Surfladle

 

Due to the rather ‘damp’ weather, I went to the pictures one evening this week, which was the first time in a while.. to see BARBIE!  Now, I have been caught out by my wife on a few occasions regarding the content of the film we are off to see, as per ‘Into the Woods’ (sold to me as a Johnny Depp film) which turned out to be a musical but in this case it was hard to be deceived by the title. I went with a tongue in cheek attitude as you knew it was going to be the sort of film that Mums and Daughters will giggle over but we were both slightly taken back, as the story line went off somewhere we did not expect. I won’t spoil the film by ‘telling all’ but if I just say that even  ‘2001’ has a part within this film, it might give you an idea. 

I guess by now you are all wondering why I am rambling on about something which has absolutely nothing to do with water sports? It’s because I could not think of a link to get me to ‘Alan’, who I’m sure ‘you all know’ was Ken’s best friend.. ah come on.. *we all played ‘Ken’ to keep the daughter happy! So, Alan…

 

Alan is a customer who makes us laugh a lot. He owned a company involved with the ‘high end’ of the print industry during the heady days of Princess Di etc. and he has plenty of stories to tell. Anyhow, he came along to the shop today to collect a nice new windsurf board rarely seen in the UK. The board was a Goya Volar 100lt, which is a Freeride board with single fin. I say rare as I have never seen a 100lt , perhaps as it’s not the type of board used locally ( but perhaps should be) and he had hunted for a used one for ages. He owns the 115lt and he  loves it (he has also owned Goya Ones, Severne Fox and Dyno’s , so he knows his boards). You may recall that I have mentioned Alan before, as he often complains to us that we seem to have 30kt winds or nothing down on the South Coast (true this year!). Alan lives in Orpington and mainly uses the Kent beaches as his local destination but has always been intrigued by Shoreham’s ‘reputation’ and wanted to give it a go, even though he felt slightly intimidated by the conditions we have down here. I recently put him in touch with the local WhatsApp group and he has loved seeing the banter and how enthused the participants are (but slightly confused by the slang names for the local beaches they use) so after he collected the board he headed down to Widewater for a coffee and a looksee before heading back up ‘North’. OK, this is what I am getting to… Shoreham has a reputation as a bit of a ‘High End’ venue, where everyone loops and rides waves all day, so people like Alan feel a bit ‘reserved’ about coming along. Today he met two locals, Jan and Simon, who both chatted with him on the beach and gave him the low down on the sailing here. They persuaded Alan that he would be fine, so he gave it a go. He called me this evening to say that he’d had a really great day. He loved the Volar 100 (wish I had the time to take a pic of him with it now) and thanks to the friendliness of Jan and Si, he finally got wet at Shoreham, even if it was only 40mins on the water before the wind increased (not 30kts luckily). I was chuffed to hear this as it’s what this beach and the people has always been about.. friendly and welcoming to everyone. Well done Jan and Si and glad you got wet Alan! 

So, how wet will we get this weekend??  Time for the weekend weather and Tide times..

 

Saturday we have wind.. Sou ‘West 18 – 28kts during the morning and then increasing 25-31kts during the afternoon. Wet’ness is due to fall early morning but should clear by 9am, which might screw up the Boot Sale on the Rec but that appears to be it for the weekend!

Tide is High at 08.40hrs on a 5.0m, so Shoreham will be good from around 10.40hrs (watch out for sideways currents close to shore) but sadly the 5m Tide will not give much sand for Dog Walkers to enjoy. 

 

Sunday is pretty much a re-run of Saturday but no rain shown at the mo and the wind might be a little more Westerly in the morning. That will continue through Monday and Tuesday so a forecast for Four Days of Fun, if wind is your thing (and four of crap if you are camping).

Tide is High at 09.48hrs on a 5.3m, which will be better for sand!

 

And at the end of this weekend, July is done and August is upon us. I do hope we get a couple of weeks of Sun during the hols, as I know there are a lot of people with SUP boards who really would like to have a bit of Summer Fun on them, down at the beach. As for wind lovers, I have loaded up more Used sails on www.surfladle.com today and we are ‘slowly’ adding products as QUICKLY as we can to our Virtual Shop.  You can of course come along to the Real Shop.. 9.30 – 5.30pm Saturday and then 10- 4.00pm Sunday.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.. I’m off to the Pub to get myself a pint of Barbie Antidote! Cheery Pip All.

 

*As in using a ‘Ken’ Doll and having to pretend to be ‘Ken’.. you have got to be so careful nowadays!