So things didn’t go quite to plan on the shoes front, all because of an elaborate wristband/queuing system. Boo and hiss to that. However any disappointment soon disappeared and I was cheered up no end looking at two lads getting absolutely smashed in the shore break at New Beach. Cruel, yes I know but come on we’ve all been there and experienced the famous Brighton pebble shore dump ‘exfoliation initiation’. It’s all part of the learning process (isn’t it ?!) It was still fairly high tide, so along with the gusting 50mph + winds made for pretty treacherous conditions.

A friend of mine who was already in the sea whilst this was happening had only just himself wore a smack from his board to his nose in this shoredump, resulting in this below (see photo). Now Jon is no novice, having spent much of the last 20 years surfing and more recently kite surfing extensively, both here and in many locations overseas, so to say he’s competent is an understatement.  

Anyway the upshot from this is that if you’re new to surfing take some time to examine the conditions before going in, check what the tide is doing and if there’s not many people in, there’s usually a reason why !

I did eventually manage to get a low tide session in at the harbour, after battling with my board all the way to the waters edge. It wasn’t great, not helped by the foul smelling / tasting water…euughh I dread to even think what’s in it ! A build up of stones made for quite bouncy conditions which,  at times made for an interesting take off if nothing else ! Here’s a little pic..

On Sunday the wind dropped back and the sun even came out, so we made the most of what swell there was left over from the previous day. The odd (almost) head high set on the dropping tide…