Adventures in Trim

dawn breaking....

2012-01-29T08:30:00.000Z

As you head north, the trade off for shorter days is witnessing some beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Fingers and technology battling the below zero mercury

p.o.v

2012-01-26T08:06:00.002Z

So, first film through the lomo lc-a came out, making it an utter ebay bargain at a tenner when they regularly go second hand for £60 plus. Slightly weird having to factor batteries into the equation when taking it on a trip and it didn't like the cold that much. I lost out on a couple of beautiful landscapes because the minus temps killed the battery. Not a problem with the mechanical holga or diana. That said, i'm really happy with the results!

The thing that struck me this year, and it's obviously a personal thing, is how devoid of stress snowboarding is, how much pure enjoyment without baggage. My days of scaring myself over big kickers are gone and given the confines of family snowtrips, the chances of getting to stray too far out of bounds and into harm's way are slim. I'm proficient enough to take most things easily accessible from a small resort in my stride and experienced enough to slot back into the groove after a long break fairly quickly.It's instant gratification with little effort.

I've snowboarded a lot longer than i've surfed and i've seen snowboarding grow from the fringe, frowned upon, poorly equipped pastime it once was into the corporate run bona fide sport it now is. Many things have changed over that time (17 years, kinda depressing when you type it!) but one thing hasn't and that's the pure fun of riding powder.

For th un-initiated it's like taking the essence of swooping around on a perfect rippable wave and adding the ability to repeat as desired without the effort of paddling or relying on so many fickle elements falling into place. It's effortless weightless floating, swooping, slashing, playing out your every curren/slater fantasy on snowbanks. Racing friends through trees like speeder bikes in "return of the jedi". Cold shots of snow in the face making you feel alive as you power through the flakes still in the air from your turn before. It's the quiet that the woods and the poor visibility the heavy snow brings, the resort empty as fairweather types stay inside, your board swishing along, no louder than your breath steams out. It's big smiles..........................

boats@noirmoutier

2012-01-23T09:39:00.000Z

do you see a theme?

flotsam...

2012-01-19T07:37:00.000Z

and bexon!

chief hip wiggler

2012-01-15T06:46:00.000Z

james parry

Setting off for london today on my way to the north of sweden for a little snow fix. I have my thermals packed and fingers crossed the minus temps will bring a little of the fresh white fluffy stuff and i can break out my craig kelly arms / live out my slater fantasies on unsuspecting snow banks!

intersection....

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000Z

Plenty of you will have come across the names Tommy Guerrero and Ray Barbee on the music credits of Thomas Campbells surf movies, fewer of you will have recognised their names as two of the most influential street skaters ever. I was listening to one of Tommy's albums the other day and it struck me that they are the point where most of my interests collide, surfing, guitar, skating, music...

The Video part above is from "Future Primitive" and it was the first section of american skateboarding i ever saw, it opened my eyes to what skateboarding was about, not long after getting my first board, sometime in 1988 i think. (although the film is from much earlier) It's actually held to be one of the first catalysts that kick started street skating as a "thing" distinct from ramp skating which was the dominant force within skateboarding at the time and it was massively influential, not only to skaters. If you think about it, the way good snowboarders (like nico mueller for example) ride the mountain, using natural hits as they flow top to bottom, it connects in a straight line back to Tommy ruling the hills of San Francisco. TG was my first favorite skater.

Fast forward a year or two and Powell Peralta released their "public domain" video. In this age of readily available web content it's difficult to explain just how exciting waiting to see the new powell video was, they were almost the only company making films then and virtually the only chance to moving pictures of skateboarding! Not far into the film was the black and white "rubber boys " section set to a classic skate punk track and featuring a young ray barbee. watch it here. One of the coolest things about this section was the flatland tricks (no comply's etc) that didn't need classic american urban architecture for us to emulate. I actually snapped the tape in the badly copied video of this film i had from rewinding and watching it too many times. Barbee is also significant in being one of the first african american skaters to become widely known.

So neither TG or Ray Barbee surf but they do know Thomas Cambell, part of the "beautiful losers" art scene and who originally worked as a skate photographer before becoming widely known for his art and surf film making. Through releases on his galaxia label and his use of their music in his movies, both have begun to become known for their music as much as their contribution to skating.

Of the two, it's probably Barbee's clean bright jazz influenced noodling that i come back to more often. His tone and melody just say sunlight and mellow sunny happy days to my ears, whatever greyness my eyes can see outside the window. There's a pretty good introduction to him here or watch the clip below for a good introduction to one man, a tele, a bassman and a looper pedal!

hidden in plain sight

2012-01-07T08:20:00.000Z

a diamond in the rough

waxhead approved

2012-01-05T09:23:00.000Z

Friend of the waxhead and living australian rock a billy legend
Pat Capocci letting those fingers fly

only sheep bear witness

2012-01-03T08:25:00.000Z

windswept seclusion = joyful memory

coastal cruising no.2

2011-12-31T07:41:00.000Z

Happy New Year one and all, yes i know it's slightly premature but reading blogs will doubtless be low on all your list of post celebration things to do tomorrow morning so i'm getting in early!

The last couple of years i've listed my top three "funnest" boards of the year at this point but 2011 has been a year of transition in my quiver with a bit of a clearout followed by some new acquisitions so i thought i'd list them all as they stand right now, when i'm happy with all of them and not bored of anything enough to sell right now!

So here goes:

5'2 Tyler Warren for Hobie Bar of Soap.
5'6 Gulfstream twin keel fish.
5'6 Jeff McCallum Mford
5'8 Larry Mabile classic keel fish
6'10 Spence by Tim Mason displacement hull
9'4 Bing NR-2
9'4 Gulfstream CP model diamond tail saunton foil or "old faithful!"
9'4 Squire Dirk of doom (gato death dagger inspired pointy log!)
9'5 Dano Old Pleasure
9'6 Classic Malibu Jai Lee 1 model

If i'm honest, it's the bar of soap and the mford that i'm most excited about surfing at the moment, both different branches of the simmons inspired tree, both blazing fast and loose, both great on our frequent average days as well as the good ones. Of course ask me in a couple of months and i'll probably give you a different answer!

Incidentally, the photo is topanga in case you were wondering!

coastal cruising no.1

2011-12-27T07:29:00.000Z

carp

seasons greetings..

2011-12-25T08:31:00.000Z

the merriest of christmasses and best wishes of the season to everyone!

crystal cottages

2011-12-23T06:27:00.000Z

Taking the title for my girl's favorite californian beach is historic crystal cove, just up the coast from laguna beach and one of the bays that make up a state park. There's a beautiful golden sand beach and tucked into the dunes a collection of wooden cottages in varying states of repair. Back during the depression they were built by a group of locals keen to escape the awfulness of the times and live simply by the sea. They became a favorite area for artists to work before many fell into disrepair. The Californian State Park authority purchased them all a few years ago and is busy restoring them, rebuilding, painting them. It's possible to rent them to stay in now as well although word has it it's difficult to get a reservation.

It's a spot you could easily drive right past on PCH 1 but there's such a cute feel to the place it's worth stopping and taking the time to visit.

soap and chair no.1

2011-12-19T07:36:00.001Z

Feels a little like groundhog day around here, the pattern of big lows but strong westerley flow has wrecked any plans for surfing my local for the last few weeks and i'm starting to worry i might actually have forgotten how to surf by the time i get in again. The water temp will undoubtedly have dropped by the time the wind eases and the rubber quotient will have risen to the full gimp suit level as a result!

