Conditions came good for SUP Club last night – we rolled the dice again, going out against the tide towards Southend Pier from Thorpe Bay, then back against the breeze with the tide under us. Despite the heat, it stayed light north-easterly so the water was benign and we all got to enjoy a majestic sunset without any spontaneous cold water dips! Then, after a little wobble at our favourite ’spoons, dinner came good in the end too. Thanks everyone for another awesome evening.

Venue: Shoebury Common Beach (SS3 9QR / https://w3w.co/scared.acting.earth)
Arrive: c.6pm
Launch: after 6.20pm briefing
Finish: c.8.10pm
Level: Confident coastal paddlers

Warning: Capable coastal / open water paddlers only this week … of course we’d hope to keep everyone dry, but if taking a dip in cold water will ruin your week, please give this one a miss. Because actually, we’re going to take a little gamble on what the wind (with sea breeze effect) does – it’s forecast light enough, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up cross-onshore breezy and therefore potentially choppy. If possible, we want to take on a route (for which we’ll need everyone paddling strong and confidently) or if the wind turns out windier than anticipated, we’ll just stick to a cold-water splashabout off the beach. Remember, that water’s still chilly though. Oh, and it’ll probably be getting dark by the time we land too…

Anyway, with a 16.52 high tide (@4.95m) and 19.41 sunset, the coast is looking viable from Thorpe Bay (well, Shoebury Common Beach – SS3 9QR / https://w3w.co/scared.acting.earth). Meeting by c.6pm for a 6.20pm briefing and launch.

[Note: to be clear, Shoebury Common Beach is just east of Thorpe Bay, past the yacht club, at Uncle Tom’s … NOT Shoebury East Beach. Follow the postcode / w3w, drive into the beach car-park and through onto the grass. SS3 9QR / https://w3w.co/scared.acting.earth – as we understand it from the Southend City Council website, closing time is now 9.30pm all summer? We’ll see when we get there…] 

We’re going to push the envelope just a little for another somewhat ‘hardcore’ night when we purposefully go against the grain. Plan A would be a route along the seafront up towards the pier (against the tide with a cross-tailwind, potentially a little choppy if it’s east / south-easterly with any sea breeze effect) then back with the tide against whatever’s left of the cross-headwind as the sun sets behind us. It does look like that breeze could be south-easterly, but it’s currently predicted light enough on every forecast. So could be lovely, could be horrid; we’ll just have to see what we get. (If the breeze picks up and stays easterly, even south-easterly, things could for sure be ‘challenging’.) We can’t know until this evening … but we don’t want anyone left disillusioned by conditions, as can potentially happen if it’s a bit breezy at the coast. Basically, all competent coastal / open water stand-up paddlers welcome, just be ready for some swimming if you’re not used to choppy conditions and it turns out a tad corrugated…

If you want to keep an eye on conditions through the afternoon, check out the webcam at Thorpe Bay Yacht Club.

So, arriving at Shoebury Common Beach by c.6pm (when parking charges cease at SS3 9QR / https://w3w.co/scared.acting.earth) ahead of a quick briefing at 6.20pm, we’ll work out the plan on the ground when we see conditions. All confident coastal paddlers welcome (ie; able to stand up and paddle strong in coastal open water conditions for 90+ minutes and not in need of a lesson to do so – which of course we offer via www.supsect.com/learn-to-sup).

After, we’ll be off to the Shoebury ‘spoons for dinner and drinks…