b-logging

I've just started helping Jools out at Gulfstream with some of their online content. First up is a little blog about their longboard models, how they surf, where they come from etc. Pretty pleased how it came out!

Check it out here

The picture is an oldie, Dawnpatrol with Swedish Thom and Mr Vowles back when he surfed!! 35mm film x holga

ground zero

I've had a couple of really fun trips to London recently, feeling like a country bumpkin off to the big smoke. It reminded me how much fun living in a city can be. There's a real buzz of energy and a feel of excitement and possibilities. I'd never move but it's good to get some exposure to culture more vibrant than the backwater that Devon can be. We definately ought to do it more often..........

No trip can be complete without a sojurn along the South Bank and a trip to Slam City Skates both British skateboarding institutions and two places i looked forward more to visiting than any of the official sights when i first went to the capital.

Incidentally, if you or your kids have anything more than a passing interest in Harry Potter, i'd heartily advise a trip to the Harry Potter studio tour at Leavesden where you can wander amongst the sets from the films, drink butter beer and try out greenscreen broomstick flying.

made by Michel

This beauty is a 9'10 RON model log custom made for my friend BGA by Michel Junod
Junod isn't a massive name this side of the atlantic but he is very well regarded in his native California both as a surfer and a shaper. He hails from the Santa Cruz area and was heavily featured in Thomas Campbells the present movie which is probably where you have heard of him before if you've been scratching your head!







 He makes beautiful surfboards but they are great value because his name doesn't have the worldwide cache of Bing and others. His boards deserve it though. The shapes and finish are every bit as good as other californian prestige brands.

BGA is most definately a fan and has had a few different boards from him over the years. This one came over with Nineplus and is one of Michel's Regular Old Noserider models. It's defiantely got a little bit of a piggy wide point back/ hippy influence but it's more of a full all round log shape than his Pignar or Two tone models. As a result it probably suits our average days  little bit more.

I rode this one the other day in waist high semi-clean medium speed beach break and i was really impressed. I normally dont like long logs, anything over 9'6 and i usually find that the extra inches are a hindrance rather than a help. Not so here, despite it's size, the RON has a nice weight, not too heavy, not too light. It has a nimbleness off the tail (in a traditional pivoty sense) that belies it's size and i found it was easy to whip through fades and cutbacks for me even though i'm only ten stone. The gentle roll in the bottom and nice round 50/50 rails undoubtedly help too.

Up front there's a subtle teardrop concave and perched with toes over it's very stable both in the pocket and when the wave fattens a little. It paddled great too but then there's a lot of float relative to my (fly)weight. BGA is taller and heavier than me and it suits him to tee. His daily driver for the last couple of years has been a 9'8 junod two tone which is a superb noserider when the wave has some shape but at mushy gutless saunton it's not the easiest board to get the best from. The extra width in the front half of the RON gives more forgiveness when the wave gives less and it's flattering his surfing already.

In short it's a good value californian all around log and well worth thinking about if you are in the market!

just jai'ving

Iphone shot, still dripping wet after an early morning session.

As is usually the case, my wonderfully verbose style leads to my submissions to drift being far too lengthy and the published version misses some stuff out so here is my interview with Jai Lee as it was originally written:

Jai Lee is a study in contradictions

 

A surfer from the sundrenched shores of Noosa obsessed with the dark worlds of horror and witchcraft

 

A man of the church of the open sky working miles inland and underground 

 

A man full of joy and life with intimate knowledge of  the furthest depths a mind can fall to.

 

A fantastically talented longboarder unable to turn his talent into food for his wife and child.  

   

 

Jai is a phenomenal surfer, arguably the most talented Australian logger of his generation. Images of him with both feet planted on the nose are synonymous with the perfect point waves of Noosa, his stylish surfing is just as flawless. For the last few years his floppy haired silhouette, streaking along perfect azure blue walls has regularly graced the screens and coffee tables of longboarders the world over.His surfing a smooth mix of jaw-dropping nose trickery and fluid turns. He is "Big in Japan"

From the outside it's easy to imagine him having the perfect life with perfect points on his doorstep, fans of his surfing worldwide, sponsors cheques and free stuff fluttering regularly onto his door mat along with tickets for exciting surf trips and yet.............

