Recently I got back from from 10 days holiday at Croyde in North Devon, although I actually spent a fair amount of it surfing at Saunton (the next beach along) because it has a more mellow wave.

I have to say that this was the best surfing I've had in over 20 years, the conditions were generally clean and with easy breaking waves which gave me the opportunity to practice without having to worry about wind chop or close outs.

Not only was I getting my shortboard walk-up working (I was using it for practice even though I mostly rode my 8'2!), but I was getting more stacked on the front foot and managed to compress and extend along the wave face.

Frustratingly, on the day I did my best surfing, I had forgotten to take my GoPro with me and I wasn't in the right place to get footage from the surf camera, but Hadyn Wood was there and witnessed it!

I also got to try out a better skate park than my usual one, which I did get some video of (will follow up with this in a later message), but it was depressing when I watched it back, thinking I was getting up the banking with my head low, only to see that the reality was a lot less impressive... 🙁

Oh well, it's an improvement anyway, so I'll take what wins I can get!

And then there are days why you wonder why you bothered to get out of bed... 🙁

So the forecast for Bracklesham was 2-3 ft at 7 seconds with a reasonable amount of push. Not great, but should have been ok and about the best you can generally expect on the south coast of the UK in summer.

There was also a forecast for cross/ onshore winds, but not blowing a hooley.

I looked at the webcams when I woke up early and decided it seemed worth it and headed down there with my 6'11. 

Two mistakes 🙁

The conditions were really messy, almost no decent sets (when there was one, I got caught inside and missed it!) and the rest of the time any semi-good wave ended up with a lump in front of it, spoiling the take off. 

Also I should have gone for the 7'6 or 8'2 board. I did think of taking one of the others, but didn't bother in the end. 

All in all, a totally frustrating experience as I had wanted to practice my shortboard walk-up, but I barely caught any waves in about 90 minutes.

The ones I did went nowhere, even if I managed to get up on them which most of the time I didn't. 

Not a great day of surfing.

I got down to the Pump Track again and this time, although it was sunny, it was a hell of a lot less humid!

I'd been checking out videos on technique and it took me a few goes to get sorted, but, eventually, I managed to achieve a new record distance 👍

Ok, it's not perfect, I'm still too much on the back foot and not getting my head low in the corners (and it was only on this run that I managed to just get over that last big hump!), but I'll take the win 🙂

https://youtu.be/JcSwEbqkzA4