Listening to others plans for imminent departure for sunnier climes is not helping either! At least there's plenty of christmas cheer around in the village to keep our spirits up!

les dunes

2011-12-15T08:42:00.000Z

Dear Santa...

2011-12-11T09:00:00.000Z

If that special someone in your life is casting around for christmas pressie ideas, here's a book that it might be worth dropping a few hints about..........The Surfing Tribe by Roger Mansfield..........

The british isles has rich and storied surf history but for many years, not much of it was written down, that was at least until roger mansfield took the task in hand and started to write "the surfing tribe"

Originally released in 2009 and now back in a second, updated edition, it's a beautifully presented book, crammed with high quality photographs and little vignettes of the places and characters that have populated british surfing over the years. From the outside, its a mind boggling task to begin, even if you experienced much of it firsthand as Roger undoubtedly did. It must have taken a huge amount of work to bring it together. The resulting tome is well researched and lovingly written with a section for each of the surfing areas in the country, detailing the history of the scene in each place. The prose is easy to read if a little simple at times and the scope of the information is vast which perhaps necessitates the slightly simplified approach. While the focus is very much our own country's stories, the worldwide history of surfing is told in broad strokes which helps to contextualise our history within the greater whole.

Like much of history, it's the characters within the stories and events that make it interesting and as the name suggests, the sufing tribe is very much about people rather than places and things. With surfing's counterculture past it's little surprise that the book is filled with tales of wanderers, dreamers, chancers, visionaries and hustlers. Names that still grace our surf landscape today and names long forgotten, tales of derring do and those with better luck than judgement.What comes through it all is a peculiar britishness to surfing in this country, something the book rightly celebrates and something that we should be proud of and celebrate more than we often do. Surfing in our damp windy isle is not quite the same beast as it is in sunnier climes and this comes across well in "The surfing tribe".

All in all its a worthy addition to any coffee table or bookshelf. I like to think that I have a reasonable grasp on the past but I learnt many new things, not least about the stretch of coast closest to my front door. I enjoyed it and I think you would too!

searching for a life less ordinary.....

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000Z

aren't we all?

douglas e powell

2011-12-03T08:06:00.002Z

The exceedingly talented, Mr Douglas E Powell. Acoustic singer songwriter tinged with americana, english folk and melancholy. Wholly deserving of your attention!

BGA

2011-11-30T08:18:00.000Z

Al, architect and onetime art director for Wallace and Grommett, reflecting on another quiet fun offshore logging session while the masses battled unfavorable winds elsewhere.

It's starting to be the season for finding the quiet corners out of the wind, for boots, more rubber and rather depressingly gloves and hoods before very much longer. With the dark evenings and winter storms, it's the time of year that my mind starts to focus on climbing (indoors) a little bit. Al is often on the other end of the rope as i dangle two storey's up desperate to clip the bolts before my finger strength gives up. Quite a position of trust if you think about it....... i must remember to stay on his good side!

It's quite refreshing to be able to pick a day and time to go do somthing and not have change plans for weather or tide at the last minute. We're pretty spoilt for choice around here for indoor climbing at the moment. The excellent bouldering room in Pilton school is getting about a third bigger as we speak, Barnstaple has walls in Petroc and an old church, the Mill near south molton is still open and exeter has the quay, reviewed in a previous post.

For those a little further along the coast, Bude just got a brand new bouldering facility, called the chalk house, in the kings industrial park on the edge of town. It's not been open that long and i went to check it out last week. It's a decent size, not as big as say the climbing academy in bristol but bigger than the bouldering areas at exeter or south molton. A lot of the wall is slab rather than overhang though they have plans to add a proper roof area soon they say. It's got a fairly lo-fi feel with ply rather than coated climbing wall surface and is obviously born out of a few peoples passion rather than a big investment by a business. On the day i went, they had just had a comp on so there were fewer routes than normal but there were still 50 routes up. They were ungraded but the majority weren't too hard, many of the steeper ones having fairly juggy holds, which i think is a good thing for a part time climber like me. One big difference compared with other places i've been is the height. The wall tops out at 4.5m which, although is regulation international contest height, feels a long way up when you're clinging horizontally on bad holds lunging for an uncertain grip!

All in all it's pretty cool and great to have another alternative if you're down that way and the surf forecast lied!

flathead

2011-11-26T08:15:00.000Z

solace in a six string....

2011-11-24T08:30:00.000Z

One of the peculiar (and also best) things about surfing is how all-consuming an activity it is, while you're out there i mean. There's the oft-used quote of the "church of the open sky" and hackneyed though it is, the sentiment behind it rings true. For me, and for lots of others too, no matter what's going on in our lives or how busy or stressed we feel, we can leave everything on the beach and let our minds be all consumed by the activity itself. The lines of whitewater serving as breaks to disconnect a busy mind as we wade out, the physical effort bringing peace through repetition of simple action. The rhythm of the sea, not the ticking of a clock dictating the pace of the activity. It becomes a touchstone, a constant in our lives, marking the passing of events, helping to deal with the peaks and troughs, a stillness we can come back to, a place of refuge in a sea of change.

Playing the guitar is a lot like that too. I've been playing a long time, counting up just how long makes me feel old, and though the desire to play waxes and wanes as the years pass, it never leaves. It's hard to explain to a non-player but, though your mind is partly focussed on making your fingers move, letting the notes flow through you and out of your fingers, especially while improvising, brings a kind of relaxing that makes minutes drift by and nothing else matter. Sounds cheesy typed out but some of you will know what i mean.

As an aside, i was well into music before i picked up a guitar. Not long afterwards, I remember one day looking across at my guitar in the corner of my bedroom and thinking how cool and amazing it was that pretty much all the music i'd ever heard or would ever hear could be coaxed out of those six strings. The breadth of the human condition and the full gamut of our emotions expressable for anyone with enough imagination. My tastes and views are more mature and broad and sophisticated now but its still true and its an idea that still fills me with wonder whenever it flits through my conciousness.

black rock

2011-11-22T08:06:00.001Z

Relaxing in North Cornwall on a warm summers day, remember those? Incidentally here's a random question, are we the only country around that has windbreaks? The americans don't. In all probability people in countries with proper warmth dont bother to go to the beach on a day that's windy enough to need one!

gul

2011-11-18T07:02:00.000Z

So after a brief lull in swell and wind hereabouts, it's back to some solid groundswell and breezy conditions again. Almost all my surfs recently have seem to have been battling some kind of strong wind, whether onshore or offshore and as usual i've not had the time to seek shelter on the bigger days. Summer's mellow sessions feel long gone and winter feels just around the corner.

It made a nice change then earlier in the week to slide into some unexpectedly fun thigh high glass at low tide croyde of all places. Even at that size there's some speed in the wave and getting up on the nose and back requires some deft footwork, especially as it tends to be quite A-framed at lower tides. I took the pointy squire log in and i have to say, in the type of wave it is built for (i.e hollower and fast), it really lit up, light enough to feel responsive not tracky from the back as it zipped along in trim and really solid despite it's narrow nose on the tip.

