I wonder if we can get planning permission for one of these in the back garden.
Anyone who has ever had to put on a cold, wet, smelly wetsuit will know that it isn’t a pleasant experience. It is usually accompanied by howls and much swearing, especially when performed on a cold winters morning in a windswept car park. We’ve all been there and it isn’t nice.
However, I can’t remember the last time I had to do it as I now always tumble dry my wetsuit before putting it on. I can’t tell you how much nicer it is, especially if it has just that second come out of the tumble drier. I usually tumble dry it in the hot setting so not only does it come out dry, but it is piping hot too. Sliding into a hot wetsuit is just so nice, and the extra heat not only warms you up, but it also makes the suit more supple so getting into it is easy.
I know the care instructions on a wetsuit will advise against this, but I’ve been doing it for years without any problems. In fact, it is probably much better for the suit than drying it on the line in the sun where the UV rays will degrade the neoprene.
I’ve just checked my ‘Toy Box’ on Forces-of-Nature where I track my ‘extreme’ sports sessions and equipment usage and my current wetsuit, a C-Skins Wired, is now 4 years old and has been used at least 230 times and is still keeping me warm in the sea. It won’t have been through the tumble drier after every session, but must have been dried at least 100 times and will have had quite a few wash cycles in the washing machine on a normal 40ºC wash as well.
I highly recommend it.
I know it makes a change, but we’ve just had a lovely sunny bank Holiday weekend… One to make a note of as it usually rains on bank holidays! What’s more, we had visitors and had the day off so managed to enjoy the weather as well.
My parents arrived early Sunday afternoon, with my niece Kia and nephew Shaun, so we had a full house. After a BBQ in the garden which went well, we headed across to the beach for a walk. Morgan was on his bike as he wanted to show off his bike-riding skills! After a bit of bike-riding we ended up on the sands and before we knew it the children were getting wet and very sandy!
Monday dawned bright and sunny too so once again, after eggs and bacon for breakfast, it was off to the beach, this time with a wheel-barrow loaded up with stuff ready for a full day there. There was even a little bit of surf so I had a quick surf session before taking Shaun and Kia out in the inflatable canoe. Shaun was a little reluctant to go too far, but Kia seemed to enjoy it, even if I did make sure she got a soaking in the waves!
We played on the beach and in the dunes for a bit more, but by lunchtime it had clouded over so we headed back for lunch and then played in the garden. I set up a hammock between two trees which the children liked and we did a bit of gardening too.
Unfortunately Anna and I are back to work today (Tuesday), but my parents are here for a couple more days so Morgan will be kept fully entertainedf and will have Kia and Shaun to play with too. Shame Anna and I can’t join them.
Sunday morning dawned bright and clear with a little bit of surf, so rather than waste the morning watching the Grand Prix and to give Jay a little rest before the second ride of the weekend we went for a nice little Stand-up-Paddle board session at Ynyslas.
Jay couldn’t quite stand-up so had a knee-down paddle board session, but we both caught some nice little waves. Jay did manage to loose his wedding ring though which wasn’t a great start to the day for him.
After catching up with the events of the Grand Prix whilst Anna, Morgan and Pat were ‘working’ in the garden, Jay and I headed off (Jay somewhat reluctantly!) to ClimachX for another mountain-bike ride.
Jay was suffering from yesterdays ride so we took it easy. Jay took it really easy and was actually overtaken on the first climb by someone walking their dog! Tch tch tch, come on Jay, you can do better than that. He did make it all the way around the ClimachX Trail though, although he was off and pushing quite a bit. I think he enjoyed the final descent and I had a nice leisurely ride around in the sunshine.
All in all a good weekend, probably good for me to have a couple of easy rides as I’m still recovering from illness, and although it was painful I think Jay enjoyed it and will hopefully be back soon for some more!
Jay About to be overtaken by a dog-walker
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Jay on some ClimachX Singletrack
It may only be March but it looks as though summer has arrived early, if if it is only short-lived.
