Bad Habits

It's felt like ages since there has been a decent wave - and I just don't seem to be revved up for flat water stuff at the moment. The forcasts for the week leading up to the bank holiday suggested that a smallish pulse would show up Thursday, BBC weather charts backed this up with a break in the high pressure and rain towards the end of the week.

So Wednesday evening I trotted off to Gwithian to find the tide full and a decent little swell pushing through. I surfed in the corner of the beach by the steps, and was the last man Gwithian side - Godrevy was rammed and some of the guys I spoke to who were coming back from there said that there was almost fighting going on in the line up. Line up!! That's a joke 200 people chasing three peaks - can't see the point of that anymore. There were two guys on mini-mals and myself Gwithian side of the mid beach rock - no hassle, plenty of banter and decent waves although it was a bit fat for the mals to get into.

Thursday saw the return visit after work and the swell had picked up a bit - the later tide meant it had to be Pete's Point. What a session - I pretty much had the place to myself - still no sign of rain in fact it was bloody hot. I surfed on until 9 and then paddled back to The steps at Gwithian - it must have been 9.30 when I got out - still light just knackered.

Friday night it had dropped off a bit plus the later tide did not do me any favours - the waves seem to jack up a bit better and hour after high at Pete's. Still decent little soul session and a good work out.

Things that I need to work on (the bad habits).

Because the SUP is so easy and the rides are sooooo long I am getting greedy and 'hang' on to the wave past it's sell by date instead of kicking out before the wave crumbles. Probebly trying to pull off that ultimate floater - anyway net result is I end up in the white soup with nowhere to go and no control (fins dont bite in foam). This is not a problem other than after a decent ride I end up falling off in Knee high foam and looking like a cock (kook)!! Plus should anyone be inside of me - well best not think about that. So I have to remember kick out on the green - stay standing - paddle away - look cool. (for a fat boy).

Next issue - I have gotten into the habit of changing sides on my last couple of paddle strokes before dropping in to a wave - this usually results in the wave passing me by - I know why I do it and I know how to stop it but it's a habit that is hard to break at the moment. The 9'8" does not have the glide of the JL11 so I tend to drop in a bit later as I cant get up to and maintain the wave speed as easily. Beacause there is more yaw on the 9'8 I tend to paddle parallel to the on coming wave sometimes even slightly towards it and take the last few strokes to turn the board and drop in. Easy. However if the the wind (or the swell) is not behind you I try to correct the last power stroke by changing sides the board slows up a bit and the wave gets away. Lesson to be learnt here is suss out the swell direction and use that to help keep the speed up.

Saturday night - Thai meal and enough beer to convince me to go up the Bucket for more - Sunday - huge hangover - lazy lie in and a text from Gavin - Jimmy Lewis demo day at Gwithian - not at my best - anyway dragged myself up there and met some really nice guys Olaus and his brother - Pete from West Country Watersports - Bill from Satorial - Steve Carter from Sunset - Gary the South African ripping it up on a JL11 plus loads of first timers. The swell was a good size but the chop was making life difficult - managed to get a couple of decent sessions in the better one being late in the day. Didn't manage to get a ride on the Jimmy 10'4 but Olaus offered me a bash on his 10'r sometime. Good day really social - no fighting.

Surfed out sleep depravation??

Don't really know where to go with the blog now - I can't imagine that anyone really wants to read 'I got up - and it was sunny - and I went for a paddle - and it was knee high' blah blah blah - so I was thinking about knocking it on the head. It was always intended to be a 'start up' journey. It's nice to read about Blane Chambers dropping into 15' Waimea - blindfolded - and Laird Hamilton paddling to the moon and back and Adam Zervas 'busting up' the Cribbar, but although it inspired me to start paddle boarding it didn't really help me how to do it. I wanted to see, actually I wanted to know that people were falling off and smacking there head on their boards and falling off and pulling their shoulders and falling off and stuff just like I was. So that's how this started. Plus - I had a ULI - a blow up inflatable, full on stand up paddle board, and it was so much fun I thought that others might like to be turned on to it as well.

So as I start thinking about stopping the blog - I notice that people are referring to it and asking me stuff not because they think that I am an expert - WHICH I MOST DEFINITELY AM NOT but because people like to talk and swap ideas and simply get another viewpoint - without a vested interest. And that's made me feel that the blog is worthwhile - so unfortunately for you guys - for the time being I will ramble on . . . and on . . and on . . ZZZzzzzz...

So anyone had so much paddle surfing that they hurt - not bad injured hurt - just that fully knackered all over muscle ache that makes it had to find a comfy spot in the bed at night. I have had a few sessions now, usually over a couple of days when I put in two or three hours each time and am just in bits the next day.

