First big surfing day of the autumn quarter. Nice steady northwester and a good swell at Muizies corner. It's a grey day like London but unlike London it's much warmer and the sea's not cold, especially for wimps like me with the full Monty: wetsuit, hood, and booties. Hey, I wanna stay in the water for two-three hours and not suffer from exposure! I get there early but it's already packed. No matter, I've got a new Macski and nothing's gonna stop me from hitting the waves! I find a place to park in the far corner and in a jiffy I'm out back. The new waveski is lighter and sleeker than the old one and much faster on the wave. Oh wow! Why did I wait so long to upgrade?? Being lighter there's the question of balance. I'm used to the old more buoyant board. Now I must re-learn. Your hip, back and thigh muscles are making hundreds of small adjustments to keep you up and the old brain is having to slowly re-programme itself with all this new input. It's gonna take a few hours out there to ingest all the new info. In paddleskiing you might think that most of the work you do is with your arms: pulling and steering, but a whole bunch of other muscles come into play and usually it's the ones at the top of your thighs that feel a bit stiff the next morning. Macski is a great South African company, based in Port Elizabeth up the coast, in business since 1979 and billing themselves today as the world's no. 1 waveski manufacturer. The QSL is from Capital Radio which used to broadcast on AM and shortwave from further up the coast in Transkei (then a nominally 'independent' country in apartheid South Africa). Note the great seagull logo: they played cool music, just perfect for beach holidays.
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