Is it worth taking a Surfboard with you on your Family Holiday

A couple of days before our family holiday to Fuerteventura I scoffed at a friends remark regarding where he said ' i wish i had a free sport like surfing that I was into. ' .  It was those words 'free sport' .  It's a phrase that has always been attached to surfing;  for sure it originated as a free sport.  Back when some Hawaiians grabbed a log and paddled out.   I started listing the costs to my friend of what was needed to surf all year round here.

SurfBoards -  at least 3 to cover all conditions.

Wetsuits - winter and summer wetsuits.  Possible a shorty; if you're going on holiday.

Wetsuit boots, gloves, cap.

Leash x 2  .  just incase one breaks while your in the middle of decent session.

Car Surfboard Rack & Straps and Car!!!!

Key safe. 

Tail pads

Board Bag

Surfboard Wax

Petrol

Money for Car Parking.

And after spieling out such a list there's only one thing he could say and that's 'is it worth it?'

Its a phrase that I've had said to me a few times over this winter; due to it being so cold.  And also a phrase that was weighing on my mind while trying to decide whether to take my surfboard on our forth coming holiday.  The last 2 family holidays hadn't been successful for me in regards to getting waves.  After calculating cost it was quite possible I was spending well over £100 a surf.  After having a look at the forecast I decided to take a punt.  Being a dad and a surfer is a balancing act and never more so than when on holiday, I'd be limited to 3 or 4 days where I could surf at best.  And as it panned out it wasn't until 5 days in that I got to snatch my first session.  A shoulder high wave at Los Lobos.  My board choice had been perfect for here; not too steep a take off with some slack sections you need to pump through.  It was fun but was the price per wave count worth it? 

On my second surf day I'd opted not to go drag the family over to Los Lobos again; that in itself is 40 euros for the ferry from Corralejo.  A north easterly wind meant many other spots where extremely messy.  After an entertaining afternoon of driving through the mountains we eventually got to El Burro.  Nothing to write home about here: a 7 second period - Rocks to beach dump.  The kind of wave you wouldn't bother with in the winter at home, but let's face it; it wasn't the winter and with the water warm enough for a surf in a shortie or even just boardies it was good fun and even the search had made for an enjoyable day.  Enough for me to momentarily abandon counting the cost of waves. It is what is. Plus my board choice had been perfect for here, for the second day in row.
The following days were spent snorkeling at Caleta de Fuste and a day by the pool, as requested by the kids. 
I'd been keeping my beady eyes on the swell and the last day was looking more than promising; with a 8ft swell from the north and offshore winds for the west coast.  I had a break near Majanicho in mind but on arrival it wasn't quite big enough and Majanicho and other volcanic reef breaks along this stretch would be too big for my 5'8 wingnut.  We headed over to el Cotillo - I'd surfed there before and I knew it should be fairly good on the low tide.  There's also beaches and rock pools here that are good for the kids.  I'd lucked out; it was pumping.  And a decent barrel on set waves. 

At that moment I wish I'd packed my 6'4  .  I'd got a couple of the smaller ones as pictured here but  I wanted one of those barrels on the set waves. 


However I was getting nailed on the steep take off.  After stacking my second set wave and getting a proper drilling it seemed a good idea to take the go pro off.  The price per wave would go up drastically if I'd knocked that one off my board.  So your going to have to take my word for that fact that in the end I managed to make a couple of decent set wave barrels. 



At this point in the trip they're was no doubt in my mind whether taking my surfboard was the right thing to do, my only regret was not taking a second board.    I say 'at this point'  as a day later at 2am while carrying my sleeping 4 year old daughter out of the airport; ruck sack on my back, surfboard bag over 1 shoulder, laptop bag in the other hand and with my wife carrying the same amount of bags; that I realised at this stage of being a parent that traveling with 2 boards still isn't an option. 

Peppa Pig childrens roller skates strap not working

Here's a silly one that had us baffled for a little while.  after purchasing these Peppa Pig roller skates ; one of the straps wasn't holding.  The fix is real simple - the yellow clip was facing the wrong way !! 

how to make money from a clothing website

Oddly enough the first website I worked on back in 1998 was for a online clothing company. Although there have been many advances in Internet technology and the online clothing market has grown massively; the fact remains that customers like to try clothes on before purchasing.

