This isn't fair

[andygates]

Look, I'm not saying that I'm a surfer dude or anything, but that's two nights in a row that I've not been able to get to sleep because I've been itching to feel that catching-a-wave feeling again. And bad itching too, the kind you get just after a new girlfriend has to go home. Anxious and melancholy. That's not right. It will pass, right?

I do not need a surfboard. I do not need a surfboard.

Comments

[justoneway.livejournal.com]

And buy yourself a nice longboard or malibu. You have the figure for it and it will suit the gentler waves you are likely to be riding.
Come the end of the winter you will be hanging ten and doing quasimodos with the best of them*.

*Maybe. (This lack of guarantee does not effect your statutory rights.)

[andygates.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about a longboard, that sort of thing is much more my style, but what do you mean, "you have the figure for it"?

Are you perhance saying I'm too fat and old to pull aerials? ;)

[justoneway.livejournal.com]

Eeerhmm! Well not exactly. Just that all the people I know of your build look cool riding longboards and fall off thrusters a lot. It gave me impression that taller people have more problems with thrusters. Balancing on them is a harder the higher up you are. Taller people can also get their arms around a longboard more easily so can pick up the required speed fast enough to catch the waves. The squatties just flail their arms about sideways like a penguin belly riding on ice.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

There is hope.

Mind you my winter wettie is way too big for me now. Gonna have to sell it and buy another... what to look for in a chilly UK surf suit?

[justoneway.livejournal.com]

Warmth comes from thickness (mine is a 4-5-6 and it is fine in summer and good in winter when backed up with a hooded neoprene rash vest, gloves and boots). Also from tightness. It needs to be snug all over but not to the point of pinching.
Flexibility is what you pay for. Most important area where you need it is around the shoulders. A flexible suit stays snug even when you are moving, so no pools of cold water forming in the gaps.
I am sure you can now see the obvious compromises. Warmth = thickness = less flexibility = more cold runs. It all gets a bit circular. My theory is, that the thicker the suit, the more it justifies paying upper end prices, rather than getting a "warm" suit that turns out not to be because it does not have the flexibility to stay snug.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Righto, so pretty much the same as for other flavours of wetsuit. I shall trawl the shops, 'cos my tri suit is WAY too slippery!