lens flare

summer swells

They're coming!

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!

thems the breaks.........

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the aforementioned broken ribs was watching lovely autumn swells on the webcam, knowing there was no way I could consider paddling out. I tried a couple of times after about a month but with varying success and pain levels and it wasn't really until past 6 weeks that I managed a proper little logging session.

In an effort to distract myself I searched out a cheap old canon waterproof camera, an a1 sureshot which took some lovely pictures on my first session back in before it sprung a leak and died. That's what you get for shooting with 30 year old cameras I guess!

vespa

Vespa scooters in Italy may be Cliché, but its cliché for a reason. There are genuinely loads of them weaving around with questionable traffic awareness.

They are also a design classic. I don't understand why you would buy anything else if you were shopping for a moped since no other company seems to have nailed it with the simple elegant lines and certain "je ne sais quoi" style that makes the vespa stand out.

Funny how some things just seem "right". The original mini is an other example or the foil on a good displacement hull surfboard........

marina

Lakeside

Putsawatu

Looking empty for probably the last time until autumn

middles

End of a beach day with Mr Y and family at middle beach (OR toilets as its sometimes known) Waves didn't really co-operate but perfect BBQ weather.

Wistful thinking of summers past today............... Holga x 35mm kodak

a craftsmans hands

via Instagram The man, the myth, the legend......... Jools Matthews of @gulfstreamsurfboards who are probably making the nicest surfboards in the uk at the moment! diana and crossprocessed #film pic that's a couple years old now

#filmisnotdead #filmphotography #ishootfilm #toycamera #shaper #nofilter #handmade #craftsmen #lomography #portrait #120 #dianafplus #surfboard #shaper #madeinbritain

Pre-surf stokage

via Instagram

BGA and @if6was9surfboards pre-surf stoke at the gate. About 20 mins in @if6was9surfboards found a coverup from somewhere to hoots from the peanut gallery. #impressed. Lomo LCa x Fuji film

 #film #nofilter #outsideisfree #outside #ishootfilm #filmisnotdead #analog #lomography #lca #surf #surfcheck #surfer #logging #35mm #35mmfilmphotography #sprockets #coldwatersurf #chasingwaves

January 05, 2017 at 11:02AM

via Instagram Flat again today so here's a holga picture of a French fisherman post dawn patrol at #lasauzaie I always find it interesting how you rarely see anyone surfing the kind of boards I enjoy along this stretch of coast. It's mostly white thrusters, progressive longboards and SUP's. The surf shops are the same. It's like "sprout" never happened. :-) My Slimpig and the superchunk drew a fair bit of interest in the water. #film #ishootfilm #lomography #sprockets #35mm #holga #analog #analogphotography #surfcheck #fish #twinnie #vendee #surfer #nofilter #outsideisfree

January 02, 2017 at 04:33PM

via Instagram Pretty splendid dog walking weather. #sunset #nofilter #doodle #dogsofinstagram #labradoodle #beach #coastal #coastalliving #outsideisfree

December 30, 2016 at 04:40PM

via Instagram There's a slumbering winter point break round the corner #nofilter #outsideisfree #sunset #chasingwaves

December 27, 2016 at 07:36PM

via Instagram Hanging out at the ancestral home in the midlands today. This shot has to be a decade old. A tiny Saturday morning at Saunton riding a @joeltudorsurfboards Nuuhiwa that I eventually sold to @finshack 9'6 of moving sidewalk. #nofilter #surf #longboard #dropknee #outsideisfree #singlefin #log #nuuhiwa #devon

Safe flying tonight Santa!

via Instagram Safe flying tonight Santa! God Jul to all 🌲#nofilter #sunset #outsideisfree #beautifulsky #merrychristmas

Well groomed French beachie

via Instagram Well groomed French beachie #summer #outsideisfree #lesdunes #35mm #35mmfilmphotography #sprockets #film #nofilter #ishootfilm #holga #lomography #beachlife #corduroy

warmer

The season of cold hands is approaching........

le petit quiver

Nicely light leaked Diana film shot of my travelling quiver for our summer trip to france. Pretty much all conditions covered by these choices and they all got wet several times.

L-R 9'4 GS slimpig, 7'0 Greco surf performance soft top, 5'6 GS keel fish, 4th Gear flyer surf mat

I hadn't ridden the mat for a long time but I had so much fun in the high tide shore break on it, it ended up being one of the trip highlights. The soft top is fun too. It's really my daughters board but it surfs really well considering.

early birds

Dawn Patrolling

sil - who - wets