adjusting to COLD water surf?

Zen? You out there?

Thanks for both of your (varying) inputs so far!

wellymon wrote:

Just light a big bomb fire, beside your car whilst smoking x2 of the biggest/ strongest marijuana joints in the warmth of your car, whilst getting into your wetsuit.
Whilst exiting your car with the roach in your hand, toking hard, laughing with your best mate, rotate the body vertically around the fire to get the last warmth and then run to the surf and paddle out, like a big weighted bag of cement on your board;)

Then paddle around catching waves, back and forth with no-one around that stupid enough to put each other into that silly cold realm and just laugh at each other .
Retire from the frantic stupidity of feeling like a bag of cement and walk back up the beach stripping the wetsuit off to hang by the fire and jumping into the car to spark another big fat joint, whilst the bacon and eggs cook.

Oh yeah whilst they're cooking roll another fatty;)
ENJOY the cold fellas and fellisa's.

The last time I surfed stoned i passed up every single wave that came thru thinking the next one would be better, this lasted for the whole two hour session and all i caught was a closeout. So thanks but no thanks ;)

zenagain wrote:

Hey Erik, I wear 5mm suit, gloves, booties and 3mm hood from about December through to early April, then down to a 4/3, boots and gloves till June, then the 3 mm comes out in July and then boardies/springy early August for a month.

I ride the same boards year round, one is your standard off the rack Firewire Alternator (6"2") and the other is Channel Is. Biscuit (5"11"). I definitely ride the biscuit more in winter because it paddles better and has more flotation. Both are epoxy so are a bit more buoyant than a PU anyway. Having said that, I'm a pretty high volume person myself 93kg so would be topping 100kg in all my winter stuff. I'm currently looking to get another board more performance oriented in shape and pretty high volume. I reckon you stay with a normal shape that you trust and then up it by a few litres to compensate. A little too much foam will make your surf better than not enough in my opinion. You'll also last longer too. In summer, I regularly surf 4 hour plus sessions, in winter 2-3hrs and I'm done as you tire easiier and you can feel your core temperature drop. Even in the 5 mil gear your fingers and toes start getting cold and then the fatigue kicks in. I reckon you can't go wrong having a high volume board in super cold air and water because if you are too heavy you're not going to have any paddling longevity and it will be harder to get into waves on your standard board you surf on in boardies. Also, 5/6mm suits even with the most modern technology are going to restrict your paddling to a degree, so the easier the board is to paddle, the better your surf will be.

The trade off is empty line-ups and all day offshores. Wish i could offer more but that's pretty much my take on it. Cheers.

Thanks mate! Can I ask what kind of boots you use? Camel-toe style or round toe? How thick? I've used round toe before, but struggled hard to feel the board under my feet..

upnorth wrote:

Hey Erikb, it's the North Sea for me as well so 5mm gear is the go. I'd get a wetty with a built in hood or better detachable, o'neills mutant serves me well, when it warms up a bit but not enough for the 3mm you can just zip her off. I prefer mitts over gloves, I find the seams between fingers and thumb crack on gloves and if you are sitting around a bit mitts are warmer. Boots 3mm should see you right. Id just bring the boards you have and see how you go, you'll notice a difference of course but if you use them as a benchmark you can add volume, length if you want to and tweak as you go. You'll see what people are riding when you get home, I was surprised to find very similar set ups to Oz which wasn't the case a few years ago. You might be fine with the boards you have and just need to tweak your technique, if your after a new quiver anyway a scadanavian shaper will be on the ball. As zenagain mentioned in colder climes the crowds are sparse and waves can be plentiful but make the most of those board short surfs while you have them!

Thanks for your tips! Didnt know there were any scandinavian shapers.. Where are they?

zenagain wrote:

At the moment I've got two pairs, a Japanese brand (Falcon) 5mm split toe and FCS 5mm round toe. Doesn't really make too much of a difference to me. They both suck;) Split toe I suppose for the marginal extra 'feel' you get.

I hate booties and the detachment from your board but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Believe it or not, sometimes I get a bit too warm in my gear even if it's sub-zero and I'll pull my hood down then pull it back over when I have to paddle back out and duckdive. Not if it's windy though.

I agree with Upnorth on the Mitts but atm I'm using regular Hotline 5mm gloves and they're toasty warm.

Yeah guess its just a matter of getting used to it..

Here's a super random question regarding booties and I'm not sure its ever gonna happen, but do you bodysurf in winter? How much bigger size fins will I need to fit the boot inside?

udo wrote:

Living in Sealand ,vimeo - a bit of scandinavia

Thanks Udo, I've seen some of their stuff, mostly across the pond in Denmark, looks fun :)

upnorth wrote:

I don't know of many Erikb but I'm sure google would throw up some clues, there's Thomas Meyerhoffer of course if you are feeling experimental and Frost are reasonably well known pretty sure they are Norwegian.

Thanks mate, will have a look!