Surf and Shoes

Holiday time again and this year I'm mixing it up with a family hols in the Forest of Dean and a couple of days down in Newquay trying out surfing.

The Forest of Dean is the bit between wales and the rest of the UK and is as you can guess full of trees. I had a nice week with my Parents and One of my Sister and her family. We did various touristy activities such as butterfly houses and miniature steam railways and of course a BBQ in the rain. I was all quite relaxing in a hectic
kids and Thomas the tank engine sort of a way.

Newquay was a completely different proposition. I had a couple of goes at surfing and a quite Sunday morning coasteering.

I surfing a strange sport or at least it is for a beginner.

It mostly seems to consist of getting battered to bit by the waves/board/random other surfer as you try to fight your way out a suitable distance. Once there you try not to drown while gauging the moment the bigger waves come rolling in. Then at the right moment you drag yourself onto the board (you're knacker at this point from getting out from the beach) point towards land and madly thrash your arms to propel you forward.

If you time it right the wave picks you up and you go like a rocket straight through the rest of your group and back to the shore. Now at the point you get picked up by the wave you are meant to use some style and get yourself standing.

So far I've managed to be so surprised I actual caught a wave that all I managed to do was hang on and yell incoherently.

However I can sort of see the appeal of this sport and will more than likely try it again. A wet suit purchase maybe in my future, as being in the sea in the UK is a chilly affair.

Coasteering is an odd sport, it's a mix of swimming in the sea, climbing on wet rocks and then jumping off (small, fortunately for me) cliffs. It's weird if quite fun way to send a Sunday morning.

So all in all it was a good mix of stuff and by the time I got to work it felt like I had been away for a long time.

oh and 'Shoes', that comes from my niece Edie. 'Shoes' seemed to be her favourite word on the holiday. She would come up to you look up at you very seriously and say 'Shoes' then she would look to her right and left and then go on a hunt for her shoes. Once found she would take great delight in stomping around the place with her shoes on, hopefully on the right feet.