lonely walk home

waiting

for inspiration

five over

Mr Hill

taking off right

slim pig

Still my favourite log. 9'4 Gulfstream Slimpig. The best of all worlds

holy peak

reflections

Happy Birthday to me!!

one last hurrah

Might seem a little weird posting such a snowy scene in June. This picture is actually from Val d'isere in February. My excuse is that I'm going snowboarding in a months time! We've got a summer roadtrip planned and one stop is Cervinia and the Matterhorn which boasts 20km of ski piste and snowparks 365 days a year. Really looking forward to it since summer snowboarding has always been on my bucket list!

lens flare

out back

 Bobbing in the line up back before the gloves came off

dropping in

summer swells

They're coming!

earworms

I'm very late to the party I know but recently i've been getting addicted to podcasts. I guess its taken a while for there to be any decent ones that relate to the stuff I'm into. There are two i'm going to pick out for your attention.

Firstly Matt Barr's  Looking Sideways which is a a couple of years old now. Matt has a long history in "action sports" media from editing whitelines magazine years ago to ACM media now which creates much of the action sports content you read in the regular papers as well as helping to curate the image of brands like Finisterre. The podcast is a regular series of interviews with a selection of characters from outside the mainstream covering everything from surfing to skating, skiing, climbing, snowboarding and even urban running. Matt is great at getting his guests off the track of other interviews you may have read with them and even if you don't participate in the sport the person is from, Matts interview style and content always makes them a good listen.

Second mention is for the Surf Splendor network which is an expanding group of shows that are all surfing based. Regular pods cover design interviews with shapers, the latest competition wsl news and the superbly salacious "grit" gossip show with Chas Smith. Theres a lot of great stuff in their archive, particularly a couple of shows with Devon Howard talking Skip Frye gliders and his signature Egg design.

Dive in!!

anticipation

That moment you start wading out, the sun is shining and you're watching perfect little rights reeling across the sandbar............

winter

Had a pretty busy winter, some decent waves, some fun bike riding and a couple of really good trips out to the alps.

Turned out to be an epic winter for snow with many saying it was the best for over twenty years. Personally I lucked into a few days of freshies. It's also the first time i've had a proper powder board with me, One of the Lib x Lost Jamie Lynn colab boards. It's loosely based on the concept of a fish surfboard being short (146) and wide giving the same surface area as a much longer board with a fully 2-3 inch stance set back. It's also the first time i've ridden a camber board for a few years.

The board was amazing. Actually pretty fun on piste holding a good carving edge despite its width. In soft snow I couldn't wipe the grin off. It's genuinely the closest ive come to surfing on frozen water. Effortless float with no need to lean back so no back leg burn and just so much flow with huge rooster tails on each turn. Even my wife commented on how much fun it looked and she is usually the first to burst my bubble of self-congratulation!

Most definitely recommended!

like a phoenix from the ashes.....

"AAAAAAND WE'RE BACK" to quote CRob from one of my current favorite podcasts, The Nine Club. Short hiatus due to general lack of time and lack of film photos to post.

Following on from the drowning of my last waterproof film camera I invested a whole £7 in a new semi disposable waterproof point and shoot. It's a lovely yellow plastic colour and looks like £7 was slightly overpriced but the first roll through yielded some decent results.

yo damo

This is Damo.

He may be one of the most surf stoked people I know