Having headed beachwards with little expectation of a dip, an hour, alone in the line-up in the fading sun brought big smiles.

In other news, i tried on one of the samples of the new Nineplus Hasu chest zip suits this week.
All black with a subtle gold logo, it features the lightest, stretchiest single lined yamamoto i've seen. Really looking forward to mine arriving in a couple of weeks now!

on the line.....

2011-11-14T07:58:00.000Z

where the streets have no name...

2011-11-10T09:26:00.000Z

well they do......... it's just in french!

wood is good

2011-11-06T06:41:00.000Z

keep your head up.....

2011-11-02T09:43:00.000Z

Keep Your Head Up - Ben Howard from mickey smith on Vimeo.

Hopefully most of you that read this from the UK will be aware of both Ben Howard and Mickey Smith ( who directed this video ) already. If not then i'm going to encourage you, along with our american cousins, to check out his album. It's really very, very good!

a minor disaster...

2011-10-30T08:54:00.000Z

So in my minds eye this was a cool little set up for a photo of a new addition to the quiver (it's a 5'6 Mccallum Mford just so you know!) All good until i dropped the camera about ten minutes later...... Much of the charm of taking pictures with toy camera's like the holga comes from there cheap build quality yielding quirky images. It also means they are very much basically cheap crap plastic!

So i dropped the camera, lunged for it, nearly grabbed it, watched in slow motion as it bounced off my outstretched hand onto the pavement, inwardly groaned as the back of the camera flew off exposing the nearly finished roll of 35mm to bright daylight...........in the words of the great homer simpson DOH!

Thankfully i only lost a couple of pictures, a few were unscathed and these two i sort of rescued in iphoto. All part of a fairly crappy week where my laptop died taking a load of files with it and i came within an ace of rolling my van but thats another story!

I'm going to write a proper report on the board when i've ridden it more but first impressions are that it's really fun, even in utter junk surf, up and planing early with a really shocking amount of lateral speed with a real positive on rails feel and without the slip slideyness of wider tailed simmons shapes. Oh and it looks beautiful, a real eye pleasing shape with a real organic tactile feel, much like a nice hull has........anyway......

for the daily commute

2011-10-26T07:21:00.000+01:00

Reissue not original but very sweet all the same, stacey peralta warp tail, trackers and cambria wheels. Loose as a goose and oh so much fun.

Mega thanks to Gavin at surrey skateboards for taking so much pleasure in sorting me out, it was greatly appreciated!

hobie split

2011-10-22T09:38:00.000+01:00

There are a lot of beautifully maintained hot rods and busses around california, a lot of occasions when i wasn't quick enough with a camera as they drove past. This beautiful splitty resides outside the main hobie store in Dana Point most of the time though so it's an easy target.

This weeks essential reading is "uncle Skello's what's hot and what's not" published every thursday on the Gulfstream blog. Everything you need to know to chart your way through the sartorial and cultural minefield that is staying cool,

Remember, support your local otter..... shaper, sorry!

torn like an old dollar bill.............

2011-10-20T11:00:00.000+01:00

Possibly the best laminate ever!

Ride report to follow soon but this video pretty much sums it up.......

ruby's

2011-10-18T07:23:00.000+01:00

So Ruby's is a chain of classic american style diners that are scattered along the coast. They are based on the stereotype we all have.... red vinyl boothes, waitresses with 50's make up red gingham dresses and white pumps, malt shakes etc. This one in laguna has some period correct cars out front too. Sounds kinda cheesy doesn't it? But you know what, it's fun and they make superb burgers!

you know he means it

2011-10-13T08:52:00.000+01:00

I have a few cherished surfing memories that i hold on to, a couple down the coast, a couple overseas. One of my favorites was watching Skip Frye surf his local wave at Tourmaline, from the beach and the line up. He exudes class, ocean knowledge, positioning and an understanding of trim matched by few world wide. His lithe movements belie his age and i can only aspire to surf half as good as i move into my dotage. The pic above is actually Rincon (another place of memory) and comes from Andrew Kidman's "Lost in Ether" book which is what this preamble is buliding to.

It's a beautiful film and book project and like all of kidman's work is something of a gem. It's probably best described as a love letter to the art of surfboard building, particularly to the backyard tinkerer's and surfer/shaper/wanderers, often at odds with the machine of the "surf industry" following their own trip and enriching our collective cultural experience as a result.

Thos posted a great review here and so i'm not going to go into huge detail because i think he nailed how i feel too. If i have a criticism, it's just that, like litmus and glass love, it sometimes feels a little unfocused without a distinct narrative but that doesn't interfere with my enjoyment.

Something that does come across strongly in all of Kidman's output, this being no exception, is how much he really means it, from the minute questioning of rail and bottom theory to the handwritten thank you for ordering note in the envelope. Much like the shapers he features, Kidman himself is something of a wanderer, a deep thinker, often railing at the percieved status quo. His work often questions more than it answers and through it all is a feeling that he cares passionately about surfing as an entity, and not in the business or conventional sport sense but as a way of being. He's someone who has frequently put his own money where his mouth is and as our "sport" becomes more and more integrated into the mainstream, people like Andrew become more and more important to help us hold onto what makes surfing so special for so many people. I'm sure he feels like he has a responsibility to almost "curate" and preserve and celebrate that which the industry machine ignores as not commercial and more power to him for that.

I'm sure he will never read this, but thank you Andrew!

CL13 out now!

2011-10-11T10:24:00.000+01:00

The latest paper issue of Corduroy Lines magazine is available to order now. It's a limited numbers, no advert issue and features, amongst other things, some of my ramblings.

Go on, treat yourself and support non-mainstream, grass roots surf media.

Click here to get hold of it!

the seedling

2011-10-09T07:27:00.000+01:00

Still one of my favorite surf films and one that still stands up (in my eyes at least) to repeated viewing. I'm an avowed Tmoe fan and it's difficult to underestimate how much watching my original VHS copy of the seedling back in 1999 shaped my surfing aspirations.

doho

2011-10-05T06:49:00.000+01:00

Both trips to California, i've spent a fair amount of time surfing at Doheny, mostly because it's convenient for a quick session before family duties. It's a measure of how many quality waves there are on this stretch of coast that a spot like this is relegated to also ran status. Yeah for sure it's not killer Dana and it is a bit mushy, the preserve of longboarders and the butt of surfer magazine jokes. The truth is that with some sunshine, a little south swell and a log it's a really fun wave with a mellow friendly local crew who are happy to share a few sets with a traveller.

If you own the extras disc for one california day, it's the wave where tyler warren is surfing his 11 footer., take a look and you'll see what i mean. I'd trade our average local conditions for consistent waves like that!

way down west.....

2011-10-03T06:32:00.000+01:00

In the Morning from Frankie Davies on Vimeo.