The reality is quite different and his story is evidence that real life behind the polished sheen of pro surfing, is not always what you thought it would be. Like all good stories jai's is one of a fall to bottom and ultimately a redemption. 

Sure "Real life" is sometimes hard, sometimes unexpected but ultimately joyous and more than you could have hoped for, even if perhaps it's in a different form than you thought you wanted....

 

What's your surfing history?

 

My surf history is vague at the best of times! Over the years I've done damage to the brain cells from having such a good time, leaving me with glimpses I aint even sure are true to start with!

 Officially I started surfing when I was around 9 ( on and off before that, as I hated the water ) I started on a shortboard, around 5'8 and then in my early teen years my dad got into longboards cause there wasn't much swell consistently around Noosa. So pretty much from that moment on I have spent many hours frothing along the points of Noosa on longboards.

What do you love about riding logs? 

 

It all started cause I live at Noosa, what else was I gonna end up riding!?

 The main reason I love riding logs is i LOVE noseriding. When you get one of those noserides that levitates across a section for multiple seconds, its a feeling I can't explain, but it feels farking good. The closest feeling I've felt to it, is getting barrelled, like reef barrelled. That weightlessness is addictive, the same reason people are addicted to drugs, they create weightlessness, they lift the unnecessary burden and help you escape. I am an addict, an addict to noseriding!

What are riding at the moment?

 

Mmmmmmm.. right now I have 2 new 9'6 Jai Lee Noseriders shaped by Thomas Bexon.

They're a new project I am working on with him that i'm really excited about.

A 9'4 Alex Knost shaped by Dano Forte

A 9'6 Kevin Connelly Noserider

A 9'6 Jai Lee Noserider shaped by Class Malibu

A 5'8 swallow tail thruster

A 5'10 Brother Neilson Mark Richards look alike twinnie.

 

Tell us a little about what you're doing with Thomas Bexon?

 

Thomas and I have been friends for a long time now, drinking beers and partying on rare occasions got us in tune with each other on board designs and ideas for Noosa as such. 

It all came together when I decided I wanted to be more independent in my so called surfing career. Steer right away from doing the publicity for someone else when I could just do it for myself, at least a make a coin or two on the side. So Bexon lived on the sunshine coast and so do I, I approached him about making a jai lee model and here we are today, still drinking beer and talking about board designs. These days though were actually producing something!

 

The new board with Thomas is more of a pig style template than your Classic Malibu model, what led you there?

 

Culture, travel and experimenting have all played a major factor with my log/noserider designs. Like everything, as you evolve, the things around you must evolve. So over the years with cultural influence, my ideas expanded, my knowledge grew and my surfing evolved.

What are the characteristics of your new Thomas board that make it special. I know you have narrowed the nose down to 17"?

 Yeah I've played a lot with Nose and Tail width's, and found they work best for me both around the 16' to 17' mark. 

Just little things, like I used to have a rounded off nose at the tip but I love having a pointed tip now to make me feel like its the arrow to go any direction I choose to go.

Over the years I've mainly mucked around with the blending of rails from nose to tail and concaves. I have always ridden a hard edge in the tail of my noseriders which nearly everyone I come across does not. This is just because of the way I surf, I find 50/50 rolled up rails create a start stop style of surfing. I on the other hand just wanna keep going, I want speed as well as flow in every wave I catch. 

Recently my rails have become a bit more old school compared to the more shortboard rails I had on my Classic Malibu model and I've flattened the deck a tad more and added more curve to the bottom of the board. Just these minor adjustments add so much more flow and control for my style of surfing.

This new design with Thomas Bexon has really captured the essence of the way I surf I think. It has complete flow with every turn, and it sets-up and noserides like one bad arse muther fucker!

 

So what's exciting you in surfing right now?

 

The creativity that's around in surfing right now. There are some amazing things out there. The internet has connected the whole world with one click. No advertising, No agents, No showings. Just upload and click play. Every week there is something new on the internet to check out and cause I don't get to leave home much, this is amazing.