How big is the online clothing Market?

well here's the thing because the online clothing market has grown more than 150% despite the recession, reaching sales of £4.8 billion last year. Confirming that something that many of us though might never take off has taken off and [link:http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8451109/Online-clothing-sales-double.html] online clothes shopping has come of age [link]. Let's take a look at why clothing sales online may be taking off.

Firstly any potential business looking to be succesful at selling clothing online should be warned that the return rate is much higher online than it is on the high street. Figures reported are that one in three items are returned online as oppossed to one in five sales on the high street. [link:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1353496/How-40-cent-clothing-bought-online-returned--internet-trade-rise.html] High amount of returns on the high street[link]

Have the Advancements in the Internet been the answer to the recent increase in online clothing sales


Back in '98 the Internet was hampered by a slow connection and low quality displays. Many of the advancements in how clothing is presented revolve around this.
* 360 degrees views of clothing using video or JavaScript displays.
* Über big images that load in the background.
* live feeds and recorded fashion show / cat walks to view.

Case Studies
_____________

Fits.me - Providing a virtual dressing room solution. This company go a bit further than the normal handful of angles; but have photographs of all neck sizes & weights to show what the item would look like on you. I believe that they use a robotic dummy that can inflate and reduce its size; so they can take all the images needed. There's no prices on here, I'd have thought setting up your products on here may well be too much for Independent retailers; as even with the help of a robotic dummy there's a huge amount of leg work to be done.


Ann's Cottage Surf Shop

Quite easily the shop I've spent most of my money at over the years ( except for Grocery shopping ). Oddly I've only ever made 1 online purchase from them. So it's good to note that it's not only direct online sales that you'll be profiting. The reason I'd like to highlight Ann's Cottage is because I know they're becoming a profitable online store and it's down to persistence and fighting from all fronts. In fact the list of all the things they are doing represents a good checklist for others that want to be successful.

* Regular statuses on all major social networks.
* Competions and involvement through social network stream.
* Regular blogging.
* Regular Sales and promotions
* a product range and front page that reflects the season.
* A newsletter and incentives to join the newsletter.

Tintagel - Ye Olde Malthouse

They'll no doubt be places that do nicer food in Tintagel.  However at Sunday Roasts for a family of four with puddings and drinks for £50 you won't find many places that are better value for money.  If your rating this place just on food though then your kinda of missing the point. 
You see the real beauty of Ye Olde Malthouse is in that it slots comfortably into your Tintagel experience.  Really feel like you've stepped back in time with a log fire and traditional english pub, of which are a dying bread.
YeOldeMoatHouse

DJs Awesome Pumpkin Soup -

I just freestyled the best soup; so good that I thought I'd better blog it for future reference for myslef.


Ingredients:

* Half a medium sized Pumpkin
* Half a onion
* A tin of tomatoes
* 2 cloves of garlic
* 50g of butter
*  600ml Vegetable stock
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp cumin


> Sauté the pumpkin and onion for 5 minutes.  Adding the garlic at the end ( don't burn )
> add the stock
> add the cumin and salt
> add the tin of tomatoes

> boil/simmer for half an hour.

Serve with fresh brown bread :)

do i need to buy a freeview hd box for my lg42lw450u

After much searching it seems that this Tv's freeview isn't freeview HD I'll need to buy an extra box for that.

Meaning that I got the wrong end of the stick regarding what 'full HD' means.

Early May

I  managed to ruin a heap of tomato plants this week by leaving them in my small greenhouse shelving this week.  I've plenty of spares at the moment.
 I 'm thinking that about 15 tomato plants will be my maximum if I can get them there.  However due to these unusually cold nights I'm having in an issue trying to remember to close and open the little green house.  meaning my poor plants are getting burnt in the day n overly cold at night. It's still a few weeks until I'll want to plant the tomatoes out.  I found this blog last week that has some good info for growing tommies

-  'One of the best ways to prevent blossom rot is start before you plant your tomatoes plants.  Check the PH of your soil, you want a PH  of 6.5 for optimal growth.  After planting maintain a regular water schedule to prevent soil dry out.  Keep the soil moist but not wet.' My second load of broad beans have gone in this week.  note to self!

Need to put some slug pellets around it.

My weekend job is to put a fence in the garden, so I won't have too much time for gardening.