Mike Lay cruising in deepest west cornwall. Mike is another of the Young crop of stylish loggers from the Sennen talent pool riding Rob Wright's slide 65 boards. Looks like it's working for him!
i'm guessing a lot of you are reading this with sore muscles after gorging yourselves on a week of fun waves, i certainly am. With a decent quiver of boards to choose from, there's always a sneaking suspicion that you brought the wrong one to the beach, but not this week. The last few days i've put a few more hours into learning to make the bar of soap fly and let me tell you, its well worth the initial rave i posted. Its such a fast board, i honestly think that despite being only 5'2 it's the fastest ive ever been on a surfboard and with that short rail line engaged it glides through the sweetest roundhouses. The mini simmon's family of boards are ridiculous fun and well suited to our waves, it kind of suprises me there aren't more people riding them yet!

waxhead waxes lyrical

2011-09-30T08:33:00.000+01:00

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!

stuck in third?

2011-09-27T07:39:00.000+01:00

spiderman?

2011-09-25T09:00:00.000+01:00

Exeter just got a brand new climbing wall and i went to check it out a week after it opened. Called Quay Climbing it's located in an old electricity generating station in the Haven Banks area of the city. It's been really well done with a massive lead wall ( 15 metres at the apex!) and plenty of routes on slabs and overhangs from 4 up to around 7c. There are about 7 routes set up on auto belay's which allow you to climb without a partner to hold your rope, great if you post up on your own like i did! There are two bouldering rooms with lovely soft floors and a lot of routes ranging from v0 up to around v6 at the moment. Behind the desk, there's a friendly team, the man in charge is actually Paul who originally set up the Mill wall near south moulton and they have little cafe for decent coffee too.

The wall is open now but, rather excitingly they hav climbing superstar Chris Sharma coming on the 14th October to open it officially. Should be a real treat to watch him monkey around in real life!

life is just swell.....

2011-09-23T07:28:00.000+01:00

Dave Allee, owner of Almond does his best catalogue pose

meanwhile in real life.....

2011-09-21T09:30:00.000+01:00

So i obviously keep this blog fairly exclusively about surfing, but real life has to encroach on things from time to time. I'm pretty proud of my business and the way we look after people so please allow me to blow my own trumpet here just this once!

We are a friendly, family dental practice in Braunton, North Devon. We have a focus on looking after our patients in a relaxed comfortable environment with the highest of professional standards. We provide modern preventive dentistry, helping you to look after your mouth and prevent future problems whether you are 1 or 100 years old.

We know most of you hate coming to the dentist so we try to make things as pleasant as possible. Not only can you be sure we will treat you painlessly with the best possible treatment options tailored to your mouth's needs, you'll know we will treat you as an individual and have your best interests at heart.

Our waiting room has comfy sofa's, a tv, current magazines and free wi-fi so you can relax while you are waiting as much as possible. Once you're in our light modern surgeries, you can watch tv or your favorite dvd on our ceiling mounted tv's while we treat you and hopefully make the experience as pleasant as possible.

We offer a full range of general dentistry and have several dental hygienists to help look after your teeth well as your gums.

Working in conjunction with some of the best labs in the country, we offer a full range of cosmetic dentistry including tooth whitening and veneers as well as filling gaps left by missing teeth with bridges or dental implants.

We are Denplan Excel accredited which means we have been independantly inspected and given an award for the quality of the service we provide.

We pride ourselves on being friendly, approachable and welcoming. We think it's important to spend time talking to you to make sure you understand whats going on in your mouth.

Click here to see our facebook page and find out a bit more about us!

01271 813721 or email us

OK plug over, normal service is now resumed!!

fare thee well friend

2011-09-19T09:08:00.004+01:00

Nearly time for Rob Lion of Royal surfboards to wave goodbye to our windswept shores and resume life on the other side of the pond. Opinionated, experimental but a thinker with a passionate surfing heart, although our pathes have crossed only occasionally in a physical sense, each time has been a pleasure and Rob's company is something i always look forward to. Sadly i didn't make it down to the fish fry last weekend, sounds like i missed a great day as well as the chance to say farewell in person!

Good bye and good luck Rob, hope all goes well for you. Make sure you stay in touch!

soap and chair no.2

2011-09-17T09:13:00.000+01:00

almond

2011-09-15T06:03:00.001+01:00

I spent a little bit of time hanging out with the almond boys Dave, Jake and Taylor at their shop on the edge of newport/costa mesa. It's about a mile inland from Blackies and is a really cool little space, a mix of lovely boards, bamboo, vintage shelving, kind of a little bit tiki without the chintz. They have been there for two years now, quietly producing 100% handmade surfboards, logs, fishes and single fins, some japanese wetsuits, carving their own little niche in a busy marketplace. The whole venture has a friendly low key organic feel made for friends by friends vibe, without seeming exclusive or over concerned with it's own importance.

Their boards work too, designed by owner Dave and production shaper griffin, most have handmade wood fins as standard. Cyrus Sutton is riding one in his stoked and broke film and their "collective of enthusiasts" also includes ex womens world champ Schuyler Mc ferren so there's some respected feet on their craft. At the moment there are a few available in Europe but none in the UK though if there was some interest i'm sure it would be possible to get some over here.

Theirs is the sort of young grass roots outfit that deserves support

I'll leave the last word to Dave

"Weʼre in the business of keeping people stoked, because stoked people keep us in business."

make like elvis

2011-09-13T10:21:00.000+01:00

Hip Wiggler Invitational 2011 from Insight Europe on Vimeo.

Hip Wiggling

pining for san o....

2011-09-11T09:44:00.000+01:00

churches_old footage from Mark Choiniere on Vimeo.

I could really do with a little session like this right now!

In reality i'm hosting a group of young professional colleagues for a surfing lesson with the excellent surf south west. I've done it for the last few years and there is definately something refreshing about watching total beginers experience the stoke of laboriously clambering to their feet for a split second before falling off. Big genuine smiles from the simplest of pleasures.

monsieur le chef

2011-09-09T08:03:00.000+01:00

So back from France and home to conditions that resemble the hundred year storm at the end of "point break" with gale force onshores and too much swell. Thankfully we just avoided a ferry back in these conditions, I'm certain it wouldn't have been a pleasant crossing!

The friendly chef in the photo stands outside a bistro in st Gilles croix de vie, in the vendee about an hour north of la Rochelle. The beach breaks all looked super fun but we only saw them breaking at six inches on probably the only totally flat week of the summer. Gutted! Perfect for the little 'un to trim along her first green wave. Definately little acorns....It was baking hot and sunny with plenty of vin rouge and moules frites to help pass the time, all of which makes our sudden headlong rush into autumn seem all the more saddening.

In other news, James Parry's hip wigglers went off last Saturday at gwithian, there are reports of real high quality logging and some great pictures leaking out. Little bit gutted I missed it but thank you James for the invite! James just left blighty heading to Ca for the Malibu duct tape next weekend, neatly coiffured as usual and with a shiny new slide 65 under arm.

Issue 13 of Corduroy Lines is nearly ready to buy as well, its a proper homegrown longboard magazine and each issue gets better. Sure this one is no exception! you can pre-order from corduroy lines.com.

Right i'm off to batten down some hatches, or something like that!

leadbetter

2011-09-07T07:34:00.000+01:00

A few hundred yards from the great sushi shack on santa barbara harbor. Very mellow righthander breaks off the point in the distance but lack of swell and no lack of SUP's prevented a first hand assessment of it's quality!

under iron skies..

2011-09-03T08:34:00.000+01:00

sano samba

2011-08-30T07:32:00.001+01:00

just one of the many beautifully looked after busses cruising round So Cal.

