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. :-)

New board but not a good sesh

I am no longer board-less! Aaran from our local surf shop, Earth, Wind and Water, phoned me yesterday to say that he'd received a couple of second-hand longboards, a 9ft 2inch and a 10 ft as he knew I was looking for a second-hand board, so I went along to the shop after work this morning (I work part time, very part time) to see them. I ideally wanted something that would fit inside my Renault estate, both for security and fuel consumption (laws of physics: stuff on the roof=drag=increased fuel consumption+the laws of common sense: stuff on the roof=potentially nicked) but thought anything more than 9ft would be too long. As it happened, the 9' 2" fit perfectly with an inch or two to spare, so I didn't even bother looking at the 10 footer.
The new board is an NSP epoxy longboard, exactly what I was looking for. Some people turn their noses up at epoxy, a.k.a. 'pop out', boards but, frankly, as I am just getting back into this lark after 14 years out of it, a fibreglass board is going to get smashed up in no time and, for now, I'd rather have a durable pop-out than ding the fuck out of a custom job and there's nothing wrong with them anyway, save being a tad on the heavy side.
Anyway, it cost the princely sum of £250, which I've raided from my savings.

Here's the new-to-me board in its new home

It was a nice day today and Magic Seaweed indicated some decent surf at Compton, it'd have been rude not to, really, so off I went, via a detour home to get my wetsuit and other bits.
Things didn't get off to a great start, firstly the wind meant that the thing was hard to carry, even the smallest breezes can turn a longboard into a sail. I've decided I want to get good enough to ride something short so I can trot down the steps like the guys with shortboards...! Ain't gonna happen though...
Secondly, my right knee which has a touch of osteoarthritis in it, decided it wasn't going to play nice when I descended down the first flight of steps, locking up and with the pain indicating something was catching on something else, meaning I had to sit at the top and rub it for a while and wait for it to unlock. I felt I was being watched from the car park, they probably thought I was hesitating because of the steps so, with an Oscar-worthy performance, I made a few overly pained faces and exaggerated rubbing my knee. I hate getting old! >:o(
Got there in the end though, attached leash to leg and into the water.

Aaran said the board would catch everything, even little waves and he wasn't wrong. It does. Anything over 9ft does catch all the waves, even slow 1ft slop, which this wasn't. The surf was 2-4ft, messy, at intervals of  6 seconds and the stiff breeze was cross-shore.
The board was surprisingly easy to paddle and I caught everything I went for. Unfortunately I found it harder to get up on this board than on the foam ones I rode on the previous couple of occasions I got out, back last month. I have no idea why. It was more stable than those and I had put plenty of wax on but, for some reason (possibly not wanting to aggravate the pain in my right knee), I was too slow and just couldn't get up, and on the couple of occasions I did, I stalled and fell off. I must have looked a right prat from the beach and car park! Decidedly unstoked and feeling more than slightly kooky, I packed it in after an hour. However, practice makes perfect and I'll be out again as soon as possible; I also put it down to not having done pop-up practice for about a week. Wish those effing steps weren't so steep, though, my poor knees and not easy carrying a longboard down - I am sure those steps have got steeper over the years and they probably have, I think these are replacements of replacements of ones which periodically get destroyed when coastal erosion takes down yet another section of cliff.

The green green glass of home

There were some nice glassy little 1 ft waves at Sandown this morning. I doubt they were rideable, even with a longboard as they were short lived, formed too close to the beach and were slow, but they looked nice.
I only had my phone with me, so had to take pictures with that, hence the poorish quality.