Conditions really came good and everyone properly pulled together last night for one of the smoothest downwinders we’ve ever had at SUP Club. 8km from Old Leigh to Thorpe Bay, followed by dinner and drinks at the Elms. Thanks everyone for a brilliant evening…

Venue: Old Leigh (SS9 2EH / https://w3w.co/those.slave.fancy) to Thorpe Bay one-way
Arrive: c.6.45pm (or c.5.45pm if shuffling vehicles pre-launch?)
Launch: after 7.15pm briefing (absolutely no late launchers!)
Finish: c.9pm
Level: Strong, experienced, chop-capable coastal paddlers only

Now as the heatwave’s broken down, with some rain due through the day but clearing this afternooon, tonight’s building north-westerly breeze looks to be setting us up nicely for a down-tider / downwinder for SUP Club… Which definitely needs prefixing with a warning (!) that things could turn out genuinely ‘hardcore’ / ‘very challenging’ as we’re leaving just after high tide – so if the wind direction’s a few degrees more westerly than advertised, things could potentially get really quite choppy and difficult. Although we’re hoping it stays firmly cross-offshore enough to stay reasonably flat with cross-tailwind the whole way, inevitably the water state can get pretty fruity – particularly near the casino and under the pier. And as we’re just going one way and need to keep the group together, we need to know everyone’s properly up to it. So please, unless you’re totally confident in your abilities and experience taking on this sort of route in these sort of conditions, tonight’s absolutely not a night to ‘give it a go’. We do want to be as inclusive as possible, so if in any doubt, just drop us a quick email or message us and we can advise. Anyway…

We’re going take advantage of a (5.08m) high tide at 18.26 with what’s looking like a solid north-westerly wind on all the forecasts for a down-tider / downwinder from Old Leigh (SS9 2EH / https://w3w.co/those.slave.fancy) to Thorpe Bay (SS1 3HL / https://w3w.co/entire.supporter.wizard). Launching straight after a 7.15pm briefing at the Belton Bridge car-park in Old Leigh (SS9 2EH / https://w3w.co/those.slave.fancy). This will definitely need to be a hardy, chop-capable, ‘experienced coastal paddlers only’ week. And bring a board you’re completely solid on (ie; a comfy c.28-32″ tourer rather than your narrowest raceboard.) If we’re lucky and the wind veers NNW it could stay pan flat the whole way – but we can never know what the weather’s going to do for sure, and last time we took on this route it certainly turned ‘challenging’ and choppy!

We’ll start from the Belton Bridge car-park in Old Leigh (https://w3w.co/those.slave.fancy) and get out 8km downwind at the Thorpe Bay zebra crossing at the western (bowling club) end of the green (SS1 3HL / https://w3w.co/entire.supporter.wizard … ie; nearer town, the opposite end from the yacht club!) so anyone early enough to shuffle vehicles might leave boards etc in Old Leigh c.5.45pm (assuming there’s someone there to look after them – check on our messenger group), drop vehicles and hopefully get a lift back from Thorpe Bay at 6.15pm (there should be free parking up St Augustine’s Ave and west up Thorpe Bay Gardens), ahead of a general meet and set-up in Old Leigh (SS9 2EH / https://w3w.co/those.slave.fancy) from 6.45pm. Then we’ll be briefing at 7.15pm and launching straight afterwards.

If you want to keep it simple and/or can’t run around early, just turn up on time and park at Old Leigh! We will of course need to be patient at the far end, when we’ll work out the logistics of getting everyone back to the start (we usually have enough willing lifts and vehicles these days, although the fall-back is always a taxi or two) then we’d expect to be eating and drinking at the Elms ‘spoons, quite late…