 

Jaidivision.com is your little corner of the internet?

 

JaiDivision; my alter ego you could call it.

 It's definately an extension of me. I have massive issues with doing too many projects at once, leaving me without one finished project. I had to find a way to control that and jaidivision has helped me structure my projects until they're finished. It's taken time over the years but my idea of having all the clothes / boards / art and photos I like available for anyone else is slowly coming together. Anything I think up to make and follow through with becomes available on the website. Although these days everything gets sold through instagram and Facebook before it even makes it to the website! 

 

You were working on a film project as well, can you tell us about that?    

 

Yes, I was working on a feature film and all last year I tried to find sponsors and/or backing to help me follow through with this idea. But money = time, I don't have much money at all, so i don't have much time. 

It's pretty much been put to the side, some of my footage has been sold to Steve Cleveland for his new movie and the rest I was going to make a little series of clips for the internet ( when I have the time ). It fully sucks, I had so many ideas, but hey. Some things aren't meant to be.

 

Do you consider yourself a pro surfer?

 

A professional surfer surfs as a job and makes their income from it. I've made about $1000 (Aus) and two surf trips out of it. So, NO. I defiantly ain't one!

Do you feel let down by the surfing industry? Surely someone with your talent and previous exposure should be able to make a modest living or is that something you have never pursued seriously?

 

I used to think that, and it got me down a lot. In 2011 I gave it one last shot, I tried hard to get a paying sponsor, even hit the big dogs, was ready to sell my soul to them and I would have given them everything if the opportunity raised. 

My job (as a painter and decorator) wasn't paying enough per year to survive and the extra money from a paying sponsor would have kept me from biting the bullet and heading inland to work in the mines. The mines were my last resort and this week ( first week of march ) is my first stint out into the mines in which I miss out completely on the Noosa festival Of Surfing, a first in a very very long time.

 I've had my go, I've had my chance, life has had different plans for me and now my family comes first.

 

 How do u juggle the demands of being a dad and providing for your family with surfing?

 

It is a juggling act, but lucky for me, I don't surf as much as everyone thinks I do!

 One, cause Noosa doesn't provide a consistent swell program and two, when it does, every man, his brother, sister, mother, father and dog come from all corners demanding a wave. That isn't a pleasant way to surf!

 I sneak my sessions in at what I think is the right tide at the Noosa points and all the other times I surf, I head to the beach with my girls and find a isolated peak. I'm running back and forth pleasing the mrs and pleasing my need to soak in salt water!

Your interest in the macabre comes across strongly in jaidivision, where does that come from?

 

I have been asked that on numerous occasions, never really having a answer. I've thought it through and come to the conclusion that my personality has been seriously depressed for a long, long period of time. It's been a massive struggle working through the bizarre thought process which enables depression to take hold. Death is a highly romantic form of weightlessness, which is very intriguing. and death and depression go hand in hand.

 So I guess my infatuation came from a disorder I had before I knew I had it. Like I always saw the light in the dark, the good in the misunderstood and the bad in the well established good. I rebelled against the common idea of what was right from a early age, I saw the holes in societies perfect behaviour and this observation stirred me right towards punk rock and goth. The two loves of my life to this day. My heart is punk and my soul is goth and thats the way it will always be. It makes me happy

Sounds like you've been through some dark times? 

Dark times, oh yes. The ironic part is that I used to be farking scared shitless of the dark, now I'm just as scared of the day, due to anxiety and depression. ( luckily I'm a great actor, hahahaha ). 

But yeah, I've been down that line of massive amounts of drugs, and still large amounts of alcohol. Self medicating, its a bastard, but sometimes its just what you need to survive in this demanding world. 

There is such huge expectations from others and yourself, especially growing up in Noosa where everyone is retired and has all their desires right at their finger tips. I don't blame anyone else for my actions, it was only my way to loose control to feel a gain of control and now that I have crawled my way back from rock bottom there isn't anything in the world I couldn't take on, it's made me strong mentally and physically with a lot of stories to tell over a few drinks.

