun, who was a nice guy. We went though where I was going wrong which, after 14 years, amounts to two things: not being fast enough and, paradoxically, rushing things. I either got to my feet and promptly wiped out as I was rushing things or, when I slowed down, the wave was over. My balance is also questionable but that will come.
Shaun did also say that I had a good standard of fitness, which is rare among beginners/returnees my age and over, good upper body strength and determination and, with practise, I will be quite good. I am on the right track with swimming sessions two or three time a week and doing exercises at home.

Out again tomorrow, hopefully. As I said, it's blowing a gale at the moment so I am hoping that's died down by morning. It should do, according to the forecast.

I had been looking for a decent pair of casual shoes, the sort that are like soft deck shoes, only more substantial (like Vans) while I was here, and the surf shops are good places as any to look. Unfortunately I was having trouble finding a decent pair that fit. I am a size 6 and while this is a common size in women's shoes why do we get no choice other than purple, baby blue or pink, ffs?! I HATE girly colours and had to resort to looking among the men's shoes only to find that their sizes began at 7. Jeez, how annoying. The companies should take note as I know I am not the only one who feels like this, quite a lot of other women hate the lack of choice in colours and styles - not only to we have to endure pastel colours in the pink to purple range, a lot of clothes for women are too figure-hugging or revealing, as well. No, I don't 'bat for the other side', I am just fed up with stereotyping. The surf mags are just as bad for stereotyping, showing women, usually the blonde, long-haired, svelte type, in nothing but bikinis.
Anyway, back on topic, and off my soap-box, I eventually found a nice pair at Quiksilver's Fistral Beach shop, in my size, a nice sober colour, with no revolting pinks, purples or baby blues to be found and, even better, reduced in the sale to £29! Stoked. :-)

Grovelling in the white mush

It was a last-minute decision but I texted Chris and managed to arrange another session this afternoon. The waves were smaller, 2-3ft at 5s, and not as powerful as they were 12 days ago; the wind was a light onshore breeze. Consequently, I wasn't as shattered as I had been last time but, that said, this could be as much to do with exercises here at home, press ups and similar.

The session was pretty successful in that I caught most of the waves I went for and stood up on about 50% of them; I'm getting faster at getting to my feet. However, I was having a bit of a problem with nose-diving and losing my balance, unlike last time. I also found that I was dragging my front (left) foot quite a few times which is probably connected to losing my balance.

I have a couple of injuries, I jarred my neck and bent my left fingers back the wrong way, suspected dislocated (they're now painful, swollen and have had the ice treatment) but, on the bright side, that's better than jarring my fingers and bending my neck the wrong way!
I did remember my surf boots, which made things much easier. No cut feet this time.

I am hoping to get one or two more sessions before my trip to Cornwall in October. Having done 95% of my surfing in Cornwall throughout the 1990s, I know that the waves are better than here. They are less mushy and more longer-lived and, as a result, are easier to surf on. I don't like to appear disloyal to my home county but the IoW waves are not exactly world class and they're hard to surf on and Chris said as much.

Standing up a little bit and falling off a lot

Finally! I got back on a surfboard - albeit a 9ft Alder foam longboard - for the first time in 14 years. I'd arrived at Compton a little early, having finished work a bit quicker than I thought I would, but that was no big deal because I had work phone calls to make and also have something to eat.

The surf was around 4 or 5 ft high, with 11 second intervals and there were plenty of surfers, including bodyboarders, out. I grabbed a couple of photos from the car park.

To cut a long story and one or two kooky errors (kook ups?) short, it was harder than I remembered but, after being knocked down by deceptively powerful waves a few times, it all came back to me, especially how hard paddling for a wave is, and how hard it is to get out beyond the white water. I didn't paddle out today, I was just shattered wading out to chest height and catching waves from there - I still missed loads - and my feet got battered by the rocks (I have surf boots which I will dig out for next time). You may think you are reasonably fit - I can do 40 lengths of a 25m pool - but you have to be even fitter to surf properly. There's only one way to get fit to surf and that is to surf more. I got caught inside and rolled over by larger waves a few times, but I don't mind that.

