Some days, everything just works out to plan. I was sitting at the computer in our kitchen at home, I'd just finished yesterday's diary entry and noticed the tree tops swaying. A quick look at our trusty Chimet revealed the wind was picking up as a sea breeze kicked in. I leapt on my bike for a sortie of the beach and saw tell-tale white-caps. It was 1pm, just time for a sail I thought. I rushed back and packed the RRD 85l wave board and an Ezzy 6.3, suited up and I was on the water at 1:30. The wind continued to increase so I ended up having a perfect one and a half hour session.



From my home in West Sussex, Bournemouth is a little further than Brighton, in the opposite direction. Eike, Max (Max home from Brighton came to see his first show of the tour) and I left at about 3:20, allowing for the potential Bank holiday traffic which materialized as predicted... the afternoon holiday rush towards the West country. We arrived just after 5, just time for a delicious bowl of leek and potato soup and onto the stage for sound check. Max and I have been here to see bands in the past and Max mentioned he saw his favourite ever gig here, the Kings of Leon.





I was eager to see for myself any evidence of the Boscombe artificial surf reef, located I believe between the two piers, Boscombe and Bournemouth. Since there was very little swell today, as I'd imagined, there was no sign at all of any man-made reef. The venture caused quite a stir in the UK surfing community and everyone waited with baited breath to see how it would perform. The reaction has been mixed with many intermediate surfers complaining of short rides and steep waves. As I understand it, when there's a swell, it's great for expert short boarders but the problem is that 90% of UK surfers are intermediate and use long boards. Hardly the tourist magnet it promised to be.  Matt and I sat in the dressing room after dinner and heard loud 'Star Wars' music followed by 80's disco fever. We couldn't imagine it was coming from our hall so we ventured forth and discovered a tattooists convention setting up in an adjacent hall. The BIC has many facets. I recall there used to be a huge swimming pool complex here, WITH a wave machine. I understand that's now gone.



The show was great. I anticipated a quiet audience here in Bournemouth but once again, towards the end of the show, the atmosphere in the hall was electric. During our penultimate song, the whole lot of theme were on their feet, dancing the Friday night away. They stayed standing for the last song, which surprised me. Now for a relaxing day off before the much anticipated Royal Albert Hall stint.