 If you have never hit rock bottom, you don't know what your missing. The crawl back is one of the most satisfying struggles you can ever encounter. Thats what I live by.

You've obviously turned a corner and you're looking forward. What plans for the future do you have?

 

Right now I'm actually right on the brink of finding a complete sense of happiness within myself. I've done the pills, I've done the self medication and what works best for me is to just consistently create. Having 100 hobbies isn't a burden, its a luxury.

 So my plan for the future is to be happy, internally and dive deep into myself and throw out all the trash I've had hidden in there for so many years.

 

 what are those 100 hobbies?

 

My Girls, Reading, Learning, Nick Cave, Bauhaus, My Umbraluva's, Joy Division, Photography, Filming, Editing, Old AFI, Strung Out, Poetry, Short Stories, Horror Movies, and most of all a few quiet beers with a few mates.

 

Who inspires you?

 

People who don't give up, people who fight to live in this one chance life we have. People who have passion, people who strive to gain knowledge. People who are really happy, I mean happy with themselves, happy on the inside.

 The more people I meet, the more the percentage goes up on people who are just pretending to be happy. But when you get inside you see something much different. 

How do you feel about the state of longboarding at the moment?

 

I'll be happy when longboarding or "logging" isn't "Hipster" anymore. 

Do you feel that there is currently a push in the surfing media to create a "scene" around longboarding, something that can be used to sell stuff? Is that what you mean by hipster?

There is definatly a push at the moment, companies always want a piece of the "cool" (hipster) action. Thats all cool with me, everybody has got to make a living and if you're smart enough to jump on board and make a few bob out of it, congratulations to you. I would if I could.

"Hipster" on the other hand gives me the shits cause I like REAL people. Hipsters are the ones that are into something totally different every six months, changing their values again for the millionth time. Usually it'll be in correspondence with what ever is "IN" at the present time. 

That is a definition of "Hipster" to me, they're everywhere, in every scene. Longboarding is just the cool thing to do at the moment and I hate that cause it makes me feel like a hipster for doing it.

How do you feel about the big surf companies starting to move into this part of surfing? Is it a good thing because there is money for the people involved or are they trying to cash in and diluting something real and organic for their own ends?

I actually think its great,. The big companies are the only ones who can offer up that lifestyle, the smaller companies involved with longboarding don't have the money to provide that. Maybe it helps the companies sell stuff but at least the surfers can get paid without just riding 6'1 thrusters.

 I would love to be in that situation where your job was surfing and being creative, I only work hard at my job to give me money to do that.

Anyone you'd like to thank ?

I just like to give a big thanks to my Dad, he was really the only person who deserved a sticker on my board if you think of it that way. Without his time and the use of money he didnt have, I wouldn't be in surf mags, I wouldn't have travelled the world and met all the different people I have over my time. 

 

Thanks Jai i think that prety much covers it, anything you want to get off your chest?

 

Yeah, I ain't a hipster and I want nothing to do with ya "Hipster" scene.

 Please leave me alone.

 

www.jaidivision.com

www.jaidivision.tumblr.com

http://adventuresintrim.blogspot.com

it's always summer somewhere

The Waxhead - In the Bay from Andrew Gough on Vimeo.

Well we have some sunshine but the sea doesn't look anywhere near as inviting as this today. Not enough to tempt me anyway, so here's a little clip to go with your tea and biscuits while the fire flickers.......

Matty C. testing a McTavish involvement model. Looks like it goes great but i have a sneaking suspicion Chonno could make a door look good!

palindrome hunches

Neil Halstead has a new album out on November 5th called "Palindrome Hunches". Haunting, beautiful, melancholic and cementing his reputation as one of our finest singer songwriters. Really worth seeing him live if you can, he is superb!

On a seperate note, how annoying to have to wait for four failed courier attempts to find my house/ deliver something only to find it's smashed into 300 pieces when i finally get to open the box! grrrrrrr!

KOOOOOOOK!!!!

