HERE COMES THE SUN

January 8, 2008 on 3:06 pm | In Surfing |

It may not feel like it, but right now we’re heading away from dark and dismal mid-winter to the more cheering days of summer – and for those of us who spend our leisure time up to our necks (and frequently more) in the water, that can only be good news. 

Scotland in particular gets a raw deal in the cold season, for not only are the air and water temperatures the lowest in Britain, the good citizens of Cornwall also enjoy almost two hours more daylight in mid-winter than those equally fine individuals residing in the north of Scotland. 

The sun in Penzance shows its head above the horizon at 8.21am on midwinter day, whilst you’ll be gazing east for another 43 minutes before you see those warming rays lighten up the sky if you’re in Wick. Likewise, sunset down south was at 4.20pm on December 21, but up in Wick it had already been dark for an hour by then. 

This is probably even worse news for surfers than the cold temperatures. After all, a good wettie will see you through pretty much anything, but if its pitch black you’re scuppered – and worst of all is when you surf a break that only really works at a particular stage of the tide… 

Let’s say your favourite break goes off at high tide, and high tide on an especially good mid-winter swell in northern Scotland happens to occur at 3.15pm that day. Well, you’d better have your waterproof headtorch ready if you want to make the most of it since you have two minutes of daylight left and you won’t be catching it the following morning either unless you’re a total lunatic (perhaps literally…). 

But were you in, say, Sennen, you’d still have over an hour of daylight left for that afternnon session. Not fair is it…? 

However, let’s zoom forward six months. On those same tide times you could catch that 3.15pm session no problem in Caithness, and unlike Cornwall, you could even surf the morning high tide in twilight too. 

And that’s where Scotland truly comes into it’s own for surfers (and anyone else who likes to play outdoors for that matter). There are very few places in the world, after all, where you can (if you have the stamina) surf for over eighteen hours a day. 

Indeed, in some ways you don’t have any choice. I remember once staying in a caravan outside Thurso in June when the threadbare curtains were allowing daylight to stream through the windows almost before I’d even gone to bed. By 4.30am it was pointless trying to get any sleep so what better to do than go surfing? 

And if money is tight – as it was on that occasion – we saved our beer tokens by being out in the waves when last orders were called. And I know which I’d rather be doing… 

So, surfers of Scotland, be not of faint heart, for summer is acoming. By my calculations you’re getting an extra 122.5 minutes of daylight per month between now and mid-June, which is 30.6 minutes a week or 4.37 minutes a day. 

And those extra 4.37 daily minutes should be enough for at least one more wave per session… 

Alf Alderson
http://www.alfalderson.co.uk
Multi-award-winning freelance journalist and author of Surf UK - the definitive guide to surfing in Britain.