As Good As It Gets?

16th December 2011
Surf 70/35
Wow what a day, what a week, imagine a surfer from a good/well known surfing destination from abroad came to visit a long lost family member in Bournemouth arriving last Sunday and leaving again on Saturday, this 'imaginary' person may actually go home thinking Bournemouth is not a bad place to live, lots of clean swell  and actually a few good shaped waves, if you timed it right and avoided the obvious place to surf you could even have a few uncrowded sessions... Ok it is rare to get 5 days in a row of... yes I'm going to say it... good waves at the pier, but I think it may have just happened. It may have been a bit chilly but the sun has been out, the sky has often been blue and the wind has been quite light and mostly cross/off. We've been getting so much swell that the sand banks are starting to produce much better shaped waves, the classic right (super bank) which I first experienced a couple of years ago is just starting to show, (I remember Guy at the time said it hadn't been like this for 20 years) and shall we just for a minute just think about about that left!......... I always loved that inside left towards the pier but now it's gone mental. It actually feels almost Hossegor-ish, sucky and seriously punchy, several times I've wiped out on it I've hit the sand and got nicely worked in a very French way. (minus the warmth). 
This has been a very good Autumn and beginning of Winter, I've surfed 35 times since September! I reckon I must have missed at least 10 sessions due to illness and babies etc and some of them quite good by all accounts, also I've mostly only surfed once in a day! I'm feeling it today, my body is sore, my head is fuzzy and the rash on my neck is very raw. But what am I to do when the waves keep coming and I have very few excuses not to surf them, saying that my wife did actually comment that I'm 'taking the piss' today! 


Bit of a mixed bag today, got the early calls and decided to jump in the van with Dan and go exploring most of Dorset, possibly a bad move as when leaving my house my (lovely) wife irritatedly said 'I thought you might take me out for coffee today being the last day before the kids are off school'.... why is it women like to go out for coffee when we have a perfectly good kettle at home? (I instinctively thought).. anyway a couple of hours later I was back at home and very dry... I took my wife out... Then got the kids an early finish at 1.30pm... Then I went surfing at the pier.... I had a fantastic session mostly on my own or with just a couple of others on the west side, it was clean 3/4ft and very fun, I got loads of waves, mainly rights... and my new board, which I haven't even talked about in this blog yet, was working like a dream!       


I think there is more surf around the weekend, I may actually have to do some work so I'm not sure of my chances of getting wet... ah well.... Let the good times roll....