Summer........

After what must have been one of the coldest winters I can remember, these recent southerly winds have definitely blown a little bit of warmth back into the country. With a spate of recent after work surfs and the sun making a few appearances, I'm almost getting carried away with myself and thinking about removing the gloves!


Any way, I was sat flicking through my pictures and found this one from last summer.

After a heavy night at the Goldcoat Oceanfest (see photo for evidence!)
Zak "The Jizzer" Lawton and I decided to do the Saunton to Croyde paddle race. Why we thought of doing it i'll never know. Both nursing mild hangovers, we arrived at the beach, to see the usual suspects, Cotty, Tim Tanton etc and a load of surf life savers. The criteria stated that you must race on a surfboard 10ft or under, so I arrived with a heavy 9'6 single fin, borrowed from the one and only JL.


There were 30 of us in total, ready for the race, the sea was like a pond (which made it 10x easier!). Both Zak and I thought we'd get destroyed, but much to out surprise as we turned the point we were tieing for first place with Cotty. Maybe we got a little over excited, because as we turned for Croyde, Cotty powered off like Greyhound after a hare. It left Zak and I to battle it out, I got lazy and tired and let him slip away to beat me to the beach by about 10m. Then as i hit the sand and looked at the sprint finish to the top of beach, I remembered "I used to be a runner!", sprinted past a gutted Lawton and took 2nd.





Both of us were stoked in the end, as I won £100 and Zak got £50. So there all those years of training for athletics paid off!





The question is, will I do the race again this year?