Surfladle

Ola!  it’s here, Friday evening and after another week of your nose being at the grind stone, you get two whole days off, often referred to as  the Weekend!

 

 And not a bad week all told, apart from the rather heavy rainfall on Tuesday (typically another day off in the rain) and also on the  Wednesday,  but then Thursday made it feel like SUMMER had arrived. It really was nice to ‘feel’ a 14°C temp, even if it was just for a few hours!  If you have been lucky enough to grab a short break to the Canaries or perhaps a slightly longer one to Cape town during the last couple of months, you will be feeling OK anyhow, but if you have been UK bound all winter, 14°C is truly wonderful! Sad that it did not last but we are still in mid-February. 

 

It's also sad to hear that the UK is still in recession (not that we needed to be told ..) especially as we are in a General Election year and have to make the awful decision of who will do the best job for the UK and all of its Citizens. The World may laugh at the Americans choice of Presidential candidates (not sure if it’s funny..)  but is our position any better? The choice is not looking exactly exciting and rather limited, regarding ‘hope’ for a vibrant UK. It’s a good job that we have our British sense of humour. How about a Happy Ending story?

 

Back in September 2023 , a customer had all of his five masts half ‘inched from the back of his van, which is never a nice experience. In this instance, it was just prior to him heading off to Ireland for a two-week Wave’cation! As they were only a few months old and of the very expensive variety, we posted the theft on Facebook, asking fellow windsurfers to keep an eye out (horrible saying..) in case they should turn up on eBay, or the like.  As you would expect, nothing emerged, so after grabbing the last stock and demo masts that we had, plus stopping off at a shop in Wales to collect another, he was on his way to Ireland. End of story, or so I thought.. but five months later (last Saturday to be exact) we received an email from a chap saying that he had been looking at a set of masts on Marketplace and thought the price they were being offered at was ‘too good to be true’, so he searched the web and came across our post and forwarded us the link to the advert. This info I passed onto the customer (who was out with a bunch of mates on their mountain bikes) and after a couple of phone calls and various messages, he and his posse were in a car, heading to a post code where the masts vendor had directed them to. I can’t be too exact in what happened from there in, as the police may still be investigating due to the number of items ‘ listed’ by this vendor. They arrived at the post code, messaged the vendor that they were there and shortly after were waved into a shop (not a Watersports shop) and led into a backroom. Low and behold there were the masts, which it took the customer just a few seconds to confirm as his. Needless to say, it could have turned ‘nasty’ when our customer announced they were his belongings and that he was taking them but after a bit of a push and a shove, plus the vendor becoming aware that a local Police Force Officer was listening in, the vendor decided they were in fact Free of Charge and let the customer take them away. What a result! It’s great when the Good Guys win for a change. It’s also nice that the guy that emailed will win as well, as he is getting a reward for his honesty, rather than grabbing himself a ‘Hot’  bargain! Don’t you just love a happy ending. Talking of Hot…

 

We have a couple of rather lovely Neil Pryde Ladies Serene Wetsuits, which are not quite what they should be . The story begins when we ordered in a Serene 4/3mm suit for a local Lady, which duly arrived and was collected (she knew the sizing was right,  otherwise we would have asked her to try it on at the shop to check the fit). She and then we were rather shocked, as when she opened the suit she found that the Hot Cell lining she thought she would have (as per the website) was not there but  the more expensive Tech Zag lining was, which is only found in the Storm and Combat wetsuits. These suits retail at £479.00 and up, so she had a real bargain you would think, but sadly not for this Lady, as she had already purchased a Storm suit and wanted a step down in thermal quality. So, we got on the phone to Pryde and after an email or two, Pryde Europe confirmed that this suit was from a batch of pre-production suits that should not have been in with the stock suits and the Hot Cell was the correct lining. Another suit was on its way and they asked us to please apologise to the customer. Well, can you believe it.. the next suit arrived with the same Tech Zag lining (we checked this time..). So, back on the phone and the ‘Main Man’ in Germany was brought in, to see what was going on and why German Efficiency had failed our customer. It turned out that these pre-production suits, that are generally distributed to Team Riders and School Principals etc. (perfectly good suits but not as per the final spec) had inadvertently  been put in with the stock suits and we were unlucky enough to have had the only two! Anyhow, suit number three arrived and that was the exact Serene Suit spec that she wanted, plus a nice Neil Pryde Tee shirt as well, as  a ‘we are sorry’, so the Lady is now happy. We however, have 2 x  size 40/L ‘Serenely Stormy’ Front Zip wetsuits to move, so if anyone ladies out there are looking for a very nice and warm 4/3’ish Front Zip Wetsuit, you can have one for just £199.00! Full warranty, so no nasty hitches. That has to be a great Buy. Specs can be found here.. https://www.neilpryde.com/products/serene-4-3-fullsuit-gbs-fz but please note.. the lining is different!!

 

Two stories in one night.. kids would kill for that! Now for another fairy tale, which is the weather forecast for this weekend and also the Tide times, which are strangely TRUE! 

 

Saturday, the wind is from the Sou’West 10-14kt for most of the day with a possibility of a shower around 9am but otherwise dry and a top temp of 10°C. High Tide is at 16.50hrs on a 5.1m Neap, which means Low will be around midday (perfect for Shoreham) but the tide will not go out much further than the end of the rock groynes. This could be good for foil launching & landing, as the water depth required won’t be far from the shoreline. Not a great tide height for paddling or foiling in the estuary, as it  won’t have anything like the amount of water it has over the last week or so.

 

Sunday sees a wet and windy start to the day but if the forecast is correct the Sou’West 19-25kt wind will drop off during the morning and back West’Nor’West 9-12kt during the afternoon. If their timing is out and the stronger wind runs later into the day, that would be ‘nice’. Tide is High at 18.04hrs on a tiny 4.7m Neap, so very little tidal movement and hardly any sand to walk your dog along.

 

Ok, that is it for this week (not that you have to read it!) but I will be back in the morning to post the Shakey Saturday Beach Vid and update the weather outlook if ness. Next week is looking windy from Tuesday on, as we head to the ‘Polar Snow Bomb’ that the Press seems to be harping on about, for the week after. Until then, have a great weekend!

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