While you read this i'm hopefully sat in some french summer sunshine, eating good cheese with a baguette and red wine while glassy waves peel offshore...........or something like that!

mini mega stoke.....

2011-08-28T07:30:00.005+01:00

my 6 year old makes me proud.............. i still think the shopping gene will end up expressing itself more storngly in future though!

refugio

2011-08-26T06:22:00.001+01:00

What the Santa Barbara area might lack in year round swell, it more than makes up for in potential for fun when the swell does come. This is Refugio, yet another friendly right hander about 25 minutes north of town. Tiny but perfect fun!

how little they knew......

2011-08-24T07:59:00.000+01:00

from wavelength magazine 1991

z boy

2011-08-22T08:24:00.000+01:00

Jake Z, part of the Almond crew, smooth logger, one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet and nearly as surf stoked as me eh Jake? :-)

going right

2011-08-18T06:43:00.001+01:00

slip sliding away..

2011-08-14T07:03:00.001+01:00

Over the last few weeks i've been trying out a 9'6 james parry model by Slide 65 out of gwithian, shaped by Rob Wright. I really wanted to like it, it looks great, the black stealth finish is cool and i like the way Rob has consolidated the younger sennen crew over the last year, providing a rallying point for the talent they have and starting to give their little scene a collective identity. Unfortunately so far i've found it's not quite my cup of tea..............................

Admittedly the one i have is a protoype, they have pulled the nose in a little on the newer ones. This one is medium weight, a relaxed log style rocker, 9'6 x 18 x 22.75 x 14.75 x 2.7/8. Where it differs from a classic log (and where i think my own feelings stem from) is in the rails and the base. The rails are 60/40 rather than 50/50. In another departure, there is a fairly deep concave in the nose but this mellows and extends back to 3/4's of the length of the board. The idea is to create a really fast trimming board that noserides well but cuts back with more performance than a standard heavy log. It uses a greenough 4a fin to aid in this respect.

So to the review........... Paddles great, people often make noises about concave boards paddling badly but i honestly don't think it makes that much difference, rocker does though and the rocker here is nicely judged, flat enough to feel stable while trimming and walking, just enough lift to make steep takeoffs a possibility. It does trim fast, in a peaky wave it outruns the pocket quickly and it is good on the nose, stable and responsive. It's off the tail that my problems manifest, and i should be clear i think this is more to do with a mismatch between my surfing and the shape rather than the board iself. While the concave helps as you move forward, from the back, to me the board feels a little awkward, sometimes whipping round, other times feeling sticky and catchy without the smoothness i'm used to. The slightly harder rails add to this feel. As a result my surfs have been peppered with moments of brilliance and frustration in equal measure and i've struggled to feel like i'm in sync with the board.

I think it likes / needs a little steepness to the wave for starters (which almost everywhere but saunton has!) I also feel that i've ridden so many logs with varying degrees of belly over the years that my style has evolved into a particular groove that doesn't fit here. Mine is a (hopefully) smooth style guiding the board through turns with gentle weighting of the rail with footwork , a real stall and trim style. I haven't ridden a progressive flat bottomed longboard consistently ever and not at all for over 5 years. James, on the other hand, as well as being a great surfer, spent a lot of the last few years riding competition boards where turns are more about planting your weight and driving the board around and i think this board fits far better with that style. It's probably a good log for someone who rides a "modern" longboard as well which ultimately isn't me!

I feel a little bad about posting anything negative on here because i like what Rob and friends are doing. Hopefully this comes across as fair and balanced and that it's not the boards failings that are the issue. This is just one model out of several that Rob makes and i'm sure there are others that would suit just fine, hopefully i'll get to try something else in the future!

logtacular....

2011-08-12T08:25:00.000+01:00

Adam Greenman, friend of The Stig, all round top chap and UK importer for Bing, Jacobs, Junod and lots of other californian goodness just revamped his website........finally! Believe me it's been a long time coming! So instead of looking out of the window at the gloomy british weather click on over and drool over some fine surfcraft..................

business as usual..

2011-08-10T08:47:00.002+01:00

After a run of fun little groundswell waves a couple of weeks ago it's back to the British summer time we've become used to, finding the pockets of sunshine between the showers and making the best of the onshores and windswell while the holidaymakers shelter behind their windbreaks and brave the low temperatures in their speedo's. That said, yesterday had a fun little wave despite the onshores and was topped off by pushing my daughter into a whitewater wave and watching her get to her feet for the first time! She's goofy but I can live with that! Big smiles all round in our household last night!

If you're around Newquay this week, the relentless boardmaster's is on which is best described as a mini US open type thing. Elsewhere, there's a couple of interesting things on the horizon...

Fresh from his semi's berth at the joel tudor duct tape in spain ( with an invite to the next one in malibu) James Parry is putting on his own single fin thing. The Hip Wiggling Invitiational Single Fin Gala is at gwithian on the 3 & 4th september and promises to be a beacon of style in a contest season filled with butt wiggling and people attempting lame airs on longboards.

A couple of weeks after that, Royal and friends are hosting the European Fish Fry at Crackington Haven in North Cornwall on the 17th September. Visiting US shapers to be confirmed but it promises as usual to be a fine day of surfing and chinstroking over alternative board design. Hopefully my brownie point bank account will be full enough to release me from familial duties for the day and i might see some of you there!

rolling in SB

2011-08-06T08:20:00.003+01:00

Beach cruisers on the boardwalk are a classic californian stereotype in the world at large but the reality is that they are ridden by huge numbers of locals completely without irony. As i've blogged before, cruisers are fun to ride (on the flat) and a sunny beach side path is just about the best place to ride one.

This is a schwinn that i rented in Santa Barbara, a company that have been making these bikes for a long time. Not quite as nice to ride as my electra but a couple of hours cruising the coast path in SB on this one was one of my favourite parts of the trip.

trim kings....

2011-08-02T08:07:00.004+01:00

One really cool thing about surfing in california is the amount of natural life in evidence all around you. Perhaps thats more true of the slightly less urban beaches but there are seals and dolphins swimming through the line up, kelp fronds grabbing your fin and smoothing out chop, lizards scurrying past you feet as you walk down the beach paths and of course the pelicans.

There's something really pleasing about watching a group of pelicans glide past, in formation like WW2 bombers on a mission. The way they glide with wingtips mere millimetres above the water surface, never touching, harnessing the updrafts along a walling wave before climbing high, folding their wings and dropping like an arrow into the water to bob up seconds later, nonchalent and still.

They make our honking seagulls seem yobbish and louche and i never once spotted one attacking a beachgoer for his sandwich!

the dirk of doom

2011-07-31T08:30:00.002+01:00

Absolutely not a death dagger.........9'4 x 16 x 22.5 x 14.75 x 2 7/8 by the Squire

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, i ordered a surfboard from a wandering minstrel. I didn't get quite what i asked for. I'm not going to rehash the whole story here, the tale was posted previously and you can read it here. I felt somewhat let down and nervous of re-entering the kingdom of kegel again.

As luck would have it, the Squire who hosted the wanderer did feel that something should be done. After measuring the original in great detail he ordered his workers at seabase to shape a replacement, pulling the original template out to the dimensions i'd wanted but otherwise copying the original as far as possible.

