Surfladle

 

Did it feel like the first week of February to you? It’s been really odd this year, as I cannot seem to get a grip on where we are, season wise. Sometimes it really feels as though we are heading into Winter, rather than meandering our way out of it.

The swings in temperature and the changes between days of Wet Wet Wet and then the ‘ OMG it’s Cold’, is making our winters.. a little messy. You never get a chance to acclimatise to the conditions. Then you have the weather propaganda (hard to call them forecasts.. more like fake news) which for the end of this week were ‘Armageddon’s Comin!’ , with heavy snow alerts for the whole of the country ( I might be wrong but I think we in the South, at one point, were expecting a flourish of the flaky stuff)  which inevitably caused schools to close, even before the snow had fallen. This was in Flintshire.. the schools reacted to the forecast they were given which did not come to pass.. parents were reported to not being happy. Why, when I wer a kid, the school toilets were frozen solid for most of tut’winter and you had to remove the bird, whose little beak was frozen in yer milk bottle top (yes, a half pint bottle of milk for each kid per day!). How things have changed.

 

If you look at the forecast for the coming week our temperature hardly dips below 7°C with highs of 11°C.. nothing wrong with that but we do all know that the much-feared ‘Beasty from the Easty’  is likely, at some point, to return for a  quick ‘freezer session’ before we finally leave the tunnel of winter and head into the SPRING! Winter is a wonderful season but in this country, I do find it to be, just a bit too long and never of the right ‘quality’.

 

Showers.. and what a fine one we have here. Steve Batten, of Batten road marking and tarmac fame, has been a long-term beach resident as well as a good customer of the shop (not that we have bad ones). Steve is very fond of our Atan Boots, as they keep his feet toasty when out for spear fishing sorties ( the latex finish helps them go in and come out of the long freediving fins easily).  A few months back he dropped in and asked about a board to hang his outside shower on (we all dream of having one of those). We eventually came up with a Starboard Evo, that really should still have been skipping across the water but as with so many of the older boards, they are no longer loved and have become redundant! So, off it went, back to Steve’s and low and behold, he has completed the job. I think it looks fantastic and really love  the use of a fixed dustbin lid shower head, as well as the hand held one to wash the dog or the kit off with. Total cost was, I believe, just under £300.00 (the drainage was already in place) so only a month’s electricity bill! Wouldn’t it be nice if the council could install showers all along the beach… I am sure we would all be happy to find them the boards! See the Big PIcture on our Facebook Page

 

Dryrobe.. one of those brands that looking back on it, we should have taken on. But we didn’t, as at the time they launched we already had beach coats in stock from various surf brands and did not see the need for another. Yes,  especially one  that would outsell the others hands down! Anyhow, the sight of people in their Dryrobe, walking their dogs on sandy beaches, such as Dorking High Street, seems to have provided a local Brighton musician, called Sarah Weiler, with a Rap to honour the great Dryrobe. Even if you wear a Dryrobe for all the wrong reasons (is there a wrong reason??), you have to give them due for this!  If this is old news, I do apologise! 
Click Here to see the vid! 
 

Just in through the doors.. a rather nice RRD Cosmo 9’4” Wave SUP but this one is already SOLD. The Cosmo is a real-world wave SUP, as it is in the Wide Camp of SUP and will pick up most waves before ‘normal width’ boards get a look in. The 9’4” x 33” at 167lt is a board for the larger sized wave rider but they also come in 8’8”x 31”/134lt and 9’1”x 32”/152lt. Price is currently at £1399.000 but give us a call if you are interested and we will sharpen the ‘pencil of pricing’. Actual Board Pictures are on our Facebook page and More info on these boards on the RRD site..  Click Here

 

OK, now for the weekend weather and tide time.

 

Saturday, after a week of wind we slip into an onshore breeze of 5-9kt, all day. Tut Tut.  Air temp is reckoned to be 9°C and only the chance of a light shower early morning. The Tide hits High at 11.26hrs on a 6.4m, which means the river and estuary will be ‘well flooded’, with the addition of the recent rain water coming down the tributaries (just heard that the Adur river is flowing nicely over the road at Bines bridge and Shermanbury bridge).

 

Sunday, the wind backs around to the Nor’West at 11-15kts and reported to  increase 15-24kt around dusk. Sporadic showers in the morning but the air temp should stay around 9°C, so again a good day for being out on a SUP and possibly a foil board, if we get a half decent swell running in (but do watch that offshore’ish wind.. don’t want anyone blown out to the Wind Farm). High tide is at 12.13hrs on an even bigger 6.5m . Best time for catching any surf that turns up will be on the second  to fourth hour of the incoming tide (up to 2hrs before High) and then 2hrs onward after the High (so 2.15pm and into the afternoon.

 

And that is it for another week, except to remind those true romantics out there that it would be advisable to remember your Loved Ones, this coming Wednesday!

 

I’m here 9.30 -5.30pm Tomo and the 10 – 1.00pm Sunday.

 

It could be a little muddy getting to the pub tonight.. time for a spot of Bog Snorkelling I fear!

 

Cheers.