Surfladle

Vive la NHS! They’re still your Best Friend.

 

Evening All! I do hope we all have enjoyed another week of Lockdown as best we can. Time is moving along and I have everything crossed that we will be able to open the doors of the shop in the very near future, which in Covid terms could of course be another couple of months.  Oh well, at least it’s the WEEKEND!  

Friday night and once again these hands are typing away bringing you a little insight into what’s happening in the World of Watersports. Not all of them of course, just those that we deal with. 

 

The long awaited Naish S26 Wings are finally in Europe and we expect delivery to occur in the next few days. The main differences to previous versions are a new shape to compact the wing, with an increased bladder diameter to improve stiffness, plus handles repositioned and.. SMALLER WINDOWS mounted toward the front of the wing so you can fold the kite to pack it away in the back pack… finally that is sorted!  I don’t have the price to hand but they are on par with all of the main contenders and you can be sure that Robby has personally checked every wing before it has been dispatched.. really.. I am sure he does! By the way, this means we now have S25 wings on offer.. give us a call! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!

 

STX SUP boards are in a lorry heading our way from Holland and looking forward to seeing what improvements have been made for 2021. Don’t get me wrong, STX have been a very good product with very few issues, in fact I think it is only three in the last four years, but year on year the boards have got stiffer and lighter..I do hope the Bags are improved as that is the one thing that has not been ’perfect’,  but it’s a bag. Pricing is around the £550.00 mark depending upon the board type and they have an inflatable Wing Board this year, with a price tag of only £529.00. How long before the £599.00 foils though? 

But the biggest thing that happened this week was … that our air temp has gone COLD again and that is the one thing that makes being in the water ‘harsh’. It’s OK when you have either a warm water temp or a warm air temp, as those of you who have visited the Red Sea will know.. dropping into the water to Warm up when a cold wind comes off of the desert is quite common,  as you will get back to a reasonable ‘operating temperature’ quite quickly.  The current sea temp is up from the winter low of 6°C during January to the current 7.8°C, so it is still COLD unless you are an all year swimmer of course. For as long as I can remember an air temp below 10°C have been most people’s ‘cut off’ as far as wind sports are concerned. It’s not so much the discomfort as a good suit is ‘good’ but the hands are the issue as they really do start to suffer, especially when the water is so cold. Losing the ability to grip is something you really do not want to happen when your life depends upon it.  We are still awaiting the perfect solution (windsurfing in particular.. open palm mitts are as good as it gets ) but there is one thing that can really help, so I would be really grateful if this Northerly Air flow would ‘go somewhere else’ !

And now to the weekends tides and weather…

Saturday’s High is at 14.58hrs on a 5.2m. Winds are from the Nor West 6kts and overcast.. Temps up to 9°C.. could be worse. 

Sunday’s High is at 15.44hrs on a tiny 4.8m. Winds swing to the Nor ‘East at 10kts and sunny spells. Temp is a raging 10°C! 

 

And that is it for another Friday evening. I hope it has not been too long winded and that something was of slight interest.. just be glad that you have not had to sit here and write it! 

Have a great weekend and really can’t wait to be Open All Hours again! It’s been a funny old day…