This is something that's only obliquely surfing related, however I thought people might be interested (it's a bit of a long story, but stick with it 🙂 )

Part 1: When I was surfing at Croyde last week, I managed to flatten the battery on my car fob (I'd lain on it in the Aquapac inside my wetsuit) and had all sorts of problems getting into the car.

So I went to a local supermarket to see if they carried spare batteries. They didn't, but a bloke behind the counter said "I'm a nice guy, I think I've got one in my car, hang on..."

A few minutes later he comes back with the battery, so I say "What do I owe you?"

He says "Don't worry about it."

So I said "Ok, how about I give some money to the RNLI?"

"Sure," he says.

(The RNLI is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution whose volunteers are present on Croyde Beach during the daytime in the summer to help surfers and bathers.)

So, no problems, I make a note to do this...

Part 2: Yesterday, on X/Twitter, someone made an obscure and arcane reference in a reply. I happened to recognise what they were talking about and made a joking response in a similar vein.

To my amazement they then said "I'd made myself a deal that if anyone got one of my references, I'd donate $100 to their favourite (genuine) charity."

"Seriously?!"

"Yes."

"Ok, give to the RNLI!"

So, because a random guy did a stranger a favour, the UK's water safety charity is now $100 better off!

AWESOME! 🤙

Following the last Live Chat, I'm working on Pushing the Shopping Trolley to give myself a bit more height and speed on the ramp.

Any helpful comments or suggestions would be welcomed 🙂

https://youtu.be/seqb4RGiJRo

Here's a good article, especially for those of us who don't live near "perfect" breaks...

5 Reasons to Stop ‘Checking the Waves’ and Just Go Surfing

https://www.theinertia.com/surf/5-reasons-stop-checking-waves-just-go/

I've been working on my surf skating, trying to get the timing right on the transitions so I can pump for speed.

This is my best effort to date, I'm actually managing to keep it going for almost a minute (the video is shorter!)

Once I've got the timing, I'm hoping to be able to get my head lower.

If anyone has any advice or suggestions on how I can improve things, please do post them here.

PS what's disappointing is that, when I'm on the board, it feels like I'm getting almost to the top of the bank, but when I look at the video, I'm barely getting half way up 🙁

https://youtu.be/7FUvmcCVI34

Jeremy Dean  A couple of comments on these Forums that I hope you might be able to help with.

1) There are no Paragraph Breaks. I have just written this with two "returns" after "sort out." to leave a blank line in order to help readability but it all turns into one solid block of text. (Two more Returns here!)

2) The default for replies to posts appears to be Sorted by Popular, but it would be much better if it was Sorted by New so the responses stay in order, making the context clearer.

I hope you can look into this.

Jeremy Dean  I'm just wondering if the Local Groups (eg UK Surfers, North Devon Surfers etc) are going to be carried over to here?

Sometimes it's the simplest or smallest things...

I've been trying to get my shortboard walk up working, ie pushing up onto my knees, rather than my toes for when I'm using a smaller board.

When I'm at home, I can practice it on the carpet, no problems, it works fine, but today I, again, couldn't get it to work.

Because of the conditions (small, a bit messy) I was using my 7'6 board which is about the shortest I can do the "toes" method, but trying to avoid doing that.

Except, every time I walked up, I was finding I still not using my knees and I couldn't figure out why, even though, before I went out, I'd practiced on the beach and it had been fine.

So eventually I rode a wave back in, put the board on the beach and tried again, seeing if I could figure out what I was doing differently.

And suddenly it clicked!

When I was on the waves, my hands were coming a bit further forward on the board so they were under my shoulders, but when I was practicing on the beach, they were down by my lower ribs!

So I went back out again and, ok, it wasn't perfect, but I was definitely using my knee/ shin much more 👍

I'll have to practice more to get it drilled it, but it's amazing how much a few inches difference in hand placement can change things 🙂

Is it possible to get an alternative Display Skin for these Forums?

I find white text on a black background rather difficult to read and it would be much easier if there was an option to switch to black text/ white background.

Thanks.