decisions, decisions...

If you haven't visited the Museum of British surfing yet, why not!!

bellyboards are cool

FACT!

Difficult to explain the fun to the uninitiated but much like handplanes, body surfing and surf mats, there's a lot of fun to be had from this most simple of surfcraft. Even on the messiest day they can provide some much needed saltwater based smiles.

The two in the picture are amongst the oldest surviving surfcraft in the country. The one with the slats across it was made from an old coffin lid and resides in the surfing museum collection.

commuting.....

Couple of promo shots of Pete Robinson, founder of the museum of british surfing on his way to the beach keeping the chill off in his finisterre jacket. The museum is open now and finisterre helped support the opening.

Most of you probably know about finisterre but if not, they make exceedingly fine outdoor type clothing, perfect for dealing with our climate pre and post surf. It's as ethically sourced as possible and great kit.

surf museum open now!!!

The Museum of British surfing is now open! Massive congratulations to Pete and the team for making it through the long process with all it's trials and tribulations. It's located at the side of the main car park in Braunton. Please make time to come and visit and support it, it's preserving our nations unique take on surfing and it's really worth your time and support.

a private view

Behind the scenes, work on getting the surfing museum off and running by next summer is in full swing. At the moment the collection is housed in a store at a secret location. Last week i spent a couple of hours lugging boards around helping out on a photo shoot. It's the first time i've been to the store and seen the whole collection, the place is a true Aladdin's cave of surfing memorabilia. There are some beautiful vintage and not so vintage boards and loads of posters, newspaper clippings, belly boards, old boardshorts and wetsuits.

The pic above (not mine i might add) shows an old Tiki board catalogue and an old photo from Putsborough in May 1965. It's a weirdly timeless image, a longboarder in forward trim in shorts and a neoprene jacket, it could just have believably been taken this week & posted on a blog from So Cal!

See more pics from the shoot here

Hopefully everyone got some waves this weekend. There was plenty of swell around up here on friday and saturday but plenty of wind and plenty of people. Still there was some fun and some beatings to be had if you were in the right (or the wrong) place at the right time. I saw one friend who suffered a scary post leash breaking swim in at croyde and another local that has an arm in plaster after an incident at Saunton on friday evening!

Sunday brought some really fun logging waves despite the kooks and it was fun to get back on a board over 6 foot for a few. Pretty much flat today unfortunately but at least it's sunny.

The green gulfstream below still needs a good home.....

f in good news!

One of Randall's stock boards already has a new home, inside the vintage splitty owned by Pete from the British Surfing Museum, along with a bespoke surfing museum pivot fin to finish it off perfectly.

Understandably Pete is stoked, not least because the Museum of British Surfing is officially happening. As of last week, there is funding guaranteed and the paperwork is being signed to give a permenent exhibition and event space in the centre of Braunton, North Devon. Official opening is set for summer 2011 and the team have lots of exciting plans to go with it. All pretty exciting news and full credit to Pete and B for slogging through the hoops to get it done.

click here for the official word

The Museum Of British Surfing is getting closer.......

Completely failed to come up with a witty title or repartis for this post so read no further, just click here to visit the new British Surfing Museum website.  I can't tell you anymore about the progress with the plans as i'd have to kill you all afterwards but believe me it's getting closer and it's very exciting!

waxing up too