The result is the beauty in the photos, which (apologies to john) don't come close to doing it justice. The tint is ace and the finish really out of the top drawer. It's flat, foiled out with soft pinched rails, a hint of concave, a tiny bit of tail kick and some gentle belly in the back. The fin is a slightly raked volan flexy affair, taken from the original gato board. The proof as they say, is in the eating and however good a board looks on the rack, it's in the water that it's true nature is exposed. This isn't supposed to be a noserider, more of a tool for what we might term the new involvement school of surfing, referencing the surfing of Chonoski and Knost and friends, who in turn are influenced by Nat Young and friends of the magic sam vintage. Namely pocket noseriding with full rail commited turns in a traditional sense. (i know what i'm talking about even if that's confused you!) It's made for waves with good shape and a little pace but not necessarily size.

In the water, it paddles fine, as well as modern progressive longboard. Take off's are a little late compared to a true log but the lack of nose area helps avoid pearling despite the flat rocker. It trims fast and feels responsive and alive under your feet although it demands quick footwork. Bottom turns have a nice spring off the flex in the fin and cutbacks whip around with weight firmly over the fin. In short, a lot of fun and similar to the gato. Noseriding is obviously more of a critical affair with a 16 inch nose but with a steep pocket forming around you and quick feet the board will lock in nicely. In fact, in bowly little waves, the narrowness probably works in your favour making it feel much more manageable. It trims fast and holds really well on the nose through sections and cheating five while head dipping is particularly fun. It will allow a brief ten over though thats hardly the point of the excercise. It is exactly what i wanted and i feel somewhat vindicated that the dims and shape i originally envisaged do perform how i imagined and ultimately how i wanted. It's definately a departure from most of the longboards in the uk right now, not that easy to surf and most definately not everyone's cup of tea but......... For someone like me who rides longboards a lot but has no interest in the 3 finned variety, it's a really fun departure from the norm.

So there you have it, the best and the worst of the custom surfboard experience in one episode! Big thanks to John Isaac for sorting it out patiently and Phil Hodge for taking care with something out of the ordinary. If you're looking for a new board squire are worth considering. contact john here or here

As an aside, if you have read the comments on the previous post you will see that robbie did offer to swap the board for a used one of his or shape me another (at cost!) when he came back to europe this summer. Perhaps unsuprisingly he's already here (& perhaps gone who knows) but no contact to make good on the promise so far.

patience.....

2011-07-27T07:02:00.001+01:00

It's a virtue........ or so we are told, everything comes good in the end if you have it.

I got to thinking the other day that so much about surfing involves patience. For all the flurry of action when you're actually riding a wave, there's a lot of waiting, for sets, for swells, for the tide or wind. Waiting even to get a chance to go to the beach. It's only with patience that you can accept the waiting with good grace, take the long term view. It's not something i'm particularly good at, maybe lots of you are te same. Modern life is lived at such a frenetic pace we rarely slow down, any tiny delay the cause for frustration, often the recipe for conflict in our crowded line ups. It's worth remembering, making yourself remember, the timeless words of duke kahanamoku.

"Wave come"

skomer landing

2011-07-24T08:12:00.004+01:00

A classic holga happy accident but i kinda like the light leak on this one

just like marmite......

2011-07-22T07:52:00.003+01:00

Al Knost x Malibu from RVCA on Vimeo.

Alex Knost is a bit like marmite in that he tends to divide opinion. You either love his idiosyncratic style and take on surfing or you don't. Personally while i'm not a big marmite fan, Knost is pretty much my favorite surfer. Whether his latest foray into shaping will last and whether his boards work or just look like they do because he surfs so well only time will tell....

get clean

2011-07-20T09:10:00.000+01:00

with a bar of soap..........in this case 5'2 stringerless, shaped by Tyler Warren with Daniel Partsch wood keels......

Kind of an impulse purchase. As previously noted, i've been loving my point concept velo sim over the last year. It's resulted in a few raves on here but at 5'8 it's always felt like i could have gone smaller. Tyler Warren's bar of soap version of a simmons had caught my eye and i knew there were small numbers available through Thalia and Surfy surfy. I thought about ordering one before our trip out to california and JP from surfy surfy did get me the chance of a board but for a variety of reasons i didn't commit.

Imagine my delight then, when i wandered into the Hobie store in Dana Point to see this advocado tinted beauty tucked in behind the SUP's. With the good fortune to have sold a couple of boards before we left, the temptation was too much to resist and i caved in with little resistance!

It took a while for the stars to align and for me to get a chance to ride it. No matter how much you like the look or idea of a board, it's not until you catch the first few waves on it that you know if your enthusiasm has been well placed.

At 5'2 , 22 wide and 2.5 thick, there's still a reassuring amount of foam. Very little rocker and a distinct foil out to the rails so they are less chunky than my velo sim. Bottom wise it's belly to single concave to a fairly deep double concave through the fins which are a little closer to fish keels than the half moon classic sim shape.

It paddles well, great for it's size and no more difficult than a 5'8 fish would. Like wise it's into waves easily, getting in early or late if necessary, the short length really helping despite the flat rocker.

First wave was a chest high mushy righthander and the board flew, in fact it flies in everything i've had it out in so far. There's less belly and more concave than my velo sim and this manifests as a much more "alive" feeling once you are up and riding with a real big squirt out of the bottom turn. It's so short that it's easy to get on rail and wrap around a cutback and the short rail line makes it feel much more dynamic and connected to your feet backside, despite the tail width.

Whereas the velo sim feels like a hull with a fish's ability to cutback, this feels like my favorite larry mabile) fish with a rocket attached! Needless to say, i'm amping and i don't think it's just new board euphoria. Further reports to come as testing continues!

a moment of singular joy

2011-07-17T08:49:00.001+01:00

There's nothing quite like the moment you round the final bend to see glassy lines rolling in and no one in the water. Of course it doesn't happen often in todays crowded line ups but when a little effort yields this kind of result it's a moment to savour!

authentics....

2011-07-15T07:37:00.000+01:00

So Joel Tudor is bringing his Duct Tape invitational contest and atendant circus to Salinas in Spain 28th to 31st July as part of the longboard festival held there. There's a heavyweight list of loggers confirmed to attend but among them is UK vans rider and sennen super styler James Parry which in my book makes a very cool thing even cooler! Hopefully James will get the chance to show off his considerable skills and do us proud.

As an event it's one of the few relevant contests that exist in longboarding right now, with a focus on proper style and single fins. I really wish i could check it out in person.

If you are lucky enough to be close by more details here

cdm for cetaceans

2011-07-14T09:01:00.000+01:00

Chris Del Moro, all round ripper, environmental activist and owner of probably the best beard in surfing (despite stiff competition from keith malloy!) is in Newquay this weekend, hosting a screening of the new documentary Minds in the Water. It's at Newquay cinema on Sunday 17th July at 8 pm.

There's a buffet/ art music thingy in cafe irie from 6 and an after party at the Chy bar from 10 pm. Read their press release and more details here

watch the trailer here

tickets from the cinema on 08712003304

There's a screening at the screening lounge in soho in london on the 20th as well.