 

I'd completely forgotton sending Dan anything for the latest installment of Kook's palindromic surf smorgasbord so i was really excited to spot my little ode to summer evening stoke nestling in the corner of the first page.

 

Yet another reason to buy it and support independant, non corporate surf multi-national mouthpiece, grass roots, authentic surf culture

nippers

At the risk of being controversial........ I've never quite seen the point of surf lifesaving clubs. It all seems a lot too much like a serious proper sport to me with all the effort of paddling out without the earnt fun of riding waves afterwards. In fact there never seems to be much fun involved. Of course that's probably me being curmudgeonly and cynical in my (approaching) old age.

I always thought it might be a good thing for my daughter to get involved with when she was old enough, teach her confidence in the sea etc but my limited experience so far hasn't done much to temper my initial misgivings. It's all taken very seriously and competitively even at 7 it seems and that doesn't fit with us. I'm thinking i'll just keep taking her surfing myself where i can make sure she's having fun and not worrying about how fast she can race round a flag.

leading the charge....

I'm in the enviable position of acquiring two new wetsuits in the same number of weeks after Tim Heyland from Tiki very kindly gave me one of their brand new zepha suits to try.

It's a reassuringly warm looking 6/5/4 suit with a full time hood, super stretchy double lined neoprene, chest entry and liquid sealed seams. Tiki have ditched the warming packs from their old top of the line suit and moved production to the same factory that makes the top of the range o'neill suits. On the hanger it looks the business with subtle logos, mostly black with red shoulders and although obviously thick, the rubber has plenty of give to it.

As you might expect with a six mil suit, trying it on dry it feels a little restrictive and claustrophobically warm but the chest entry and exit is easy enough for this style of suit.

Once you're in the water, all thoughts of being stuck in the equivalent of a rubber straitjacket disappear.  I can honestly say that i didn't notice the extra thickness on the torso or legs compared to the 5/4 xcel i'm sporting in the photo above. It's also a revelation how much more comfortable a full time hood is compared to wearing a separate one giving a much more comfortable and free feeling around the neck and much less tension in my neck muscles post surf.

Paddling wise, the neoprene is so supple there's no feeling that you are losing mobility by being warm and nor did it feel cumbersome to surf in. Warmth wise, which is the important thing i guess, i can confirm that it's bloody good! The seams are watertight and even after an hour of duckdiving 3 foot beachbreak i had dry hair under the hood! I admit i've not exhaustedly tested it but i know a man who has and if it's kept Cotty warm taking cold, heavy, irish water on the head at prowlers and eileens, then i'm sure my first impression is right.

Winter hasn't been too cold here this year, the water is not as cold as it can get but i'm really confident that i'd stay toasty warm in the depths of midwinter with this suit. Much as i was impressed by the nineplus hasu suit i have, this is  the one i'll be grabbing for the dawn patrol for the next few weeks at least!

In other news, the love for Tim Mason is flowing freely and several kind folks have donated stuff to auction and contribute funds to the timmy mason trust. thomas campbell collectibles here and a stretch f4 quad, bag and fins here. Please support them if you can....

p.o.v

So, first film through the lomo lc-a came out, making it an utter ebay bargain at a tenner when they regularly go second hand for £60 plus. Slightly weird having to factor batteries into the equation when taking it on a trip and it didn't like the cold that much. I lost out on a couple of beautiful landscapes because the minus temps killed the battery. Not a problem with the mechanical holga or diana. That said, i'm really happy with the results!


The thing that struck me this year, and it's obviously a personal thing, is how devoid of stress snowboarding is, how much  pure enjoyment without baggage. My days of scaring myself over big kickers are gone and given the confines of family snowtrips, the chances of getting to stray too far out of bounds and into harm's way are slim. I'm proficient enough to take most things easily accessible from a small resort in my stride and experienced enough to slot back into the groove after a long break fairly quickly.It's instant gratification with little effort.


I've snowboarded a lot longer than i've surfed and i've seen snowboarding grow from the fringe, frowned upon, poorly equipped pastime it once was into the corporate run bona fide sport it now is. Many things have changed over that time (17 years, kinda depressing when you type it!) but one thing hasn't and that's the pure fun of riding powder.

