Yes, I’m Shore…30/06/2012

Yes, I’m Shore…30/06/2012 30th Birthday. Not a person but Shore Watersports in East Wittering. I like Shore, they offer coffee to drivers and their weekend demo is always a great event with coffee, bacon rolls, barbecue, hot and cold running pretty girls and loads of distributors with surfboards, SUPs, kayaks and even kitesurfing gear this time. It’s party time when Shore have their demo! So, I worked the night before, got on the water, loaded the van and ran all the way down to Port Solent. I have no idea how much coffee I consumed in the twenty four hours preceding my arrival but what I can honestly say was it was just the right amount – I finally felt tired just before I arrived which ensured the best night’s sleep in a week, a whole seven hours… …until 6am when I dragged myself into the land of the living and, half an hoyur later, set of ridiculously early to ensure I’d arrive in time to set up knowing that the Goodwood Festival of Congestion was on. I was second there, beaten only by Stuart from Tiki who I’d spent a lot of last year’s demo chatting to and who’d given me my first and only surf lesson. The sea was shocking, tide was right up and the wind was howling with an onshore 25knot blow. It didn’t bode well. For the demo or the gazebo Andy insisted I bring and which I lashed securely to the side of the van in whose lee I set it. All set up I looked at the water and though some early bird locals were having a good time surf yakking my enthusiasm wasn’t there…yet. But hey, it’s me I’m talking about and it wasn’t long before I had assembled my surf paddle, grabbed the demo YakBoard and launched. I wasn’t allt hat confident I’d get out and wished I was wearing goggles as every dam wave sprayed into my eyes as I broke out with much effort and not a little swearing. A couple of hundred yards out I settled down and waited for waves. It was messy and short but every now and then a nicely-shaped wave came through but with my position being out time and again due to the unpredictability I was struggling to catch anything that I could really play with and with lots of false starts and turns to go back for another one when it died off I was starting to get despondent. Until it came right. I paddled, caught the face as it reared up and I was running down to the bottom. No thigh straps and lacking the performance I’ve got used to on the RRRapido but with the extra skills I’ve managed to develop on the latter I decided to give a bottom turn a go and see if I could carve it…and briefly, for maybe five seconds, I did until the mush came as I reached the shore dump and I braced into it with the YakBoard being pushed out from beneath me. wipe out. I repeated this five minutes later and with one last go before any punters turned up I caught a better wave and with a bottom turn, carve (or the best approximation I’d get today) and a bit of a bongo slide I turned into shore just before the dump and carried on all the way up to the beach. Right. That was that done then, the first of the demo yaks had been wetted and I’d shown the competition that at least one of us was stupid enough to get wet in this wind! Now, this does have a work-based reason too. Like the meteorogical flights that went up over Europe before the bombers were sent over during the war (but in no way a comparison) it’s vital to know just what is happening on the water when conditions are shit for the inexperienced and they are wanting to take your kayaks out. I now knew where they had to get to and where they would struggle and this information was passed on to some of the others too. I suppose you could, somehow, justify it as risk assessment. Health and safety gone mad? Look into my eyes!!! Well, as the tide dropped the sea, though still rough and surfable, became more conducive to letting people out on and go out they did. Spending as much time upside down as upright it was fun to watch and the on-water stuff had their hands full. At least the surfers were coping. Finally making it through the traffic from the festival of spped, Dan and Dee arrived. A chat ensued before Dan squeezed into his drysuit and took the Scrambler 11 out while I jumped on the Scupper Pro for a quick blast in the waves. Neither of us really stood much chance and spent a bit of time swimming wheenever we got dumped off waves. I changed over to the Yakboard again with more success and after a short while we both returned to the beach. Richi turned up soon after along with another forum member and so the day passed, chatting, lending out various kayaks and equipment and watching the carnage as more people took to the water. sunday began with a bit of rain again and the wind, supposed to die off, had picked up. High tide and rough water made the lending out of kayaks impossible initially and at first only a windsurfer braved the water. later a couple of surfers wet out and, though feeling a bit cold, I decided on a quick blast on the Yakboard to clear the cobwebs; some others could have done with a similar wake-up after the previous night's partying which i avoided by returning to my hotel for a queit night. The day passed in much the same way as the previous one though it was quiet with the demo kayaks due to conditions and come five o'clock it was time to start heading off for the long drag home through the usual south-coast to london traffic, swelled by the Goodwood visitors. till, i got a nice tan.