Must-buy Accessories when Surfing in Scotland !

Best accessories for surfing in Scotland  !

Hi everyone ! Welcome back to another Empty Peaks Surf Blog ! If you are new round here make sure to check out my the rest of my blogs, including a post about my recent trip to Cornwall !

It's beginning to get to that time of year where the evenings start getting darker and the sea starts getting colder. I surfed yesterday in a beautiful little long boarding session, and while it was great fun, I started to notice how cold it's getting both in the water and in the air. By the end of the session I was shivering in the water and figured it was time to get out !

I thought I'd share with you guys some little accessories that I've found that make surfing in Scotland that little bit more comfortable and easy ! Some of these might be things might be applicable to surfing anywhere in the world but a lot of them are specific to the freezing cold waters of Scotland ! 

So here goes …

• Fin Bag/ Accessory holder

A great way to keep all your kit together is with a purpose made bag. I keep about three sets of fins in here, as well as wax, fin keys, my watch and many other little bits of kit. Without it, I'd undoubtably lose or forget bits and pieces of kit. Instead I just chuck my fin bag in the car and I know I've got everything.  

Northcore Fin/ Accessory bag

• Seat covers 

With tides changing so vastly in Scotland, it's often that I'll surf at a few spots in one day, changing between different places that work better at different tide times. Rather than having to get out of your wetsuit or soak your fabric car seats, seat covers allow you to drive to another spot in your wet wetsuit. Saving lots of time and leaving you dry warm seats at the end of the day. 

Seat covers

• Finjak

If you ride a single fin board you'll know how tricky it can be, especially with cold fingers, to screw and unscrew your fin into place. Well there's a cool little invention that allows means your single fin no longer needs to be screwed in and works a little bit more like an FCS II set up. What you do is put it into your single fin box and then put your fin in. You then line up the fin and the finjak and the pop it into place. You can then slide your fin to exactly where you want it and then clip it in. It would even be possible to change your fin position in the water if you needed to !

Finjak

•  Surf Ears

There are other brands out there but Surf Ears make ear plugs for surfers. I personally wear my Surf Ears on bigger days when I know I'm going to be spending lots of time underwater. The cold water and the water pressure can mess with my ears and surf ears really make a difference. They come with many different sized ear pieces to get perfect fit. The only thing I would say is that they inhibit your hearing quite a lot, so I only wear them when I need to !

Surf Ears 

• Heat Boosting Socks 

I wear 5mm boots but when it really gets cold I have a set of Solite socks that are made to be worn inside of your boots, they definitely help with warmth as well as making it way easier to get in and out of the boots. I personally find it hard to fully dry out my boots but after washing and drying these socks, it makes sure you have warm dry feet before you get in the water !

Solite Socks

• Flask with warm water in it

No not to make tea with ! 

If for any reason I'm not able to dry your suit out between my last surf, I fill up a flask with part boiling water and part cool water. Then I pour it in my wetsuit, gloves and boots to make it much more comfortable and keeping me warmer before I go to surf ! Be careful the waters not too hot so you don't burn yourself or melt the adhesive in your wetsuit !

So there we are, some of my favourite accessories for surfing in Scotland, be sure to comment any other pits and pieces you think I should try !

Thanks for reading, see you next time. 

Oli 

Empty Peaks Surf.