Boscombe Pier.

The packed Boscombe line-up.

So after a week of sitting on Magicseaweed (it was a slow week at work) trying to figure out from their ever changing forecast whether there would be waves or not this weekend, it finally looked on Friday afternoon like there would be a wave on Saturday down in Bournemouth... well... maybe... sort of... there definitely was a possibility there may be something... or indeed of there not being something. So with that sure fire level of confidence firmly secure in my mind I sent out a message to the Surf Club looking for companions on the trip down south.

To my surprise within 10 minutes I had a car full and a plan to be in Streatham by 7am to pick them up. Which considering I was out until past midnight watching Jack White the night before was ambitious at best foolish at worst, but at least I had not been shunned and my first LSC trip was well and truly on.

I managed to haul my lazy arse out of bed at 5:30am (it is amazing how early you can wake up when work isn't involved!) pick up Zoe (who was coming in a strictly land based capacity) in Brockley and make it to Streatham a mere 40 mins late.

Our companions for the day were Dana; a video marketeer from Romania now working in Hammersmith and Nick; an Audio Developer from Whitby working now developing Children's games... diverse lot us Londoners!

    

Mine's bigger than yours!

Boscombe Pier.

For not knowing these guys from Adam (or Eve) they were great trip companions and the conversation flowed well on the way down to Bournemouth. We arrived having little idea what to expect from Boscombe. However, our fears of a wasted journey were quickly quashed when we arrived and saw clean (...ish) 2-3ft waves rolling in next to the pier and a Harvester right by shore. Perfect.  So we headed back to the car and pulled on the winter wetsuits for the first time this year (always a depressing moment) and booties as fast as humanly possible and headed out in to the line-up. 

LSC members Dana and Nick waiting for a wave.

It was a fun wave for a longboard, thankfully I came perfectly equipped (as always) with a 9ft 2in log, there were some fairly long rides out there. Nick looked the most proficient of the lot of us after spending 2 weeks surfing in Sri Lanka whereas Dana was definitely the coldest despite having a hood, gloves and the thickest wetsuit known to man. Romanian blood obviously doesn't contain antifreeze.

Zoe, preferring to keep dry and warm, went off to explore the coastline in, while the rest of us picked up some nice sets. Dana and Nick got a bit cold a couple of hours in and opted to head in. Being the hardiest and obviously the most enthusiastic of the bunch, I stayed in the water in to the late afternoon picking off wave after wave at will (the best I obviously didn't catch on the Go Pro, which had run out of battery) in the ever depleting line-up with the passers by on the pier watching.

After a slam up meal, and down right abuse of Harvester's unlimited salad bar, we headed back east to London where we deposited Dana and Nick, changed in to our glad rags and headed up to Essex for a night at the Circus. Well a Circus themed party but still it was awesome.

Zoe and her old friend Brad... the Midget Magician.

Zoe and I finally fell in to bed at around 1:30am after having been up for 20 hours, driven 300 miles, surfed for three hours and partied until midnight. A mental yet brilliant Saturday.

Here's to the next one.

Ant