Surfladle

 Are you finding it hard to believe that we are nearly half way through April? The winter rain persists and the temperatures are still below 10°C but we are only two months and one week from mid-summers! Global Warming has a lot to answer for but it is what it is and another weekend awaits us.. thank gawd it’s Friday!

 April is well known for its showers but the deluges this last week have been a little out of keeping with the norm, as were the winds on Wednesday, which most enjoyed during the mornings ‘warm up’ but by the afternoon it had become a constant 40kts and from quite a Southerly direction, which is a bit over the top for most. Sad to see that a young guy lost their life off of Brighton (cause as yet not known but nothing to do with Watersports as far as we understand) but we all know you don’t get two chances if you play with the sea on days like that.

As with most storms which are a quick hit, Noa eventually just ‘switched’ to the West and I guess a few of you may have had a good cross off wave session in the evening (waves were being held up and the tops blown off when I left here at 7pm).  One thing that was ‘good to see’ were  the cloud formations that appeared during Thursday, with a fantastic Mammatus cloud that passed over late afternoon (I think it dropped all of its rain and then hail stones on Storrington.. an incredible amount of water in just 10 minutes!). They say that they are very ominous looking and if yesterday’s ‘performance’ was anything to go by, quite rightly so! If you want to know more about Mammatus, take a look at this link. https://earthsky.org/earth/mammatus-clouds-best-photos-and-info/

The cold weather looks to be continuing into next week as the Nor ‘Easterly winds are back (no that they are any cooler than the Sou’ Wests!) so I guess we won’t be putting the summer wetsuits out just yet…

A customer, from back in the day, wondered into the shop with his family this morning, as part of their three weeks UK tour out of their home in Whakatane, New Zealand  (check how that is pronounced on Google.. it’s the place name that always is remembered if you have visited NZ) . I hate to say this but I ‘think’ it was Pete Collins, as it had been a while and although I will never forget a face, names after 20 years are a problem! His son, who this is all about, is Josh and again I think Pete’s wife’s name is Megan, but if I have it all wrong then I am sure they will let me know! Anyhow, ‘Pete’ and Josh are both mad about Wing Foiling, with Megan also now learning on Pete’s original inflatable F-One. They are so mad about it that they brought their kit over from NZ for the brief ‘tour’, as Josh really wanted to get pics of himself foiling at the places that he had heard about from his Dad and had seen on social media. Josh’s level of WF is pretty high and to the point that he got an entry into the GWA tour (Global Wingsports Association)  that visited Mount Maunganui NZ in 2022 and again in March this year at Tauranga (just down the road). He finished in 20^th place, so that’s a pretty good result for your first World Tour event at 14 years old! He is helped out by Assault Boardriders, who are his local shop and as a point of interest, they have been around even longer than us, as they set up in 1982 (still under the original ownership). I have stepped foot (or flip flop..) in their Mount Maunganui shop but I doubt if they would remember me ,as it was in 1990! I think they had a spilt screen VW camper that had the middle cut out of it outside of the shop but it could have belonged to a customer. Anyway, a shop to visit if you are heading WAY Down Under.

https://www.assault.co.nz/

Josh had been out at Hayling Island last Wednesday morning, which he said was epic and was amazed at how good the windsurfers were, so he has put that in his bucket list of sports to learn, and then I think they went up to Queen Marys reservoir as he wanted the infamous pic of ‘sailing’ in front of Windsor Castle. At this point I should be loading the pic onto the blog but although Dicky Head said to Megan that she should send them to the Mags etc.. he didn’t say send one to him! I hope to see them before they leave and promise to get the pic for then. I would post a pic of Josh from the NZ Herald but after we were ‘charged’ for using a pic on the web,  no way Jose, so here is the link to the article about Josh. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/local-focus-wingfoil-world-tour-descends-on-mount-maunganui/LS7TFKD37BFUJHTNYWV4LIRIEA/

So, I hope you enjoyed a little bit of  ‘What’s happening on the other side of the World’ and  if you do plan a trip to NZ (you really should, lovely place to go!) then make a note of visiting the Collins in ‘Whakatane’ and Assault Boardriders in Mt. Maunganui or Tauranga. You can ask them if I got their names right…

And that is that for this week so let’s see what the weather has in store for our weekend in El Paradisio!

Saturday, it’s Nor’West going Northerly at 13 -20kts, so not quite what we would have hoped for. Tide is High at 07.47hrs on a 4.8 Neap, again not great and the weather is 10 -12°C but DRY! There could be a small wave for SUP’s to play on and I guess Wings might brave the mud on the Estuary. Seaford could be good for Wings as well, as long as you are happy to go out in offshore conditions. Might be worth a look.

Sunday, is looking to be a very light wind day and cyclonic, with a Sou’ East setting in during the afternoon but only 7kts. No rain mentioned, which will be nice. Tide is High at 09.07hrs on a 5.2m, so slightly better for dog walking.

And that truly is it for this week. I hope your weekend is a fun one and if we can be of help with that, we are here on both days, as usual. Cheers!