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!

told you so....

just to prove tudor still has it, and to celebrate the fact that some good quality single fin action got some serious exposure with not a rubbish progressive longboard aerial in sight!

Sadly the clip misses knosts board pinballing through the pilings and a couple of harrison roaches good waves.

Although it's all "traditional" longboarding, there's an interesting contrast in styles, here's what Thos had to say:

 Knost's attractive style is like a meta-language, beautifully stitched onto his surfing technique. Cool, show-offy, contemporary, cultural. Tudor's flowing style is more like nature: as if he's somehow made himself as a surfer into a new species. Tudor reminds me of seeing dolphins and seals playing in the waves.

It's almost as if they have inverse psychological desires from surfing: Knost to develop his ego and communicate with people; Tudor to dissolve his ego and become part of nature.

I think he maybe has something. I've long felt that your style comes from within and says somthing about you and your personality, one reason that good style is difficult to force, i think you naturally have it or you don't.

Sorry about the gratuitous stealing of videos, back to homegrown pics for the next few!




p.s. meant to blog a link to this before and forgot. Sure it will relate to more than a few of you!

a barrel-fest of epic proportions!

Brit filmaker Ross Johns just sent me a copy of his new film, Fusion which is already out and available online here or from most good surf shops. It might just completely re-define your idea of british surfing and the quality of our waves. Here's my review for Drift

The shelves of your local surfshop are filled with a steady stream of new dvds each featuring an all star cast of action heroes pulling into monster barrels in Tahiti or pulling monster airs in Indo. Yet the number of movies celebrating our homegrown talent is woefully small. Having already seen some stills from some of the sessions included in Fusion, it was with a fair amount of excitement that i slipped it into my dvd player.

In the shops as you read this (or available through http://www.surfclips.co.uk) it aims to reveal British surfing and British waves at their best. It's been a labour of love for filmaker Ross Johns over the last three years and has lead to many an uncomfortable night asleep in the car and many a junkfuelled petrol station dinner.

From the start, there's no delusions of Thomas Campbell, there's no chin stroking celebration of how cool we all are for being surfers, this is straight up surf porn. Set to a pumping soundtrack of dance and guitar bands, it's a balls to the wall barrel fest of epic proportions.

If you are unaware of the quality of the current crop of top British surfers, or you are unaware quite how good some of the waves in the UK are, you will be picking your jaw up off the floor time and again. Some of the slab waves are very scary looking indeed with tow or paddle entry and the quality of the camera work is good. It's not all pits either, a large number of lips get well and truly slayed over the 60 minute(ish) running time along with some pretty progressive aerial surfing as well.

It's filmed all over the South West, shows the brown water of North Yorkshire at it's best and features some of the recent slab sessions in Caithness at waves like Bagpipes that have been well documented in Carve and others.

The cast list is a veritable who's who of UK shortboarding from Russ Winter and Stokesy (who has a good section as does Mark "Egor" Harris) to newer names like Tom Butler. Reubyn Ash is perhaps the only notable not present.

There's a dash of progressive longboarding in the mix too. Adam Griffiths and Ben Skinner wield their nine foot sticks into turns that most people dream of doing on boards three feet shorter, before they prove they are both equally at home on shorter, skinnier equipment.

This isn't "Thicker Than Water", its not trying to be. It is a great document of where we are right now and almost certainly shows the highest level of homegrown surfing captured on video to date. If it doesn't inspire you to pull in deeper or smack the lip harder the next time you surf then nothing will!

man on a mission

Not even snow and sheet ice can keep an addict from his fix! Short cold hike in was rewarded with a fun clean chest high session where the nasal passage was well and truly explored. Haven't ridden this log for months, pretty light by my standards (still heavy by most peoples!) but really fun to surf it for a change, even if i only chose it cos it was the lightest one to carry!

of hulls...

So i've had my hull out a few times over the last few weeks, although i'm still waiting for that classic lined up summer swell where saunton does it's best right hand point impression. So far it's been super fun, such a smooth feeling in trim and so fast once you set a high line. BGA likened it to riding a bar of soap. It's pretty difficult to cutback, they need to be nursed a little but i am loving the full rail hull bottom turn, so smooth with such projection. It's not a board that will allow you to impress bystanders with your radical turns but it's all about feel & i am beginning to get a little addicted...

fifty words

This week should see the relaunch of Drift magazine . After a, sadly shortlived, foray into print they are going back to their roots as a rapidly updated online portal for surf editorial with a focus on real surfing, not just the antics of the top 44. As far as i am concerned this is a great thing, not least because i have been asked to be part of their global blogging team ( which also includes such luminaries as Tom Wegener ) but also because i believe they have something interesting and relevant to say that is an alternative to the sometimes blinkered view of the more established surf press. Please support them!

I've had to come up with a 50 word "mission statement" to sum up where i'm coming from for their contributors page, hopefully this covers it:

North Devon, Logs, Fish, Vans, Brian Setzer, Gamboa, Red Sox, A Quiver Approach, Tudor, Gretsch, Knost, Tens, Jamie Lynn, Adventures in Trim, Stills, Heels, J Mascis, Heavy Boards, Fender, T. Moe, Surfers Journal, Final Cut, Powder Turns, Sprout, Andy Davis, Mac, Right Hand Points, Black Van, Seedling, Film, STYLE IS EVERYTHING!

fusion

My friend Ross is busy filming a new british surf movie, working title "fusion". There will be a mix of short and longboard stuff & he has some sick footage in the can so far. The pics are from a recent trip to a secret slab in Scotland. More pics here.

Not sure on the release date but will be one to look out for!