Road Trip - Come on!!!

Thursday night see's us loading the van up and catching the Plymouth - Roscoff night crossing - should be on the road in France by 8am Friday and if the current forcasts hold good we could be surfing La Torch by 11.00am as our first stop


Fri
17/10
6am 6ft 11secs 4mph 9°C

9am 6ft 11secs 4mph 10°C

12pm 6ft 11secs 3mph 13°C

3pm 5.5ft 11secs 2mph 14°C

Sat
18/10
9am 4.5ft 9secs 5mph 12°C

12pm 4.5ft 9secs 4mph 14°C

3pm 4ft 9secs 4mph 14°C

Sun
19/10
9am 6ft 13secs 6mph 8°C

12pm 6ft 13secs 8mph 14°C

3pm 5.5ft 12secs 10mph 16°C

Mon
20/10
9am 6ft 12secs 13mph 16°C

12pm 7ft 12secs 15mph 19°C

3pm 7.5ft 12secs 13mph 19°C

6pm 8.5ft 12secs 8mph 16°C

9pm 9.5ft 12secs 8mph 15°C

Now I'm no expert but these look like a pretty good set of figures to me - if it all pans out we should be pretty much knackered by Monday when we might think about driving a bit further South - just don't see the point in driving past perfectly good waves though.

Three of us going, Andru and Red who both surf regular prone and me on my Standup. We are stopping wherever there's surf (forcasts looking ace) and camping where ever we can. Those guys are taking one board each (not enough room in the van for more) I'm taking three Standups two Uli's and my lovely new C4 (see below) and a spare ULI inflatable surfboard. All the ULI's fit in one bag. How good is that??

One aim for the trip - to turn them to the darkside or at least introduce them to it's merits - 10 days to change the viewpoint of two totally committed regular surfers who have until now shown a fairly healthy scepticism of Stand Up paddle surfing. I have a plan.


Saturday I traded my my JIMMY LEWIS in for a beautiful blue C4 10 ' diamond tail. I have to admit that I pretty much bought the board by process of elimination and from the trying to 'meld' all the positive elements of the boards that I have ridden - Took it out on Sunday evening - How chuffed am I ??? Got in at Petes' fairly late in the day - tide was high and the swell was a solid chest high - clean but not glass.

Paddled out and the board felt good and stable, the nose although slightly fuller than my BK pro climbed up and over the whitewater easily - made me feel all competent - like, as if I knew what I was doing!!!

Basically it's a bit more stable - still frisky but easily manageable and joy of joys - I could actually stop paddling - not that I did that much - I had wave after wave, back hand - forehand - noserides (see previous posts for my definition) - late drops the lot, bloody marvellous and truly confidence inspiring.

I now have an all round performance board that I am comfortable to turn to whatever the conditions - Fantastic.

That's pretty much it for the moment - this trip to France should mark up my first anniversary of Standup paddle boarding - what a trip it's been to date. I'm a stone (14lbs) lighter than 12 months ago, leaner, surfing harder and more frequently and generally feel a damn site more stoked with my surfing than I ever have done before.

I'll post up some pics when I get back. Au revoir.