We opened up our Instagram for questions and it was awesome! Part 1.
We did one of those ‘Ask us anything’ things on our Instagram and it was great, there were so many awesome questions and responses. I though it would be a great blog post to summarise or expand on some of the points raised. I’ll split it over two blog posts to make it more manageable. Thanks for the questions and I hope the answers offer some insights and honesty.
Favourite place to surf?
We are extremely proud to be longstanding members of the east coast surf community. Starting out in Scarborough nearly 15 years ago now and moving to the north east (Tynemouth) eight years ago. Our regular haunts span about a two hour range from the front door and although its fickle and at times frustrating, we love our home breaks. We have put years and years into learning every inch of the coastline and the conditions each break works best on. We travel to surf lots too and have surfed lots of places, from France, Morocco, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, lots of Central America, Mexico, California and Indonesia.
Home sweet home. It’s the best on its day.
Somewhere on the East Coast rearing it’s rare and ugly head.
Longboarding or Shortboarding?
Each job has a tool that is right for it. Sitting out on knee to waist high days on a high performance shortboard is no fun. Similarly, taking a 9’6 log out in overhead heavy waves isn’t really the tool for the job either. Both can be done but with some compromise. I love longboarding; the dance, the subtlety in the movements, the challenge of riding the nose and the way it turns small, clean days into the most fun session you can imagine.
Similarly, I love bigger more powerful, steeper waves and a shortboard is the tool for that job. I have never aspired to be an aggressive shortboarder so I tend to surf slightly alternative shapes that are more suited to smoother, more cruisey surfing than big whacks and hacks.
Ultimately, as cheesey as this sounds; I feel that I am an eternal student of the waves and feel lucky that I have come at surfing with a holistic approach that has inspired me to try to master all types of surfing and surfboards. My ever evolving quiver has thrusters, singlefins, twinnies, foamies, logs, eggs and everything in between. Selecting the correct tool for the job is the hard bit at times.
No fun on a shortboard, lots of fun on a 9’6 singlefin log.
All things forecasting.
Surf forecasting, particularly in the east coast of the UK is really really important. I cant stress that enough. It’s equally as important as learning to pop-up and trim down a wave. Understanding the environment is the first step in taming it. That is what we are trying to do, step off the land and into an untamable beast and try to do our best to overcome it. The ocean is huge and so powerful, we are nothing compared to it. For centuries sailors and fisherfolk used whatever resources they could to get what they wanted from the sea safely and successfully.
Become a student of the weather systems, learn the patterns, write them down, master all the resources available to us in this modern age. Use Magic Seaweed, Windguru, Windy, Wavenet Bouy, Surfline and anything else that might give you insights. We will host more surf forecasting nights soon.
Key factors - Low pressure systems, swell direction, swell period, wind direction, wind speed, tides.
No hard sell, but our Surf Journal is a book we wrote to give insights into this stuff!
Best Advice for Newbies.
Join our WhatsApp broadcast if you are a woman planning to surf in the North East (scroll to the bottom of this page). We run beginner and intermediate surf lessons for small groups of women mainly from Tynemouth Longsands. These are a great way to get started and to meet new people.
Find a surf buddy, someone to share your elation (and frustrations) with, someone you can push and who can push you. Get in the sea as much as possible. Keep it fun, remember surfing is the whole experience, not just standing up. Immerse yourself in surfing as much as possible!
A still from one of our women’s beginner surf camps. We bring a photographer for photo analysis.
Any tips to stay fit?
This one made me laugh. Yes, there are loads of things you can do. Go swimming, go to the gym to improve cardio, practice Yoga or pilates and get out on a surfboard as much as possible. Drink smoothies and eat a balanced diet and all of that good stuff. There are a bunch of surfers who blog and post about all that stuff online.
I laughed because I do practically none of this stuff. Although I love to practise Yoga, the reality is, I don’t very often. I eat well and don’t smoke at all or drink too much but the gym is definitely not part of my life. I swim occasionally, usually in the weeks before my lifeguard swim test. I surf, loads. Some days with teaching and surfing I clock up over 9 hours in the sea…no exaggeration.
I can’t run a 5k but I can take multiple big sets to the head, paddle for hours and hours, surf and teach all day and still eat a huge pie and chips from the Low Lights on a night. All of which leads me to believe that surfing has got to the be the best training for surfing.
Getting flexible with VC London a couple of years ago.
When do you think it best to switch from a foamie to a hard board?
Chances are you will find the limitations of a foamie fairly quickly. When you are learning to trim down the line or get out back on bigger days or learn to turn you will find it more difficult on a foamie than a hardboard. The challenge with a hardboard is the paddling and catching of waves and popping up on a less stable surface. It’s a worthwhile trade-off to learn this properly on a mini-mal at some point in order to be able to progress your surfing with proper fins, proper rails and a board that can be controlled easily. I think keeping a foamie in the garage if that is a luxury available to you is a good idea for those small fun days, or lending to friends or sharing waves with your kids etc.
A good mini-mal is a good investment in yourself as a surfer. Check this blog out for more on this.
The perfectly coordinated Emilie and her beautiful Visionary X Yonder mini mal.
Tips to up wave count?
Great question. Here are a few insights.
Don’t sit around and wait for waves to come to you. Move around, seek waves out, be active in the water.
Make sure your body positioning is perfect on the board so you are putting in minimum effort for maximum glide to cover ground without getting tired.
Commit to waves, don’t back off at the last minute, paddle hard and don’t hesitate.
Make sure you are on the right board for the conditions.
Learn to be agile on your board. Practice going from a sitting position to paddle position. Practice spinning round and changing direction.
Empty mornings are the best.
Best wetsuits for UK winters.
I am really lucky to have support from Finisterre for my surfing, they have provided me with some wetsuits that I have been wearing - but due to the nature of my job, no company could possibly supply me enough wetsuits for a winter. Some days I get through three wetsuits a day to avoid hypothermia if I am stood in the sea teaching in mid winter and surfing between lessons.
For UK winters you are looking for a built in hood. Fit is really important. A good fit will be the making or breaking of a wetsuit for its warmth and longevity. We all have very different body shapes - finding a company that uses one like yours to design their suits is the challenge. For example, I had the top-end C Skins 6mm last year, great suit, well made - but didn’t keep me warm and didn’t feel flexible. We use the 5/4 CSkins for the surf school however and they are good for a couple of hours with boots, gloves and hoods even in mid-winter.
I’ve had them all. Ones I have gone back to have been -
Finisterre - I wouldn’t take a product that I didn’t believe in. The Finisterre suit is only 4mm which had me worried, but I wore it all last winter and it was awesome. It fits me well, the seams are great and its nice and flexible. I will be wearing them again this winter.
Xcel - I have a top of the range 5/4 hooded suit, it fits well and is warm and flexible.
Hotline - Very pricey here, with US import tax but I’ve had a few and they’re really good suits from a great company. Back in the day, no UK shops stocked hooded women’s winter wetsuits so I would get Hotline from Santa Cruz.
Winter in the North East of England gets cold, but it also gets good waves. Be prepared!