Surfing in winter - praise the Ripcurl Flashbomb wettie

It's beginning to get chilly in the water these days yet I've been feeling stoked about surfing through winter. Last year I talked it up but only surfed a couple of times. This year ... well, that ain't gonna happen.

A few weeks ago sans new wettie D-bum and I went down for a surf at Torquay. The sun was shining and the conditions were delightful yet somehow we were rolled and tumbled for over an hour and I didn't catch a single wave. Not one.

Ideal winter conditions - pity about my surfing

But we were still stoked when we couldn't feel our hands and ears and felt brave and ready for what was to come.

First winter surf and full of stoke

For us weekend warriors the surf has been pretty ordinary these past couple of weekends so I've popped my party pants back on and have been spending a lot of time in various pubs trying to get my froff on for footy (Go Cats! Go Pies! - still deciding on my team) and of course talking about surfing... a lot.

Maddog picked us up yesterday morning and we headed down in the rain to this... messy mooshy rippy business... and boy it was chilly.

Spouts Creek

Spouts was the best spot on the coast and the four of us headed in and paddled hard. There was no 'out the back' as there were barely any lines coming through and if you didn't stick close together you couldn't even see each other.

But, unlike a few weeks back I managed to catch a wave. Sure, it was the bomby froff but the wave was so strong it pinged Duke Makuloverlover forward and I was surfing and even managed some sort of turning thing in front until I did a joyous jump off my board into the cold.

I was smiling from ear to ear and feeling warm as toast (relatively speaking) in my new 4/3 Flashbomb. It looks like the inside of a Teletubby and it sure does keep you warm. Lovin' it!!

Oh new wettie, how I love thee..

I started paddling back out to my mates and then realised I couldn't see them. I was paddling and going nowhere and being dragged by the current further down to where the fisherman were. In total Gilbraham style, I began to panic and think 'I'm going to end up in Tasmania!' and 'I'm going to blinded by a hook in my eye!' then 'Don't panic! You'll tire yourself out and drown in your new $500 wettie!!'

Not ideal.

Luckily I saw my lady surfer who looks killer in a wetsuit in the frothiness and tried to paddle to see her. My heart was racing and as I got closer I was feeling slightly melodramatic. It was going to be fine. My booties touch the sandy bottom and I yelled to her going 'I got a good one!'

Looking out at the messy waves and coming off the adrenalin rush we called it quits. And then realised how bloody cold it was. Squealing and hopping from foot to foot helps.

Freakin' hell it's chilly!!!

After what took like forever with numb fingers we piled the multi-layers on watched the boys and kept our eye on the action in the carpark.

Toasty as.

I was in awe of the teenager in the next car casually standing around in boardies. Must be a local. Now that's something to aim for - bare feet and boardies when I'm sitting beside him looking like an Arctic explorer.

A radical old school board we came across