lens flare

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.

5 summer stories

I did a little blog for Gulfstream again, five boards to ride this summer.............

https://www.gulfstreamsurfboards.co.uk/2017/07/07/5-boards-ride-summer/

by dawns early light

7'10 of Gulfstream speed egg goodness. Template is a mix of Russ Pierre's wild west shooter with a bit of Devon Howards takayama model mixed in. Ride report to follow............

a devon terrier.....

George with all the beach essentials! Thats my old Dano Old pleasure which has found an appreciative new home with Mr Barrett. I loved the shape but always found it had a little bit too much heft for my diminutive size to man handle in our beach break waves. It suits George to a tee and i always enjoy watching him pilot it through a busy saunton line-up

the swede

One of the nicest people you could hope to meet and always a pleasure to share a session with

minus digits...........

 

#coldwatersurf

I'm not one of those people that gets excited about winter surfing. It's difficult for me to love heavy water, big swells and the cold. Give me warm sunny point waves any day. Thats not to say that i dont enjoy it, theres little nuggets of pure stoke amongst the grind of the the cold and grey. One of the best things is the light of winter sunshine and the burn of a crisp day's sunset over the western horizon.

This iphone pic was snapped in the last rays of light with barely there fingers fumbling to catch the moment before wrestling out of my suit in a dark car park reliving the stoke of fun min-simmons waves.

worth the wait..........

just six months............

 

Just six months until it's all small clean warm waves, short wetsuits and long evenings. Patience.....

Happy New Year everyone

CP by Wavedreamer, Saunton Foil by Gulfstream

fin.

So i was killing time on the internet the other day during the inevitable downtime at work and i came across a thread on magic seaweed's forum asking about noseriding fins. It got me thinking a little bit.

There's a lot of time and marketing BS put into the idea of making a board noseride easily, fins, tail shapes, nose widths, concaves or no concaves, square noses, pointy noses etc etc. In reality everything really comes down to rider skill and wave positioning. A good longboarder can make pretty much any longboard noseride and most people who are on a quest for things to make it easier in reality just need more time in the right waves or a better idea of the mechanics behind it. Thats probablynot what you want to hear but it is true in my opinion!

A few years ago i would have probably told you that your fin was really important but these days i'm less sure. I think you're fin choice has far more influence on the way and feel of your board in turns than it does on noseriding. The classic position is that you need a big fin to noseride, the bigger the better - reference the dewey webber hatchet fin for example. But the truth is that as long as you have good soft rails and some tail kick, you dont need a big fin like that to hold the tail in or lift the nose. Likewise with nosewidth, it's less important thatn the rail and tail shape.

Case in point: I've spent a lot of time on logs with some kind of pivot fin. They have seemed to suit the stop/go nature of my tradtional style surfing but.....
I've done almost all my noseriding over the last year on the If6was9 log i've posted photos of before. It's foiled out, the nose is only 17 3/4 wide and the fin is a greenough 4a, which has a wide base but a narrow tip and some flex. It turns beautifully with more flow than a pivot and loosens the board up nicely, especially in faster waves. The board noserides really well and i've never had the tail skip out while hanging up front, even on a wave as fast as croyde! If there is a disadvantage it is just that the board is perhaps a little more sensitive and a little less stable - thats the trade off better turning that a smaller fin area gives, but that doesn't compromise it's noseriding, perhaps just demands a little more skill.

My feelings are in line with a global move away from big fins on logs, led by tudor and his duct tape crew. Cruise the net and they are all pretty much riding greenough derived templates. I'll leave you musing with jack lynch. The 4a isnt holding him back!



+THE SEA OF POSSIBILITY+ JACK LYNCH from Nicholas Damen on Vimeo.

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!

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

just like dunlop

 

Rare example of me on the other side of the lens, frame grabbed from Joel during one of those fading light, making the most of it sessions. Friends in the water bringing far more fun that it looked from the water's edge

Introducing The Konstruktor - The World's First Build-It-Yourself 35mm SLR Camera from Lomography on Vimeo.
Might have to put one of these on my letter to santa!

inspirational

This is James, saunton local and a pretty inspirational surfer. He's just as surf stoked as any of the younger crew and probably logs more days in the water than many of them. I can only hope that i'm as active in 30 years time!

freshly mown..

A freshly shaped 10 foot Gulfstream saunton foil model, waiting on the racks while the foam dust settles.

I only make it over there every so often but it's always a pleasure to hang out with Jools at the gulfstream factory for an hour or so. He's always stoked on the latest batch of boards coming through and really cares about offering a proper handmade custom manufacturing service.

bob...

 

Rob Martin is one of my heros, one might almost say he's a living local legend, although he would hate me to describe him this way. In fact he was pretty reluctant to have his picture taken and i'm sure would hate the fact i've posted it here.

 

Ever since i moved here, Rob has been a fixture at saunton, on a log and for the last few years on an SUP. He's a good neat surfer with a litheness that belies his age and he's got more surf stoke than most people of half his years.

 

I really hope i have the desire and physical strength to still be surfing like that when i approach my seventies!

sundowner

A date for your diaries, Bing Copeland and hopefully Matt Calvani from Bing surfboards will be around the village on the weekend of the 15th / 16th september. I'm not entirely sure of the details yet but there is supposed to be a demo day at saunton on the saturday morning and something happening in conjunction with the surf museum on the sunday. Keep an eye on the Nineplus, Trim surfboards and surf museum websites for details!

hut, hut, hut

Possibly now one of the most photographed sites in North Devon! Full marks to Jules for selecting such bright colours!

I wonder if beach huts are a british thing? I cant remember noticing them on my limited foreign beach experience. I will continue my research from a french beach break perspective this week, hopefully in sunshine and better swell than Portugal provided.

Vive La France!

decisions, decisions...

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