There was plenty of wind forecast for Saturday so the main plan for me was to go windsurfing whilst Anna took Morgan for a swimming lesson. Actually, I wa going to take him originally but the forecast on the day was for wind in the morning dropping later, so I decided to windsurf in the morning rather than later in the day to make the most of the available wind. As it happens, the wind dropped of early than expected so the windsurf session was a bit of a wash out.
So, with no wind, Steve and I headed off for a mountain biking session at ClimachX to the north of Machynlleth. We went around the ClimachX trail first and then did another circuit, this time taking in the Builth Descent. I had a fairly uneventful ride, but loved the final descent and overtook a few people on my way down. Steve’s ride was a little more eventful with a couple of biggish crashes and one or two smaller incidents too.
We congratulated ourselves for your busy day with a curry and some beers that evening.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny and as there was no surf Steve and I headed up to Pendam and had a ride around the route known as ‘Joes back Garden‘. It is a nice fairly remote Cross Country ride with nothing too technical out in the hills between Plynlimon and Angler’s Retreat. Once again Steve had the odd mishap!
Click here for a Google Earth file of Joe’s Back Garden.
Meanwhile at home Anna and Morgan were having a busy day making the most of the sunshine and working in the garden. We then planed to walk across to the beach to help with the Beach Clean. We all went across but as i was greeted with a perfect 2 foot wave I left Anna and morgan to the beach cleaning duties and quickly donned my wetsuit and went for a Stand up paddle Board session.
The beach clean went well though and as we had all once again had a very busy day we treated ourselves to dinner at the Wildfowler.
Let’s hope this weather lasts for a while as it nice to see the sun for a change and nice to be able to send some time outdoors without having to wear too many layers!
After yesterdays successful work-life balance day I couldn’t let it slip today so managed yet another good day. I didn’t get up quite so early today, in fact for a change I managed to stay in bed until about 7am. I think yesterdays epic cycle ride must have tired me out! So, after some housework I settled down to work, went through my e-mails and then had a meeting with a client. By 11am he sun was blazing and the wind had picked up so I headed over to the beach and had a lovely windsurf session with just the right amount of wind and plenty of sunshine.
Back home and another hour or so of work and then off into town to buy a few toys for Morgan (An inflatable canoe, wetsuit and float coat). Collected Morgan from nursery and then headed back to the beach to take him ’surfing’.
OK, so maybe the balance was more towards life than work today but I’m not complaining about that and I am doing a little bit of work this evening as well!
I had a nice surf trip to the Gower this weekend. I got up at 4am on Saturday and drive down there, meeting James, Des, Juan and Mark at the Hillend camp site, Llangenith around 6.30am. They had just set up their tents, depsite having been charged for Friday night as well as Saturday night.. They arrived around 6am so being charged for the precious night was pretty cheeky!.
A quick check of the surf and it looked good so we got ready and headed into the sea. JK had been driving all night so was a little worse for wear and even fell asleep whilst waxing his board! The surf was good, 2-3 foot and really clean. I was surprised to find quite so many people out before it even got light, but guess there hasn’t been much surf recently so everyone had headed to the beach today.
After an excellent surf session we had breakfast at Eddy’s and then went into Llangenith where Mark bought a new board. We then went for a walk along the beach to Burys Holm where we found a geocache. Eventually, later in the afternoon the surf picked up a bit again and we all headed back in for another session. Not quite a big as this morning, but still nice and a good easy session was had with Mark taking photos… Hopefully I’ll get some of these from him to up0load here.
Saturday evening was spent in the pub in Llangenith and then back to the campsite. I couldn’t sleep squashed into a tent between James and Des so got up around 2.30am and sat in the car instead. Sunday dawned without any surf so we had a relaxing breakfast, packed up and headed off home. All in all a good weekend away made even better by the fact that there wasn’t any surf at all in Borth.
Just came across this from the Borth Surf Masters earlier this year…. Just goes to show that the surf here CAN be good from time to time.