Quick lay person's lesson on sports nutrition follows - the body generally stores muscle fuel in the form of Glycogen in the liver. This is usually enough following a decent meal to sustain about forty minutes or so of fairly intensive exercise after this point you either put more fuel into the body in the form of carbohydrates (difficult noshing on energy bars, gels or paste when it's 3' and clean), or the body has to turn to an alternate fuel source to fire its muscles - this fuel is body fat. Perfect - go paddle surfing don't eat anything loose weight - right ?? Well sort of. Converting fat to fuel is a very S L O W reaction essentially you burn fat but not at a speed that will keep the muscles happy unless you ease up on the effort. Muscles treated this way need repairing this repair needs protein and the best time for muscle repair is nightime - sleep is the time the body resets and repairs.

Again I'm not an expert on this stuff so if you are and I've got it wrong please correct me my knowledge comes from a few endurance cycle events and triathlons.

'Where the hell is he going with this?' you are probably thinking - well I found some stuff that helps me and having tried it a few times and tried not using it I am fairly satisfied that it pretty much does what it says' on the tin.

SIS NOCTE - basically it's a protein milk shake that you drink (cold in my case) 30 minutes before bedtime. Not sure if it helps me sleep better but I definitely feel sharper next day - still sore but more 'worked' than w£^ked - if you get my drift.

I don't believe in crystals or witchcraft or alien abduction or have any direct financial interest in SIS (science in sport) but I think this stuff works - I wouldn't use it every time, only when I'm toast. Might be worth buying / trying a sachet - at a £1 a pop I think its worth a wiggle.

Still with me? - Had couple of sessions this week - mellow little surf at Sennen Cove with Gavin on Monday night so hot I almost left my wetsuit on the beach. The wave was bairly knee high occasional set at waist high - beautiful evening and the water at Sennen is always so clear - stayed in till dark. Bit of a laugh and Gavin is really getting to grips with his 9'er now (still laugh at him when he falls off though).

Tuesday night I jumped in after work at Gwithian. The forecast looked sound four feet at ten seconds - trouble was everyone else thought the same - I think that you could have walked from Godrevy to Gwithian on surfboards - it was very hard to find space. Few good waves but hard going again knee to waist high, and then as the tide pushed up building the swell slightly - so did the wind - bang offshore but stiff.

So I went home and mixed a Nocte chocolate milk shake !!!

Now I'm desparate for a decent - big scary - clean wave.

Sometimes it's just crap

Good things?

The water is warming up - can't say that I've actually been cold all winter though. I have not been out of my summer Billabong (cheapie)but this week saw me loose the rashie and the boots - yippee - like sex without a condom - class. So that was nice!

So there was a couple of evening knee high sessions 'out the front' of Gwithian car park one of which was just one of those 'Hell we are here lets do it' things when normally you just wouldn't go in - part of the sesh saw Steve from Sunset Surf lend his board to a lass who was longboarding. She loved it and her pal was eyeing up her mates progress to the extent that I thought Steve was going to loose his board for an hour. Sooo I lent her mine - 10 minutes and she was doing it - on waves - fantastic. But this meant that I had to ride 'Tinkerbell' for 20 minutes. 'Tinkerbell' was / is a 9'2" x 22" Pink lonboard. Looked so narrow when I got on but suprise suprise first wave I was off - it was so easy. I have not been on a prone surfboard since October. Hell It was fun - Sssshhh don't tell anyone.

I had an early morning (Sunday I think) surf with Gavin)- looked bad - wasn't good but was worth having - and ended up with one of the longest nose rides ok so it was a cheater five but hell I was stoked. Ended up with a three hour session in the morning and almost the same in the evening - Monday I blanked but I was so beat I didn't sleep well. Fantastic.

Bad things?

Sorted my board store out on Monday and F*5&%ing - bl$6dy - sh"7 - Bas7&££ing C8$k s&*king p6££!!!! I found a ding in the rail of my Starboard. God knows whats happening - it seems that I only have to fart in the vicinity of the board and the paint cracks. Might be me but I thrashed about on the Jimmy Lewis for months with hardly a mark.
Heh Ho. If anyone actually reads this and has a sport/tuf/deck/skin/organ/bollox/proper board let me know what they think. Perhaps I'm heavy handed with it but I just use it like any of my other boards.

I also have some foot impresions on the deck - that,s down to me being a fatty though - my ULI gets rammed up the beach without a mark. Am I whinging???

(I thought it prudent to ergh Moderate my rant a bit the board has to be 'dung'!! to be dinged and the fact remains - it's a stunning board plus it looked a bit harsh when I sobered up - apologies)

Family stuff/sh17 happening all for wrong reasons - that's crap as well - surfing suffers along with everything else - priorities. Next few days are not looking particularly fantastic on the wave front.

Come on people engage with this - it helps everyone hungry for information.