The Surfari continues! After a month around Europe (France, Holland and Turkey) and some job hunting in London I headed up to Scotland to visit Jack at his family home just east of Edinburgh. Given that our families have been friends for almost 30 years it's sort of my second family home too which is a nice thing to have when you're on the other side of the planet!
When Jack was back a couple of years ago he'd done some detective work to suss out the surf spots in the area and discovered there are quite a few bone fide surf spots albeit not particularly consistent (especially in summer). Anyway, Jack had been checking the surf forecasts since he'd been back but there'd not been any swell until I arrived. Hehehe.
We found waves but the first surf wasn't the most pleasant experience! Apart from our diminished surf fitness/agility it was bloody freezing! The water was about 12 degrees and despite all the claims of Scottish people swimming at the beach, etc it was too cold for us. Icey is a word that comes to mind. So, straight to the local surf shop and a 5mm wetty each (plus booties) and we were at least sorted for summer surfing in Scotland. Winter is 6mm wetties, booties, gloves, hood and a warm car (preferably a van - nearly every surfer drives a VW Transporter) in which to get changed. The best surf is in the middle of winter and snow on the ground isn't uncommon.
So I kicked around Jack's mum's house for a total of about 6 weeks while waiting out the recruitment process for my new London job and in that time we probably surfed 6 or 8 sessions at a couple of different spots including Pease Bay. Pease actually got quite good a couple of times and in the winter it can absolutely go off. The novelty aside (surfing in front of a castle is pretty cool even if the surf is average), it was quite a revelation that you can actually surf in the UK! Living in London isn't quite the ideal setup for a surfer but maybe I will get a few waves now and then without having to go home...