For th un-initiated it's like taking the essence of swooping around on a perfect rippable wave and adding the ability to repeat as desired without the effort of paddling or relying on so many fickle elements falling into place. It's effortless weightless floating, swooping, slashing, playing out your every curren/slater fantasy on snowbanks. Racing friends through trees like speeder bikes in "return of the jedi". Cold shots of snow in the face making you feel alive as you power through the flakes still in the air from your turn before. It's the quiet that the woods and the poor visibility the heavy snow brings, the resort empty as fairweather types stay inside, your board swishing along, no louder than your breath steams out. It's big smiles..........................

intersection....

Plenty of you will have come across the names Tommy Guerrero and Ray Barbee on the music credits of Thomas Campbells surf movies, fewer of you will have recognised their names as two of the most influential street skaters ever. I was listening to one of Tommy's albums the other day and it struck me that they are the point where most of my interests collide, surfing, guitar, skating, music...

The Video part above is from "Future Primitive" and it was the first section of  american skateboarding i ever saw, it opened my eyes to what skateboarding was about, not long after getting my first board, sometime in 1988 i think. (although the film is from much earlier) It's actually held to be one of the first catalysts that kick started street skating as a "thing" distinct from ramp skating which was the dominant force within skateboarding at the time and it was massively influential, not only to skaters. If you think about it, the way good snowboarders (like nico mueller for example) ride the mountain, using natural hits as they flow top to bottom, it connects in a straight line back to Tommy ruling the hills of San Francisco. TG was my first favorite skater.

Fast forward a year or two and Powell Peralta released their "public domain" video. In this age of readily available web content it's difficult to explain just how exciting waiting to see the new powell video was, they were almost the only company making films then and virtually the only chance to moving pictures of skateboarding! Not far into the film was the black and white "rubber boys " section set to a classic skate punk track and featuring a young ray barbee. watch it here. One of the coolest things about this section was the flatland tricks (no comply's etc) that didn't need classic american urban architecture for us to emulate. I actually snapped the tape in the badly copied video of this film i had from rewinding and watching it too many times. Barbee is also significant in being one of the first african american skaters to become widely known.

So neither TG or Ray Barbee surf but they do know Thomas Cambell, part of the "beautiful losers" art scene and who originally worked as a skate photographer before becoming widely known for his art and surf film making. Through releases on his galaxia label and his use of their music in his movies,  both have begun to become known for their music as much as their contribution to skating.

Of the two, it's probably Barbee's clean bright jazz influenced noodling that i come back to more often. His tone and melody just say sunlight and mellow sunny happy days to my ears, whatever greyness my eyes can see outside the window. There's a pretty good introduction to him here or watch the clip below for a good introduction to one man, a tele, a bassman and a looper pedal!

hobie split

There are a lot of beautifully maintained hot rods and busses around california, a lot of occasions when i wasn't quick enough with a camera as they drove past. This beautiful splitty resides outside the main hobie store in Dana Point most of the time though so it's an easy target.

This weeks essential reading is "uncle Skello's what's hot and what's not" published every thursday on the Gulfstream blog. Everything you need to know to chart your way through the sartorial and cultural minefield that is staying cool,

Remember, support your local otter..... shaper, sorry!

CL13 out now!

The latest paper issue of Corduroy Lines magazine is available to order now. It's a limited numbers, no advert issue and features, amongst other things, some of my ramblings.

Go on, treat yourself and support non-mainstream, grass roots surf media.

Click here to get hold of it!

waxhead waxes lyrical

I'm  stoked to publish a link to my latest feature for drift, an interview with the waxhead himself Matt Chojnacki.

Matt is articulate, a super nice guy and a really talented surfer with a smooth and powerful logging style. He's one of the surfers who's exciting me at the moment and well worth checking out. Hope you enjoy the piece.

The photo above and the ones for drift are all by Matt Johnson, yet another young photographer who's talent makes me jealous!

how little they knew......

 

from wavelength magazine 1991

rocking the status quo....

