howling

With our prevailing wind direction being onshore and surfing mostly beach breaks we have to deal with a lot of short period windswell, 6 or 7 second period, stuff our californian colleagues would not step into a wet wetsuit for and waves your average east coast US surfer is used to (albeit with much warmer water)

If you're in the right mood, it's big enough and you can face the marathon paddle outs, it can still be a lot of fun. I still find it only takes one good wave in a session to push lifes trials and tribulations to a far corner of the mind.

flat day fun

No fully stocked quiver is complete without something to keep you entertained when it's flat. It's amazing how short a distance you need to paddle in a kayak to find a little cove to share a picnic with no one else around. I am constantly blown away by our gorgeous coastline and there is no better way to see it than from water level on a sunny day. 

jamie's trip

My friend Jamie recently got back from a trip to the Mentawi's and has been making us all jealous with tales of warm water, barrels and beer with friends. He is a really talented logger and teamrider for Bing (not the Microsoft one!) and has one of the best fade takeoffs i've ever seen in real life and is someone who pushes me to aspire to better longboarding.

He is also an amazingly talented photographer with a solid history of shots published in the mags including the hallowed pages of surfers journal and a stint as photo editor of the sadly "resting" drift magazine. Currently he's paying the bills shooting weddings and is starting to turn heads in that sphere too. His favorite pics from his recent trip are here and give a real sense of what it's like to experience a magazine style trip without the names or the hoopla you get in a surf magazine article.

Bound to either brighten your day or get you depressed at the general flatness right now!

vee dub

Nothing says sunny weekend to me more than seeing an AA man fixing a VW camper at the side of the motorway. Like much in this life, the coolest things are not always the most practical. No doubt there will be plenty around this weekend as it is the Goldcoast Oceanfest at croyde. Bound to be busy but some good bands playing on the saturday night. Speaking of which i spent a very pleasant afternoon chatting with Ian drummer from Mojave3 (and drumming for Neil Halstead tonight) & Mr Onefin, manager at the newly reopened Revolver in Newquay. Risen like a phoenix from the ashes it is once again possibly the coolest surf shop in the southwest, full of beautiful Californian Surfboards and English eccentricity. Full marks to Jonny Isaac, Mark & Adam for the resurrection. Please stop by and say Hi.

Ian's new band The Loose Salute are going to be at Glastonbury among other places and worth at least 5 minutes of your time

head over keels

Over the last four years i've been nursing a serious obsession with fish, particularly those of the keel variety, there's just something about the feel and rhythm they produce as they move down the line, drawing lateral rather than vertical lines. This beauty was my now departed 5'10 gulfstream, copied from a fish shaped by jimmy blears just after he won the 72 world contest, complete with glue on rubber leash disk. My current fave is a magic 5'8 Larry Mabile classic keel replete with double foiled ply keels and a glass job to die for, definately a keeper and a board that i can honestly say i have never had a bad surf on.

Weirdly fishing does nothing for me, probably something to do with my inability to sit still!

morsurf

Mike, editor of new startup Morsurf magazine was kind enough to send me their premiere print issue. Rising from the ashes of the now defunct Longboard Magazine, the magazine aims to cater for all the people who don't actually care what colour trunks AI was wearing at the last pro event and are happy to expand their surfing experience with alternative shapes and fin configurations. Right up my street then!
So far so good, it's definately not the new surfers journal but it has some good shots, some thoughtful writing and promises much.

Among others, there's an interesting article on quivers and a great one on fin theory with some information i had never come across before. Hopefully they will get some support from the industry. Advertising dollars are hard to come by in the current climate and the big surf companies are notoriously blinkered in their willingness to ignore all but the youth thruster riding demographic. Hopefully morsurf will continue to go from strength to strength, watch this space........

Waves wise we were blessed with some fun swell and sun this weekend. I had some fun logging away from the crowds on friday and met the aforementioned Easytom. A very nice chap and well on his way to full blown surf obsession. Once the swell filled in it was time to break out the shorter boards and play dodge the holidaymaker. Good fun, i had two of the best turns i've ever done on the same wave on Saturday and a couple of screamers this morning before my arms turned to jelly. Too much fun to take pictures unfortunately. Hopefully the winds will stay light for the rest of the week.

cp drop knee

You can't beat the feeling of a well timed drop knee cutback on a heavy single fin on a waist high wave. It's one of my favorite things about traditional style logging (as well as noseriding obviously) yet I recently developed a real mental block about doing them. 

Like many things in surfing (and life), if you stop overthinking it and just do it, things usually work out.

Normal service is now resumed.

Photo from woolacombe last summer courtesy of wavedreamer

paddle for relief 09

Tim Tanton is fast becoming a local legend. He runs "paddle for relief" a small charity he founded in 2005 that raises money for building projects in the area of Sri Lanka affected by the 2004 tsunami. Each year gets a little bit bigger and better, this year he has already had a sponsored beach clean and a couple of music events. This Saturday is the main one, a sponsored paddle from Saunton to Croyde and back with a BBQ on the beach followed by a gig at the Mariners in Braunton. Everyone is welcome on any kind of surfcraft and it's not as far as you think! Go and lend him support if you can.

more details here

a fine night out

Last night i had the great pleasure of accompanying my wife & Mr Douglas E Powell to an evening of musical entertainment at Lilicos in Barnstaple. There are free gigs there for the next few mondays as part of North Devon festival. Last night was a very mellow singer songwriter kind of deal featuring Peter Bruntnell, who despite living in Mortehoe, is regarded internationally as one of the finest British acoustic talents and is sadly not so well known at home. Pete (who i feel may have a slightly fuzzy head this morning) was followed by Neil Halstead who is probably one of my faves on my ipod at the moment. Many moons ago he was in shoegazer band slowdive and has since found his way onto a few surf films and into a lot of cd players as the main songwriter for mojave3. Last year he released his second solo album on Jack Johnsons label, and it's great!

He (along with Mr Powell) is on the bill for the upcoming Goldcoast Ocean fest at croyde. Next Monday@lilico's is Douglas E Powell & The Caves, the week after features Otis Gibbs

Highly reccomended. 

(Still flat today here but fingers crossed waves are on the way!)

still flat........

Still flat out there, now without the benefit of any sun! One of those times it's essential to own a kayak or an SUP. Had some beautiful paddles around the point over the last week but really jonesing to get sliding on a few again, hopefully a bit later in the week the flat spell ends, not sure if we will get any sun to go with it.

Fingers (and toes) crossed.......

inspiration

I'm a sucker for coffee table books about surfing and this is one of my faves. It's basically a photo essay by Jeff Johnson documenting a trip by the malloy brothers, and various friends, climbing in oregon then surfing the california coast from SF to the tip of the baja peninsula. All in a pick up truck fuelled by used cooking oil. Cynics would say it's just an extended patagonia catalogue shoot but it has some beautiful landscapes, good surf shots and cool lifestyle photos. Somehow you get a feel for the trip (which looked fun) and it always inspires me to think about getting the tent out for a trip outside the normal surf zone. Plus it has a super cool truck in it! 

(Incidentally a nice bottle of red is one of the finer things in life if you ask me!)

micropeeler

Somewhere in Kernow, piskies are getting stand up barrels.......

time to break the fishing rod out for the rest of us.

fusion

My friend Ross is busy filming a new british surf movie, working title "fusion". There will be a mix of short and longboard stuff & he has some sick footage in the can so far. The pics are from a recent trip to a secret slab in Scotland. More pics here.

Not sure on the release date but will be one to look out for!