After yesterday's rant about parking charges in the UK and access to beaches, I'm super looking forward to going home again. I've bought myself a new 4x3 wetsuit because it cost $100 less as it's meant to be summer here in the UK (it's actually freezing right now and bucketing rain) so a thick suit is discounted. My old one was getting a little stretched after 4 years. It's a beautiful O'Neill Hyperfreak and I don't think I'll own any other suit quite as comfy and warm.
We had grand plans of surfing in Europe and the UK. In the end, we had a week surfing in Morocco where I got a black eye and contended with silly crowds, overcome a few fears and figured out the logistics of taking off on much steeper waves than I was used to. It was a big, heavy swell at the start of the week with some really strong currents. I surfed both the longboard and the paddleboard, and it was great.
But that was basically it. I surfed around Nazare in some tiny waves, and in Galicia once on my longboard, but there was hardly any swell at all when we were there - a bad season, all round. In the end we drove nearly 10,000 km with the surfboards and hardly got them off the roof at all. Furthermore, we had to be super careful about where we left the car, if at all, in case the boards got nicked. In short - A.BIG.FAT.PAIN.IN.THE.ASS.
In the UK, the travel times to get to surfing beaches from my mother in laws is hardly worth it. Surfing needs you to be around when the swell is up and it's hard to plan days down the coast according to when the swell, wind and tide are working. In the winter it's stupid cold, and in the summer there's no swell. At either times it's hellishly crowded. It costs you a fortune to park by the beach and there's no guarantee no one will break into your car or even steal it.
Spending my time thinking about surfing and not being able to is, quite frankly, sad. So I'm going to save it all for when I'm home in 12 days.
I'm not that sad about leaving now I know I'm going, if that makes sense. Yes, I did want to drive to Greece and Albania and Norway and Iceland but that's not to be. When - if - we come back, it'll be way easier just to hire a board at whatever place we happen to go to where there is surf.
So now, what to do with the boards? It's impossible to bring all of them home - and expensive, let alone the risk they'll just get smashed again.
I've already found a buyer for my Modern 9'1 and the crazy thing is, that with the cost of boards in this country compared to home, I am getting what I paid for it which is just crazy, especially as it has a few dings and a slight crack on the rail. So I can literally just spend that money on a new board if I wanted to - except my Dad has the same one, so I'll inherit that.
I'm going to take my SMIK with me and if Quantas smash it like Etihad did, I can claim it on insurance. It will mean less carry on luggage but it'll be cheaper to ship some stuff home instead.
Gah, I'm so looking forward to surfing my southern oceans.
How's your surfing life going?
With Love,
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