Not the actual Quo you understand. I'm not advocating you go out and listen to caroline or rocking all over the world! I'm thinking more the way things are, there in your comfort zone. It's easy to get complacent, follow the same routines, the same well worn ruts to the same spots with the same boards.

Sometimes what you need is something from out of left field to make you sit up and take notice, make you take a look at things and see them from a new perspective, maybe give you the things you were missing even if you didn't realise they were absent. Just because things are easy, rubbing along nicely doesn't always mean it's the best way forward. Maybe there's a lesson for life, that you should keep looking forward, working at it, not rest on your laurels. It's fashionable to talk about "going on a journey" right now, reality shows are full of it but Shmaltz aside there's a kernel of truth there...

Case in point, the mini simm in the picture. Obviously a fashion correct hipster such as myself had to have one or i wouldn't be able to walk down the beach with head held high. Yet jesting aside, the mini simmons design and the thinking behind it has had a big effect on the daily surfing of a lot of people worldwide. It's a design that looks odd, feels a bit funny to surf initially but unlocks a huge amount of fun in marginal conditions. It's certainly redfined the way i've felt about small boards in small waves and is responsible for more surf stoked smiles than almost anything else in the last few months

chasing the dragon

On present evidence we seem to have had much of our summer sometime in April, it certainly was a better month for sun and swell than june so far. I spent a week of it on the pembrokeshire coast, a little surfing snuck in on a family break with my parents and sister.

 Most of my childhood holidays were in this part of wales. I rode my first wave on a polystyrene bodyboard at saundersfoot (quite how it got even knee high waves in summer i'm not sure!) first became aware of people actually surfing and it's really here that my love affair with the beach got started. Ironically i've only properly surfed up here a couple of times and i can honestly say it's the first time i've ever seen Newgale without blustery 4 foot onshore slop. This time i lucked into some quiet logging waves and light winds, both there and at Whitesands. It's a beautiful part of our coastline and it was fun to revisit, fun to go somewhere different than the well worn track down the A39

a fishy business

bada bing!

  

So i picked this board up second hand last year from a friend who brought it back from California, ironically it's now sitting in the corner of the condo i'm renting just north of Rincon, back in the golden state and still in one piece despite the baggage handlers best efforts! Officially its a 9'4 bing NR 2 (9'4 x 18 x 23 x 16) although it's fairly different from another friends older NR2. Not long after this one was bought, bing changed the NR2 model to the BN lightweight and i think this is more likely an early version of that model.

It's a parallel templated noserider, big nose concave, flat rocker with a lot of tail lift, soft pinched rails and a refined foil.  Where it differs from a regular log is in weight. It's purposefully glassed a bit lighter and foiled a little thinner than the traditional nuuhiwa style noserider template, the aim being to create a more manageable, versatile, traditional board. It's still got a little heft to it, we aren't talking progressive longboard style weight

I've ridden the board in beachbreak up to shoulder high and I have to say i think it's great! The relative lightness and the tail kick make it really loose off the tail. Pushing through your back foot yields really abrupt and satisfying pivot cutbacks. On the nose it's stable and fast, holding a high line well and letting you get ten or heels over with impressive ease. The lighter glassing also makes it feel really manageable in steeper or slightly larger waves than a heavier log might be suited to. I think it would make a good travel log as a result.

If there is a downside it would just be that it can feel a little twitchy as you transition from tail to nose (though once in a forward position it's stable) and it lacks the weight to cut through chop in quite the same way as it's stouter brethren...........but you can't have everything and the compromise does make this into a really good easy riding log style board, either to cover a few bases while travelling or for the lighter logger who finds dead weight & the momentum it gives difficult to reign in!

surfcheck..

 

 Even with all the sophisticated ways of predicting and checking the surf, swell and wind from your phone or desktop at work, nothing really beats doing it visually. Even if you have an idea of what you're going to find, the nervous anticipation of glimpsing sections of sea as you near the beach, teasing views with not quite enough scope to reveal the conditions at hand, rounding the last couple of corners to actually eyeball the 

waves........

Sometimes lo-fi is the best way to go