wait for the hook....

The next installment of views from california. This is a glassy set wave peaking up at The Hook, just south of Pleasure point in Santa Cruz. Lovely short paddle out in giant lulls through kelp beds then slightly overhead reeling right handers section chasing down the point. This particular morning was unusually quiet compared to other times i checked it. The kelp was so thick in places you could feel it pulling at your fins and leash, alomost enough to pull you out of the wave at times. It sounds weird but you could almost imagine getting tied up in the fronds underwater when you duck dived or wiped out. It was too fast for a log, i rode the seapea but even that had a little bit too much foam. My friend Matt from SF loves this wave on a fish and i can really see it being a great board selection.

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

film still rules / love c street!

Much a i like the immediacy and convenience of having a camera and editing software in my iphone shaped trouser pocket, shooting film is still the best. Manipulating an instagram picture this much might seem contrived and yet this is just a straight 120 film scan from my holga complete with light bleed and weird colout cast from the cross processing. I love the fact that you never know exactly how the picture is going to turn out until you scan the negative.

I'm pretty stoked on this one. It's from the county fairground parking lot in Ventura at the top of the C street point, somewhere i surfed quite a few times on this trip. Although the Santa Barabara/ Rincon area is littered with right hand points, most of them only properly wake up in winter when the swells come from the north. In summer, C street is the go for many locals and it is a really fun wave on a log when its small or a fish when its bigger. Despite the crowd, it's pretty mellow in the water and usually has multiple sections / take off spots to thin the pressure on the sets.

As with most of the waves i surfed, even on days that the locals considered sub-par, it was better than 99% of the waves i surf at home.

big sur

The drive from Carmel at the south end of monterey through Big Sur and down to Hearst Castle is just jaw droppingly beautiful. It's difficult to keep your eyes on the highway as it twists it's way from headland to headland for 50 miles or so. It's impossible not to keep screeching to a halt every couple of miles to drink in the next stunning vista that just revealed itself. This is maybe halfway down, mid afternoon and one of many such photo stops.

roadside gems.....

With a summer south swell, Highway 1 on the mid-californian coast is peppered with little gems. This is just north of Cayucos and brought our tyres screeching to a halt. It's not in the guide books and it would be easy to miss but it was a fun right hander with a pretty much flat water paddle out from the little bay in the foreground. Long period swell and glassy conditions with a little bit of kelp to smooth the chop certainly helped too

ghostly

a pleasure

This is probably my favorite photo from our Californian trip, taken in Santa Cruz at about 8 am from the sidewalk above The Hook at the south end of pleasure point. I was still dripping wet from a glassy headhigh session on the Seapea, avoiding the thick kelp beds and chasing and racing perfectly shaped right handers down the point.

I've never surfed in such a thick layer of kelp before. It's weird paddling through it, you feel a little like its going to grab you as you duck dive and hold you under and it pulls at your fins as you take off. Like all of the california coast, it's beautiful and having a couple of sea otters breakfasting just outside the line up only added to the picture.

at rest

Simple Pleasures

rocking out

This is Morro rock, in Morro bay, home to a good beach break and a lot of noisy sea birds. We only really passed through on our way south but i scored head high glassy peaky waves on my Seapea early one morning.

Seemed like the seapea was the perfect second board to take with me, short enough to be fun in the faster peakier beach break waves but flat enough and with enough foam to make the most of small summer swell. This and a session at "the hook" in Santa Cruz were two of the best sessions ive had on this board.

i bet on sky....

Latest in a long list of random pictures and post titles loosely related to music. Answers on a postcard please............

look north

Familiar places from unfamiliar angles, a break from the norm and a fresh eyed appreciation of whats always been there...

Inspiration 2.0

Pilgrim Film: Manuel Caro from Pilgrim Surf + Supply on Vimeo.

As far as I'm concerned, California is pretty much ground zero as far as surfboards are concerned. There are two or three shops that always have a huge selection of mouth-wateringly beautiful resin tinted logs, eggs, fish etc. Icons of surf in San Clemente is always good to drop into with friendly staff and a board room that would make your Visa card sweat!

Further south is Mitches North which has a similar but different selection, usually with a couple of Manny Caro's Mandalas tucked in amongst the rack. Manny cut his shaping chops up in San Francisco with help from Rich Pavel and was initially known for a superb version of Pavel's speedialler, double bump quad fish ( believe me they are SO good!). Since then Manny has moved to Leucadia and found his own path, mixing elements of hulls and Simmons but putting his own twist to create something that's a little different than many of the mini Simmons influenced designs out there. Similar to Jeff McCallum, many of Manny's shapes are just that little bit quirky but they all work great. He's a really nice guy too if you ever get the chance to meet him.

I've been a little bit obsessed watching the clip above. Classic playful, glassy Californian waves and the smooth fast lines of a Mandala ASQ quad ( for most of the video, the last two waves are an arc tail quad which is closer to a normal mini sim) It looks like a real fun board, generating speed like a mini sim but carving more like a quad fish. Whether you believe the "variable rocker" flex in the tail or not, it looks like a fun board and one I'd really like to try!