Surfing Holland

Today I went to Katwijk to surf, my board has been in a container on the beach for ages, but every time I went there the sea was virtually flat as a mirror so I hadn't been in yet. The forecasts for today were very good (according to Dutch standards) so I got into the office early, and I left early as well. After cycling up against the wind, eating my second bagel for today I got into the water at around 17:00. Now this session had a good and a bad side. The bad thing was that the environmental quality was plainly poor: messy waves so virtually impossible to get through the surf (though also an incentive to work on my upper body strength) and foam should be white, not dark brown. How does it get dark brown? The Dutch sewer system cannot handle the huge amount of rain of late so basically the sea is used to dump any excess 'water'. Nothing a half hour shower can't undo though (unless you swallow the stuff, then you're in for a few days in bed).

Now the good thing was that the one wave I caught was a good one, which makes it all worthwhile again :)

(this does not mean I'm not looking forward to surfing some better spots, though)