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 

For anyone in the UK, Surfers Against Sewage are organising countrywide paddle-out protests to complain about the state of our rivers and seas next Saturday, the 17th of May.

https://www.sas.org.uk/water-quality/our-water-quality-campaigns/paddleoutprotest/

I'm planning to be at the Hayling Island event, look for the guy with long grey hair in a pony tail 🙂