Surfladle

Friday evening has arrived and once again we head into the wonderful world of a Summer Weekend at The Beach. Ok ok, its’s not exactly summer’ish, in anyway or form, apart from the long evenings which of course ARE gratefully received! 

Our temps and current rainfall are more like early April and nothing like you would expect for a mid-June weekend. Yes, mid-June is only five days away and it’s only eleven to Mid-Summers Night! Sadly, I had a heads up that this would be the case with our summer 2022 weather. I have family in New Zealand and Australia, so over the years I have tracked how their weather runs and it does seem that we do tend to follow them. Both countries had a cooler than normal summer and the best example was Adelaide, as this year they generally had temperatures close to half of what they would normally expect to have (re. my cousins reports) and generally it was overcast and breezy. I have many WhatsApp images of my cousin with a padded jacket on and not a single barbie or beer cooler in sight!. Some parts of that area recorderd their coolest summer on record (normal temps are in the forties) but the warmest day of their Winter (so far) is...  36.3°C.. whoop!  

So, there it is, good news at last, we should all be in our shorts by December!! 

Oh well, what the heck. 

 

The weather has thrown a large spanner in the works this weekend, as The Festival of the Water is on at Shoreham and the 1st ever Outrigger Canoe race to the Windfarm and back..  has had to be cancelled! This is due to the likely hood of the lovely winds (I never moan about wind unless it is destructive wind.) creating too rough a sea for the canoes to manage ‘side on’. However, in typical Mad Dogs and English-persons style, they now have a Downwinder lined up! The race will consist of four Six Person outriggers starting off from East Beach Littlehampton at approx. 10am (that will depend upon the time it takes the support boats take to get there from Shoreham) with a Pit Stop style Crew Change taking place off of Worthing Pier (no real time but we would guess around 11.15am) and then the finish line being at Shoreham Yacht Club facility in the Adur Estuary, which they are guessing to be at approx.12.30pm. This is still going to be a hard and possibly ‘awkward’ paddle, as although they will have the wind with them, the tidal flow will be against them, which could create a very choppy sea (I’m sure they can all swim!). 

 If you are out on the water do go and give them a bit of verbal support but please don’t get in their way, as Jon and Rich Ellman are on one of the boats and they won’t stop for anything! 

If you can’t make it Tomo don’t worry as another ‘first’ (as far as we know) is planned for Sunday, which is the One Person Outrigger Canoe Surf Contest. This is going to be held off of Beach Green (where the beach huts are in the centre of the beach) and the start time is around 1.00pm. The tide should be about right for a fairly constant stream of windblown waves for them to perform on.

There’s also a River Race planned so plenty to enjoy during the day if you cannot get out on the water yourself.  Evening wise the event has live music at the SYC and again is open to non-members. but hey, why not join! So, there are many things ‘water based’ to keep everyone happy and thanks to everyone at the SYC for getting it all going. You can check out ‘everything’ at the events website by Clicking Here!

Good luck to those taking part and we hope the weather is as kind to them, as it can be.

Note. just heard that the SUP events on the river may have to be cancelled due to the wind.

 

Kit Wise, it has been a fairly quiet week for deliveries and for that I am thankful, as you could not get anymore kit in this shop if you tried and we have been trying since 1994! We did however have visits from company reps and one of those was James Connor, the Manager of the UK Importer that handle Severne and Starboard Windsurfing. He came by to bring us up to speed on the Up and Downsides of what they know about 2023 kit. The main worry we had was what the sail price increases were going to be but we were relieved to hear that unless things change drastically the % increase has been kept down to 8%. I was convinced it was going to be around 15% and to be fair I was not far out, as in fact the true increase is 14%, as both we and the Importers are taking a 3% margin cut to soften the blow to the RRP. On a more interesting note, the sails have a new design ethos for this coming year, which I could divulge to you but to be honest I’m scared too, as after we released info on the Pyro Boards ‘early’ we ended up with a call from the Sales Manager of Severne International ‘politely suggesting’ we get it off of our Facebook page. Let’s not go there again. you will all know about ‘lapping’ when they launch 2023. I guess I have written enough for this week and I am sure you want to get on with your evening, so what does the weekend weather have in store? 

 

Saturday, we have a re-run of today. Wind at 13kts gusting 17kts Sou’ West in the morning and building to 18kts gusting 24kts in the afternoon. Allegedly dry with an air temp of 15°C.

Tide hits High at 9.10hrs on a 5.4m (as the greatest amount of water flows on the 3rd and 4th hour of a tidal range, the outriggers are going to have a tough paddle up to the SYC after they have completed the race, so let’s not mention the headwind). Low tide at 3.00pm so a great afternoon for wind-sports at Shoreham but another let down weekend for those that want ‘beach weather’.

Sunday is not a lot different but the winds are lighter in the morning at 9kts gusting 13kts and the direction is from the Sou’Sou’West. Looking dry but more overcast and still at 15°C.

Tide hits High at 10.07hrs on a 5.7m.

 

And that is it.. time to go home. We hope you all have a great weekend and will be here to serve your Watersports needs on both days.

Chin Chin

Picture is of an Outrigger that did a Test run out to the WindFarm a week or so back. Picture courtesy of Jon Ellman-Brown