The main thing is though...I CAN STILL STAND UP! I can't pop up as easily as I could 14 years ago but that is because of being out of practice for that amount of time, and it will come, but I can get to my feet although I fell off rather more quickly than I'd like. I also need more practice with balance but, again, that will come. It will be easier on a hard surfboard, rather than a foam one, as hard boards are more stable and I found the foamie rocked from side-to-side too easily. But today was about getting back onto a board, any board, and getting the feel of it again.

I really need a day where the surf is nice smallish summer waves, rather than the largish swell of today. It was mushy but powerful, not clean and all over the place. Even Chris, the instructor, described the surf as 'challenging' and he'd initially been afraid it was too large but, even so, it was great to get out there again. I am bloody knackered and my left shoulder, knees and back muscles hurt, my feet are sore from the rocks and my eyes are sore from the salt water (but I am pleased not to have stepped on a weaver fish) but it was worth it.

Where did I leave that stoke 14 years ago? Ah right there, there it is! I am hoping to go again next week, if conditions coincide with being able to dump work for a few hours.

Rediscovering the stoke

...42 years old, not exactly fit but wanting to rediscover the 'stoke'...that's me. I surfed - not great, but I surfed - throughout the 90s on longboards, but I have not been on a surfboard since 1998, when a combination of things meant I packed it in. Even without a family (I am single) demands on time and - particularly - money meant I never got round to replacing the 8'6" longboard I sold, although I do have a bodyboard. Bodyboarding, however, is not the same. Good fun, but not the same so I want to get back into stand-up, dare I say 'proper', surfing.

I've been assured that 42 is not to old to rediscover surfing, with people getting into it for the first time even into their 60s and 70s and with arthritis, which is reassuring! My relatives, however, probably think I am crazy and should act my age - well, bollocks to that! Who says surfing is a kids game?

Why, exactly, do I want to get back into surfing? Well, it's not to look 'cool', as I look like a prat, rather than cool, because I fall off a lot and get wiped out, not that I give a toss about that. No, I want to have fun, maybe get to know some new people, get fit again and remain that way. Added to which, it is great for self esteem, particularly helpful when yours is currently at about the same level as the Earth's core. Also I like being in water and, above all, I love the feeling that surfing brings - that all-important 'stoke'.

I have booked myself a few days down in Newquay in the first week of October and have also arranged a couple of days one-to-one tuition at Newquay Activity Centre to get back into the hang of things. Unfortunately that is still 7 weeks away...working in tourism here on the Isle of Wight, and wanting to avoid the worst crowds means I have to leave it till then. Can't afford a surfboard yet, as my car tax and MOT are due over the next month, so I'll have to content myself with the body board in the meantime, plus swimming, practising pop ups on dry land, etc...also, if I can find a day to do it, when surf is available and I don't have a lot of work on, I'll pop down the road to Dunroamin Beach and Wight Water, it's only five minutes from here but needs a good swell.

I have decided to do a blog about my efforts to rejoin the surfing community, just for a bit of fun. It's called 'Stand Up, Fall Off', because I expect know I'll be doing a lot of that...falling off, that is. Especially falling off.

This TV programme by comedian Justin Lee Collins, who is nearly my age and about as fit, has given me hope - and he's a total beginner! Btw, you can find the rest of the programme (it's in 5 parts) by clicking on the 'Watch on YouTube' link.

So has 'Silver Surf Dude' who is in his 60s. And 'Surfers Over 50'. And this thread, 'Later in life beginners', on Surfing Waves forum is great, everyone either starting surfing for the first time or getting back in the water after an absence.

I have no photos of myself surfing but here is a photo I took of a bloke surfing at Ventnor, in front of the Spyglass Inn, back in January.

Wish me luck - and if you see me in the line up at Compton or Hope Beach please don't give me a hard time! Cheers!