I know he'd be stoked if you could come!

enough said

2011-07-13T07:18:00.000+01:00

queen of the coast

2011-07-09T07:20:00.005+01:00

So i was lucky enough to surf Rincon a few times on this year's trip to california, something i missed out on last year. Obviously it's traditionally a winter break but it does get a little swell in the summer and let me tell you it is every bit as good a wave as you might expect from it's reputation, even with less than ideal swell conditions!

The shape is fantastic, a powerful pocket and a nicely tapering shoulder, more speed and power than i expected. Fun when tiny on a log but i can imagine a hull being a mindblowingly good speed race there at medium size

Obviously it gets super busy on a decent swell but the cove was pretty quiet when i was there, friendly mostly older locals, happy to shoot the breeze bobbing in the lineup. I think my favorite thing though, is just how immersed in nature it feels, even given how close the freeway actually is. Dolphins regularly swam through the lineup, pelicans dove just feet away, even the scrub path from the parking lot is populated by scurrying lizards and nervous bunnies.

i'd better stop now or i'm liable to get a bit depressed about not living there! :-)

L

rocking the status quo....

2011-07-07T08:35:00.000+01:00

Not the actual Quo you understand. I'm not advocating you go out and listen to caroline or rocking all over the world! I'm thinking more the way things are, there in your comfort zone. It's easy to get complacent, follow the same routines, the same well worn ruts to the same spots with the same boards.

Sometimes what you need is something from out of left field to make you sit up and take notice, make you take a look at things and see them from a new perspective, maybe give you the things you were missing even if you didn't realise they were absent. Just because things are easy, rubbing along nicely doesn't always mean it's the best way forward. Maybe there's a lesson for life, that you should keep looking forward, working at it, not rest on your laurels. It's fashionable to talk about "going on a journey" right now, reality shows are full of it but Shmaltz aside there's a kernel of truth there...

Case in point, the mini simm in the picture. Obviously a fashion correct hipster such as myself had to have one or i wouldn't be able to walk down the beach with head held high. Yet jesting aside, the mini simmons design and the thinking behind it has had a big effect on the daily surfing of a lot of people worldwide. It's a design that looks odd, feels a bit funny to surf initially but unlocks a huge amount of fun in marginal conditions. It's certainly redfined the way i've felt about small boards in small waves and is responsible for more surf stoked smiles than almost anything else in the last few months

more sun pleeeeeeese!

2011-07-05T07:48:00.000+01:00

and a bit less wind and some nice quality swell while you're at it!

moving pictures...

2011-07-02T09:15:00.001+01:00

Surfing Anorak that i am, i'm always looking out for new dvd's to keep me stoked while the sou' westerlies blow. This dvd popped into my mailbox a week or two ago, the new film from Mikey Detemple, the man behind Picaresque which came out a couple of years ago, called Sight Sound. With great anticipation i popped it into the dvd player tray and it's been living in there since!

Although he does wield a camera, Mikey mostly takes on an actor/director role and steer his films firmly into the artistic side of the endeavor with little in the way of voice or titles cluttering the piece. The film flows past smoothly and in full colour from one section to the next, with a "modern electric" soundtrack that is a hell of a lot better than that description makes it sound!

Like Picaresque, Mikey made an effort to seek out some of the road less travelled while gathering footage. This time we are treated to, amongst others, spitting Nicaraguan beach break barrels, sub zero snowbound Canada, dusty baja zippers and colorful Barbados.

There's an eclectic mix of surfcraft to fit with an eclectic mix of surfers. Chris del Moro clearly rips on anything, Ryan Burch makes slabs of foam look fun and there's plenty of high quality logging on offer from Detemple, Kassia Meador, Scotty Stopnik and Justin Quintal, an east coaster that few will have heard of but many will remember. There's some good footage of Tyler Warren and Detemple on mini Simmons style boards too, maybe the first footage on DVD outside richard kenvins sphere of influence and making them look just as fun as they undoubtedly are. The Canadian footage is high quality too, even if it does look ball achingly cold! It's somehow gratifying to watch pros donning full suits boots and gloves to surf in 40 degree water and snowstorms just like we do!

My favorite section features a rifling right hand Mexican point which looks almost cape st Francis perfect. Jared mell and Kassia Meador feature heavily, their contrasting styles creating a counterpoint like a conversation through the footage. Meador smoothly logging some of the most impressive women's longboarding I've seen while Mell's highly technical almost jagged and urgent "knost-esque" style sitting on the other side of the coin. Mell is exceedingly good and has perhaps the longest hang heels ive ever seen committed to film.

The overall feel is similar to picaresque although the production crew and many of the cast have changed. There's a more balanced mix of short and long equipment, warm and cold water. The most obvious difference is a hike in production values from last time. There's a more lush feel to the shots and some of the footage is shot on 16mm film stock.

It's altogether less "self congratulatory" feeling this time, something that picaresque was criticized for, I really liked it and it's stood up to repeated viewings so far.

Perhaps the best way of rating a new surf film is by answering this most simple of questions..........." did it make me want to go surfing?"

In this case, the answer......."HELL YES!"

check out the trailer here............mercifully the star wipes are not in the actual film!

Nick Lavechhia's photo by the way!

rhyme for the summertime..

2011-06-30T06:41:00.000+01:00

By the time Garret "G Love" Dutton kickstarted Jack Johnson's career with his Rodeo Clowns single , he was already four fine albums deep into a career that's still going strong today. I forget exactly where i heard him for the first time, i think it was on mark radcliffe's old late night show on radio 1 in the early nineties, or maybe on the soundtrack to an early snowboard video at my friend ed's house. What i do remember is how the mix of blues sounds with a strong groove and elements of hip hop topped with g love's laidback delivery was something i'd never heard before. Hell he just oozed cool!

After starting out busking acoustic blues on the streets of philadelphia before hooking up with "special sauce" his sound has evolved several times over the years but it's his early stuff i still like best. He's a very fine slide/acoustic blues guitarist and really underated. check his youtube channel for some evidence! (under the moniker phillyglove) He's still one of the best artists i've seen live and his first couple of albums are well worth re-visiting or discovering for that matter!

the bing's the thing

2011-06-26T08:20:00.000+01:00

chasing the dragon

2011-06-22T08:55:00.000+01:00

On present evidence we seem to have had much of our summer sometime in April, it certainly was a better month for sun and swell than june so far. I spent a week of it on the pembrokeshire coast, a little surfing snuck in on a family break with my parents and sister.

Most of my childhood holidays were in this part of wales. I rode my first wave on a polystyrene bodyboard at saundersfoot (quite how it got even knee high waves in summer i'm not sure!) first became aware of people actually surfing and it's really here that my love affair with the beach got started. Ironically i've only properly surfed up here a couple of times and i can honestly say it's the first time i've ever seen Newgale without blustery 4 foot onshore slop. This time i lucked into some quiet logging waves and light winds, both there and at Whitesands. It's a beautiful part of our coastline and it was fun to revisit, fun to go somewhere different than the well worn track down the A39

the kook 2

2011-06-21T08:49:00.000+01:00

Out Now,the second installment of Dan Crocketts labour of love, The KOOK.

