Perseverance

Your partner is rolled up in a duvet watching TV, your friends are sipping beer in the pub, but you’ve chosen to drive 200 miles to North Devon and dive into the grey North Atlantic.

For surfers, the choice between driving ridiculous distances to surf or festering at home is an easy one. It’s planning ahead that can be tricky.

10 Best Spots For Surfing Near London

Firstly, you need a car. Carting a 9ft longboard on the train is no-one’s idea of fun. Then you need luck. It’s frustrating to pull up into the car park, knowing these are the only two days you can surf, only to find the waves completely blown out.

Watching the swell charts is a sensible option. You’ve just got to pray the swell, wind, tides and your schedule all align. Most people can’t just drop everything and drive off at a moment’s notice.

Becky Bradley was one of these people, so she set up her own London surf club…

“I didn’t quite realise how many surfers there are in London!”
“People who live in London are more willing to commit to a trip if I organise it in advance. Unless you’re the kind of person who heads off alone when the swell is good, most people’s motivation for coming along is having others to go with.”

Once a month, Becky organises car shares from London on a Friday evening. Nine members travel down to the Gower Peninsula for two days of surfing, group meals and hanging out in an old Welsh farmhouse.

“It’s a certain type of person who puts themselves through the process of learning to surf. They’re generally cool, relaxed and accepting of any situation. You also need a good sense of humour! I guess that’s why we all get on so well.”

Keeping up your paddle fitness

The hardest part of being a city surfer is staying fit. It’s tempting to just head home after work and settle down with a glass of wine and the latest episode of Game of Thrones. But trust us, no one wants to feel like a sack of potatoes next time they get in the water.

Swimming sounds like too obvious a way to keep fit, but not enough surfers do it. Local swimming pools are cheap to join and helps prevent that spaghetti arm feeling you get after a month on dry land.
“I don’t remember the last time I sweated so much!”
Yoga is another tried-and-tested option. An hour and a half of twisting your body into awkward positions might sound like hell, but it helps improve your flexibility and prevents next-day muscle ache.

There are hundreds of yoga classes in cities across the country. Yoga For City Surfers run weekly sessions in Leicester Square, designed to maintain surf fitness between trips.

Ian from For City Surfers went along to a class and found it less tortuous than he initially thought. “I don’t remember the last time I sweated so much. I was able to do almost everything in the class. It really gave me a confidence boost not to just be falling over and kicking people by accident!”

71a Gallery also run surf culture events throughout the year. We just missed one in March – a talk from world champion surfer and author of The Code: Twelve Simple Lessons For Riding Through Life Shaun Tomson, but there’s likely to be more on the way. Keep yourself posted by clicking here.

Are you a city surfer? How do you fit surfing into your life? Let us know in the comment section below!

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