I have been planning to do this for a longgggg time but I just haven’t got round to it yet and while I am procrastinating work due to it being *dum dum dummmm* New Year’s Day I thought why not?! I have recently paid off my debts and I now own a 6 foot 10 inch epoxy resin hard board and it is BEAUTIFUL. Sooo I thought I’d explain a little. When I was little (7-8 years old at the most) I took up bodyboarding, I say ‘took up’ I really just messed around on the things, but after two years of stand-in-your-depth-jump-on-and-just-ride-a-wave-in, I decided it was time for an upgrade. That’s no disrespect to the sport or its competitors, bodyboarding has its own challenges and rewards and I appreciate the skill it takes to board properly but I felt, personally, that I wanted something else. As you already know if you’ve read some of my earliest posts, my AS grades were not what I wanted them to be, so after months of half killing myself with revision, school work and holding down a part time job I had accumulated a nice sum in my young savers account…enough to buy myself a surfboard. For years I had seen the tan-legged, wetsuit-clad, sun-bleached blonde surfers both male and female jog down the beach, surfboards under their arms with the cool confidence of someone who knows they’re either going to catch the best waves and perfect their fancy flourishes or are going to fall flat on their faces and breathe in salt water, but regardless of the outcome were going to have the best time doing it. Buying a board completely gutted my account and I ended up with very little money left but it was hands down the best thing I could have done. I was so cut up at the time that I just wanted to hop the next flight and come home, I was restless and cranky and wasn’t enjoying the holiday and so my parents took me to a surfshop and declared it was time I bought my own board. The board I bought was classed as ‘not fit for retail’ but other than a few scratches caused by grit when rubbing the resin down, my absolute beauty was entirely unblemished. First day out with it, I was hooked, and for the next 10 days we hit some of the best surf beaches we could find and I rode some incredible waves. I’m still very much in the learning process but I have one hell of an enjoyable time getting to grips with it. So yeah, that’s my confession of a New Year; I am a surfer and completely hooked. After all, the best surfer out in the water is the one having the most fun! Surf’s up! ;)
