the way we were...

Sweet little clip from a sunny summers afternoon at my local from Pete Hill. Makes you realise that the logging standard here ain't bad for a surfing minnow like Devon. Even I managed to sneak a couple of waves in at the 0.50 - 1.12 mark!

I'd love to roll down to the beach in the sun right now but the recent storms have left it looking like a different place with cliff falls and the demolition of Jules's Beach hut Office. How the massive sand movement affects our high tide wave remains to be seen. We are all hoping the zippy left into the corner has survived!

slouch five

Proving that even at a slack wave like saunton, 17.25 inches of nosewidth is plenty for noseriding as long as you stuff the tail in the right part of the wave!

CP by ZG

Hopefully my being away from the coast is bringing the rest of you some nice waves like this. With any luck i'm surfing waves of fluffy snow as you read this on a shiny new snowboard.

I've got a new Lib Tech attack banana to try out which felt pretty good on the bounce around the garden test. It's got rocker between the bindings but an elliptical camber from bindings to tips so hopefully should still have the float and forgiveness of my old skate banana but give a little more confidence and edge hold at speed. I'll let you know.

The board is through my friend James Stentiford, peerless UK freeride legend and all around top chap. After qualifying as a proper mountain guide last year, this winter he has launched his own guiding company Stentiford snowboarding offering free riding and splitboarding courses in the Chamonix valley. If you find yourself in that area of the alps and want an inspirational day of snowboarding, especially if you fancy earning those turns then look no further!

merry christmas

To everyone that's made their way to this little corner of the internet over the past year. Hope you had it good! Charge your glasses ladies and gentlemen!

Photo of CP by Zac Gibson at Saunton a few weeks ago

levitation

It's a cliche but noseriding really does feel like walking on water sometimes!

Zac Gibson swum his head and camera into harms way! He's a young but talented photographer check him out here

Mc mushburgers...

 I'm sure that certain designs or types of shape suit some people's natual flair more than others, i think it's a two way process and I think it's interesting how riding different things influences and improves your surfing. What you ride changes how you surf, how you look at a wave and the lines you aspire to draw . It's something i really believe in.

I've been riding my dano old pleasure a lot lately but last week i swapped it's place in the van for the classic malibu jai lee, one of my old faithfuls.

The dano's definately pig influenced - narrow nose, wide tail and wide point aft. Getting it to perform means quick footwork, an almost exagerated level of body english and stall and trim style surfing. Especially at a slack wave like saunton, it needs to be kept in the pocket as much as possible and bogs quickly on the nose if you stray too far away. In the wrong place it feels sluggish and heavy, in the right spot it's loose and stable will beat sections from the nose in breathtaking fashion. It's also my heaviest board yet turns on a dime with a bit of grunt to help it rotate.

The Jai Lee is more of a conventional noserider shape, albeit with a bit of a hips back influence, and is a much easier board to surf.  This particular session i really noticed how much quicker my footwork seemed to have gotten and how much more power (in a pivoty sense) i felt in my cutbacks since i've been riding the dano. Maybe it's just my perception but it really felt like riding the dano and thinking about how to get it to work best had kicked up my surfing just a little notch, that i got a few seconds more on the tip, that my crosssteps were more surefooted, my cutbacks a little deeper, my surfing more fluid around the pocket.

Of Course i'm sure i still looked like a kook fromt the beach but i'm a legend in my own mind!

basking in the afterglow..

Full of stoke from an uncrowded twilight session in zippy small p-land. Back in love with my Dano and it's ridiculous section beating capabilities from the tip and cruising the net for further logging stimulation i turned this up.

It's a sweet little promo video of tudor's noseriding thing at the US open. Made for pacifico by Dana Morris, a talented young filmmaker and the guy who made "way of life", my most played surf dvd for a long time.

Enjoy wasting a few minutes of someone else's time....

Vive la france!

Scored some super fun waves in Brittany last week, while everyone was scoring at home. Couple of days on the log before it was time to break out a shorter board. This was Tuesday morning, we were the only ones out at first light for about 40 minutes. 

Massive thanks and apologies to the random french photgrapher, who took the pics, sadly i have no idea of his contact details to post as these were taken from a forum, but cheers Benoit!

7 waves....

The song is "59" from Brian Setzer's ignition album

cp in 7 from Chris Preston on Vimeo.

gotta love rubber

My 9'4 gulfstream log demonstrating it's suction when on the nose pretty well!

Shamelessly self promoting frame grab courtesy of Andy Haworth, currently hard at work on his film "Devon Lanes and Longboards"