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This is an oft heard line when travelling around Europe or further afield with boards or kiting kit.  People tend to think that in the UK we just sit around drinking tea and doffing our bowler hats to one another. No, I’m happy to report that I live in the UK and I get in the water most days...

I’d like to say that this misguided perception of surfing in the UK means that we enjoy relatively quiet conditions in the water but – well – we don’t.  For a few reasons. Firstly, the last 30 years or so have seen an explosion in the popularity of surfing in the UK. Secondly, the UK is one of the most populous places on the planet. And finally, although we’ve got plenty of coastline, only a limited amount of it gets relatively consistent surf and has relatively warm water and air temperature. (Note the use of ‘relatively’ here.  There are plenty of little-surfed areas in Scotland where you can probably score world-class surf on your own, but the water temperature during the best season for surf falls to around six degrees...)

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So, I went to go for a kiting session yesterday – north-easterly (cross off) and 9 metre weather: perfect.  Just one problem:

It’s been a bit chilly in the UK this week, and we’ve had a bit of snow.  As I’ll explain later, this needn’t be a problem, but yesterday was the coldest 1^st of December since records began, and the snow that had fallen earlier in the week hadn’t thawed and had just iced up.  I approached the beach as usual – radio on and looking seaward sizing up the breeze – and I only spotted the car park at the last nanosecond, and quickly saw that it would be better suited to the (perhaps less extreme) sport of ice-skating:

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