Norfolk notes - Cromer
Cromer ticks all the boxes as a proper Victorian seaside town. It's got a grand hotel perched on the cliff top, it's got a pier, it's even got a slightly unpleasant literary association (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was staying here when a friend told him about the spectral black dogs that are supposed to frequent the region and he got the idea for 'The Hound of the Baskervilles') and, of course, it's got that faded grander look that is a charming inevitability of juxtaposing impressive architecture and strong onshore winds.
Cromer is not, however, in the paint peeling, decaying, B&Bs being used to house the homeless rather than holidaymakers, DNR category of seaside towns. The paint and the pier are colourful, there's proper shows, tourists and locals shop here and of course, it's famous for it's crabs, meaning that the fishermen are out daily pulling up their pots while children line the end of the pier. With a crab line, a bucket and the enormous sense of expectation that is the base state of any fisherman.
There are also new pastimes to enjoy as well as the traditional ones. Cromer is the home of the Glide surf school and if you thought that the crab fishermen were optimistic, that's as nothing to the sort of person who fancies surfing at Cromer.
To be fair, you do get surf on the North Norfolk coast, except it usually happens within a couple of feet of the dry bit of the beach. Anyway, is it really a good idea to take surf students out on the water near the pier? I don't know much about surfing, but I do know that weaving in and out of the sort of solid piles that hold up an enormous structure in the North Sea might prove something of a challenge, especially as it's exactly the sort of challenge that anyone attracted to surfing would relish. That, however, is how you end up as a wet-suit full of hurt.
The Glide surf school though, has a secret weapon - the paddle. Looking out to sea I could see a half a dozen teens all standing on their surf boards, paddling. Bloody hell it looked like fun, like being a really cool gondolier or one if punters on the Cam, but looking less of a twat. It looked like the sort of sport where you spend some time paddling your board, fall in a few times, get ruthlessly mocked by your mates, have a race or two then back to the beach, towel off, bonnie, brews and a barbie. This is surfing without all that tedious sitting around waiting for a wave, having to then catch said wave, being tipped off your board, smeared along a reef and being stung to buggery by the spiky spindly fish that live there resulting in your leg blowing up to the size of a monster truck tyre.
Also, it means that you can leave any surf bore dumfounded. While conventional surfers try and out-do one another with tales of wild white water, where they caught the biggest waves and how the rollers break on some obscure beach on some Hawaiian island with a name you suspect is made up for the tourists and which would score very highly at Scrabble, you can join in with tales of where the water was calmest.
Obviously didn't get time to actually do any paddling, but it did look like tremendous fun. At some point in the future, possibly when my ego can stand being next to teens in wet suits, I may well give it a go.
Cromer is not, however, in the paint peeling, decaying, B&Bs being used to house the homeless rather than holidaymakers, DNR category of seaside towns. The paint and the pier are colourful, there's proper shows, tourists and locals shop here and of course, it's famous for it's crabs, meaning that the fishermen are out daily pulling up their pots while children line the end of the pier. With a crab line, a bucket and the enormous sense of expectation that is the base state of any fisherman.
There are also new pastimes to enjoy as well as the traditional ones. Cromer is the home of the Glide surf school and if you thought that the crab fishermen were optimistic, that's as nothing to the sort of person who fancies surfing at Cromer.
To be fair, you do get surf on the North Norfolk coast, except it usually happens within a couple of feet of the dry bit of the beach. Anyway, is it really a good idea to take surf students out on the water near the pier? I don't know much about surfing, but I do know that weaving in and out of the sort of solid piles that hold up an enormous structure in the North Sea might prove something of a challenge, especially as it's exactly the sort of challenge that anyone attracted to surfing would relish. That, however, is how you end up as a wet-suit full of hurt.
The Glide surf school though, has a secret weapon - the paddle. Looking out to sea I could see a half a dozen teens all standing on their surf boards, paddling. Bloody hell it looked like fun, like being a really cool gondolier or one if punters on the Cam, but looking less of a twat. It looked like the sort of sport where you spend some time paddling your board, fall in a few times, get ruthlessly mocked by your mates, have a race or two then back to the beach, towel off, bonnie, brews and a barbie. This is surfing without all that tedious sitting around waiting for a wave, having to then catch said wave, being tipped off your board, smeared along a reef and being stung to buggery by the spiky spindly fish that live there resulting in your leg blowing up to the size of a monster truck tyre.
Also, it means that you can leave any surf bore dumfounded. While conventional surfers try and out-do one another with tales of wild white water, where they caught the biggest waves and how the rollers break on some obscure beach on some Hawaiian island with a name you suspect is made up for the tourists and which would score very highly at Scrabble, you can join in with tales of where the water was calmest.
Obviously didn't get time to actually do any paddling, but it did look like tremendous fun. At some point in the future, possibly when my ego can stand being next to teens in wet suits, I may well give it a go.
1 Comments:
I actually tried the stand up paddleboarding for the first time a couple of weeks ago! I loved it! It's a little harder than it looks if you have an issue with balance, but also a nice little workout.
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