Sports

Question... What do you do (other than some work) when there is no wind, no surf, no snow and its raining?

Answer... Go to a friends house, have a nice meal and loads of wine in front of the fire followed by some whiskey. Trouble is, if your friend happens to have a house just below a bridge spanning a river in flood, you inevitable end up jumping in the river. So, with the scene set, one night we decided to try what we called 'Bridge Skurfing'. Basically, we attached a length of rope to the bridge with a handle on the other end (we didn't have a handle, so we used a length of branch from a nearby tree). If left free, the handled end of the rope would dangled into the fast flowing river. We then held onto the handle, arranged ourselves on a surfboard and 'skurfed' into the river. The concept was similar to wake-boarding except instead of being towed by a moving boat, we remained stationary thanks to the bridge whilst the water flowed beneath us. It worked really well, and would have worked better on a wake-board or a kite-surf board with straps on it rather than a normal surfboard. However, I didn't want to risk a new board in the river due to the shallow depth and the nasty rocks!

This has been done many times before on various boards, but lately we have been combining windsurf sails with mountain-boards, resulting in landsailing (for want of a better name). The feeling and skills are obviously very similar to those of windsurfing, but its much easier. There is of course a downside... It hurts more when you fall off. Our local hotshot windsurfer managed to break his wrist on his first go!... That'll learn him.

Sometimes, in the winter we get snow here. We never get lots, but for the past few years there has been enough to go snowboarding int he hills at least a few times a year. We tend to go on the hills around Plynlymmon, just off the A44. Considering the location, we get some pretty good conditions, but with no lifts, it certainly becomes a tiring day out.

We don't get snow very often, so when there is no snow, no surf, no wind and the rivers are boring, we try sand-dune-boarding. Don't tell the wardens! Don't do it actually, as its not very environmentally friendly.