0630 and I’m on my way down to south beach with the Rrrapido. Not because I was expecting a surf but because I didn’t have time for a long paddle and it was a bit windy for a fish and I wanted to try out my new purchase.
Back in high school we had an occasional lesson taken by a supply teacher, Mr O’Neill. Now Mr o’ Neill invariably sported tweed and looked like an emaciated Gandalf with his wizened beard. Tweed has never suited me and fortunately another Mr O’Neill, Jack O’Neill to be precise, was also un-tweed like when he went into production with the first wetsuit using neoprene. After lengthy consideration (about four days which is pretty long for me) I decided that I was going to stop wearing a drysuit when surf yakking and ignore tweed in favour of a nice winter wetsuit. A 5/3 steamer was settled upon after much advice (‘Andy, what wetsuit do I need for winter?’ ‘A 5/3 steamer.’ ‘Cheers’.) Come Wednesday I was on a delivery down to Shore Watersports in East Wittering and, apparently being the UK’s largest wetsuit retailer, I came away with an O’Neill Psycho 2 5/3 steamer to wear, a tad over budget admittedly but what the hell, it’s only money.
So I wanted to wear it.
The sky was just getting light when I arrived and had that orange/pink glow so beloved of my mornings on the water. The sun wasn’t yet over the horizon as I launched and paddled out. Hopefully the wetsuit would be as warm as I required…
There weren’t any waves really, just small chop and so I paddled around, from the launch up to the south pier then back to the Claremont pier, through it and then back to the launch.
I picked up a few small waves, missed most and just spent an hour enjoying a bit of a time-wasting tonic.
I rode some bits in and wandered off the beach and home. I was most pleased to have the board to protect my modesty while crossing the road though, our local mincing camp gentleman clearly relished the sight of a new slim snapper in sexy neoprene…every contour clearly defined. If only my wife was as impressed ;D I mean, how could you not fancy this?
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