S.A.D (seasonal effective disorder) truth or fiction?
mid to NW Australia isnt too coldyou could move here if you find work, which is getting harder lately. but i lose my mojo a lot in winter, lose it especially after returning from indo to cold areas of australia.
I think you just need a good wetsuit.As a lot of surfers either get older or return from tropics its easy to lose mojo.
Ive been taking photos lately rather than surfing and my surfings gone downhilll greatly even though i go to the gym three to 5 days a week i still get back pains and arm pains paddling in a rip.So just saying i know how you feel about losing interest in cold water. Tasmania looks like it has epic points but i doubt id ever surf there.
Certain areas of the shoal haven and further south area aren't t that cold imo except in july etc early mornings. Great surf too, it would get you used to the cold as the surfs so good some days you forget about how cold it is.
Jeez. I don't even know where to start.
My advice, get a really good wetsuit. Second, go and surf somewhere REALLY cold which is nowhere in Australia. Come back and paddle out on the coldest Sunny Coast day of the year. It will feel like a warm bath:)
I love winter.
Where in the tropics are you from Dromodreamer?
"Can I even call myself a surfer?"
Nup.
(I'm one of those people who complain about the heat)
I think wetsuits are that good now that you really have no excuse not to get out there.
I haven't worn a wetsuit in over 9 years!!!! Pretty obvious indication of where my latitude finish according to the seasons!! :)
And Sunny Coast :o haha cummon.
I do believe the SAD phemonena is real though.
I spent an autumn/early winter in the UK and holy shite I couldn't walk near a bridge because I would've thrown myself off it.
Probably a fair bit of that was just England though....fcuking depressing joint as it is.
Fitz, I know a guy at Cronulla who hasn't worn a wetty in even longer, and he surfs right through the winter. Few years back I asked him about it and he'd just got back from a trip to Phillip Island where the temp got so cold - it was mid-winter - that he had to go and buy a vest. He said it like he was ashamed.
Hahaha, to me that is madness, I'm nowhere near that hardcore. My winter surfs line would end in the FNNSW :)
I guess just like surfing in boardies, surfing in winter is somewhat magical. I live in Vicco and this winter has been so good. Last Tuesday I surfed this little point all by myself. Glassy doesn't even describe it. The whole ritual becomes so much more worth in winter: getting changed in to a wet wettie, the first few paddles in the water, biting wind in your face, getting out of the water... pure bliss
Oh and then there's this guy...
Yeah SAD is real, would have to have some good hobbies up your sleave!
SAD is definitely real. I feel it pretty hard in Tassie sometimes. Not due to the cold, but to the dark. Summer is a dream, with daylight from 5am until 9.30pm sometimes. It. Autumn is my favorite time of year, with reasonable daylight hours, crisp clear days, and the start of the winter swells. But winter can hurt. No such thing as a before or after work surf for people in your average job, with the sunrise coming after 7am and sunset at around 5. That's what makes me SAD.
The cold though, not so much. You see the guys that psych themselves out before winter starts, being bitter about the cold while you're still wearing a 3/2. I tend not to think about it at all these days and just enjoy the relatively low crowds, the waves with more punch, the offshore winds. I still manage 2.5 - 3 hour sessions even on the coldest of days. The main difference between here and further north is that I tend to only surf once a day - once I take that wettie off it takes a fair bit of convincing to put it back on again.
SAD in australia? what next? the snake problem in ireland?
EDEN!! Bloody winter eh! went for a swim today in the 1 ft south swell. As Sheepy would say- There beyond the end of the road there is a bay. I thinks it's time. I will not complain. I repeat. I shall not complain. But if those nudist c""nts go anywhere near my towel- I'll tackle them and not around the legs...
the thing making you SAD on the Sunny Coast is not the climate in winter DD, it's the lack of surf.
and this is a good winter.
Call me crazy but I hate winter. Maybe it's my tropical blood, maybe it's watching the long southerly lines way off shore chasing the Whales to warmer waters in the beautiful Sunny Coast region I now call home, but I just cant can't help but get all 'game of the thrones'; winter is tough. I was inspecting the surf on an overcast Queensland winter day, trying to make a case for myself to surf the 1-2 foot waves on offer and offing my disdain at the conditions (namely the cold) to anyone who would listen, and old mate just say's casual as you like "this is like summer in Vicco".
I say to him "honestly I think Winki-pop is on my bucket list places to surf but I'd only surf for like an hour or two max and maybe not come back". He leaves earlier then I do as I'm still desperately trying to make a case for a wave over a warm coffee and he doesn't bother saying "see ya mate" and I'm glad. Guess I'm not that hardcore. So don't even get me started on Tassie. Shipstern's the wave looks like a thing of beauty compared to the frigid ice cold channel I imagine to be far worse then the wave itself. How long can adrenaline keep you warm for? Who would, in their right mind, leave Maui for Mavericks? I can't bring myself to get past the freezing waters of Byron to chase those southerly lines. What the fuck is wrong with me? Can I even call myself a surfer? But then people who complain about the heat always annoyed me. "you can always get warm" they say but "getting cool is harder." Fuck off. Are they serious or they just saying that to piss me off. Then there are the days, so short before the darkness comes to consume the light and all that is holy to me. As far as I'm concerned the only good thing about winter in the lucky country is the swell producing machine that sends waves to Indo. I'll happily surf side shore windblown summer slop over two foot 25 knot offshore perfection. So maybe I need to embed myself south of Sydney, that coast from the 'Gong to Eden in order to purge the tropics from my consciousness, because Victoria is a bridge too far and Tassie a continent away. The Whales are a certain death knell for me, I long to go where they go, to the land of warmer waters, but alas, there are no waves where they go. The conundrum. Why must perfect surf in this country be accompanied by the cold. It just makes me want to hibernate till summer brings forth it's N.E swell producing goodness. 06-06-16 truly the mark of the beast. Summer could only wish for that. It just makes me sad.