In his words:

*****What is the KooK?******

*24-page Independent Surfing Newspaper
*Pink Newsprint
*UK-printed paper from sustainable forests
*No paid advertising
*Almost 90 Global Contributors
*Available worldwide to your door

Buy exclusively through http://thisrichtapestry.blogspot.com/

I'm proud to be one of those contributors and i'm amping to get my grubby mitts on an actual paper copy. If it's anything like the last issue it's going to be thoughtful, aesthetically pleasing and well worth supporting. I think Dan deserves congratulating for putting the huge effort in to get these out because it's not easy. Please support him if you can!

from little acorns......

2011-06-19T07:42:00.007+01:00

big oak trees grow.

Happy Fathers Day to my Dad and fathers everywhere.

To my little bean, i'm proud to be your Dad, i hope i've been a good enough one this year.

You light me up.

log o clock....

2011-06-17T09:15:00.000+01:00

Small wave weapons of choice

all this could be yours......

2011-06-15T09:39:00.000+01:00

well ok, not the barbcue.........and i kinda need the suit (assuming summer ever arrives!) but the fish could be cos i'm selling it.....

Under the stripy wax it's a 5'9 double bump quad fish shaped by bro diplock drawing very heavily from the Mandala quads (i.e the same computer file!:-) It's a super fun board in great condition but a little bit surplus in the board store at the moment and room is needed so it's looking for a loving home.

more photos and details here

contact me there or leave me a comment if you are tempted.

ten piggies over..

2011-06-13T08:15:00.000+01:00

On the way to Doheny one morning i rather randomly bumped into my friend Jake, who works for Almond and is a really talented surfer and one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. He was on his way south with Alex who runs the tenpiggiesover blog and John Wesley who does some shaping for Gato as well as his own boards.

Like everyone i've met in Ca, they were really friendly and stoked to hear about our little corner of the world. I've checked Alex's blog for some time so it was cool to meet him in person. John's car, an old vw type 3 like the one i posted a photo of recently, deserves a mention too. Very cool indeed!

Doheny was tiny and those guys headed on south to san o. I paddled out anyway and got a couple of fun ones eventually, alone with just a few pelicans for company. The photos make it look better than it actually was if i'm honest!

back to earth..

2011-06-10T08:52:00.001+01:00

So back to Blighty after nearly three weeks away, to be greeted by rain, onshore winds and rubbish swell. Business as usual then!!

We had such a good trip to California, even better than last year. Good weather, fun waves and nice people. There's a few tales to tell and plenty of film to scan but in the meantime heres a little iphone shot of one of the cottages in crystal cove near Laguna, one of my girl's favorite sun worshipping spots!

I want to say a thanks to the people that contributed to such good times. The Threadgills again for their hospitality and kindness. You guys are great and we so enjoyed spending time with you again. Christine and Austin in Carp too. Also Jake and Dave at Almond and Alex at ten piggies, JP at surfysurfy and Smukes, meeting you guys made me smile!

No doubt we will be back!

electric...

2011-06-06T08:15:00.003+01:00

Ever since a scrappily recorded version of Tristan Prettymans "anything at all" turned up as a bonus on the soundtrack to the malloys shelter film, i've been a fan. Perhaps a little more mellow than much of my taste but her debut album 23 is great and well worth a listen if you haven't heard it.

a fishy business

2011-06-03T08:29:00.000+01:00

slide 65

2011-05-30T08:20:00.005+01:00

I was conversing recently on the state of beautiful board building in the uk with Russ Pierre, a great photographer and a fine traditional minded logger in his own right. He pointed me in the direction of slide 65 a fairly new company based in gwithian. Russ loves his board and shaper Rob Wright has James Parry on board helping with design. Rob is originally a cabinet maker and has a good eye for detail. The glass jobs look flawless and inbetween the stock nuuhiwa-esque log shapes are a couple of more interesting looking designs. James' model in particular has a more refined shape and foil and looks influenced by whats been happening in the wider world lately with bladey pinched ralis, narrower nose and flexy raked fins

James reckons his latest board is one of the best logs he's had and most of the sennen crew were styling on them at the recent saunton BLU. I must admit to having been impressed on seeing them up close and if you are in the market for a new log they are well worth looking into

the magnificent mr marlow

2011-05-26T08:08:00.000+01:00

Like many of the regulars here, i'm a blow-in, trading city life up-country for the delights of the coast years ago. When i first moved down and started to get to know people, Shaun Marlow was one of the first people i met. A few days later, newly purchased first longboard under arm, i watched in awe as he cross stepped around the 2 foot contest slop at the local surf club meet. Marvelling at his noseriding and footwork, dreaming of learning to do the same.

He's a quiet presence in the line up, a constant through the year's ebb and flow, always ready with a smile, always quietly slipping into the slot to bag a set wave which he'll dissect all the way to the beach. His is a smooth yet powerful style, five over then sweetly into a sweeping drop knee before racing the section to clout the closeout. Although he's dallied with shorter boards and heavier single fins, it's the Mctavish stylist (ray gleave) model that i think of him on. The first board i saw him with, he's owned several different versions over the years. It sits in the middle of the spectrum from traditional to progressive - a modern allrounder if you will, just like Shaun himself.

He's still someone i look forward to bumping into, someone i respect hugely.

bada bing!

2011-05-22T08:27:00.001+01:00

So i picked this board up second hand last year from a friend who brought it back from California, ironically it's now sitting in the corner of the condo i'm renting just north of Rincon, back in the golden state and still in one piece despite the baggage handlers best efforts! Officially its a 9'4 bing NR 2 (9'4 x 18 x 23 x 16) although it's fairly different from another friends older NR2. Not long after this one was bought, bing changed the NR2 model to the BN lightweight and i think this is more likely an early version of that model.

It's a parallel templated noserider, big nose concave, flat rocker with a lot of tail lift, soft pinched rails and a refined foil. Where it differs from a regular log is in weight. It's purposefully glassed a bit lighter and foiled a little thinner than the traditional nuuhiwa style noserider template, the aim being to create a more manageable, versatile, traditional board. It's still got a little heft to it, we aren't talking progressive longboard style weight

I've ridden the board in beachbreak up to shoulder high and I have to say i think it's great! The relative lightness and the tail kick make it really loose off the tail. Pushing through your back foot yields really abrupt and satisfying pivot cutbacks. On the nose it's stable and fast, holding a high line well and letting you get ten or heels over with impressive ease. The lighter glassing also makes it feel really manageable in steeper or slightly larger waves than a heavier log might be suited to. I think it would make a good travel log as a result.

If there is a downside it would just be that it can feel a little twitchy as you transition from tail to nose (though once in a forward position it's stable) and it lacks the weight to cut through chop in quite the same way as it's stouter brethren...........but you can't have everything and the compromise does make this into a really good easy riding log style board, either to cover a few bases while travelling or for the lighter logger who finds dead weight & the momentum it gives difficult to reign in!

fun to come......

2011-05-18T10:16:00.002+01:00

It's holiday time hereabouts and as you read this i'm twiddling my thumbs at heathrow waiting for a shiny jetplane to whisk me and my girls to California for a couple of weeks. Hopefully the bing noserider is tucked up safely in the hold and hasn't recieved too much of a kicking from the baggage handlers already.

So just over a week around Santa Barbara then a week in Dana and no doubt a few waves at doheny and san o. If you see a pasty bearded skinny guy in a nineplus fullsuit riding a tan bing with a chocolate brown nose patch paddle up and say hi, i'd love to meet you!

surfcheck..

2011-05-14T08:58:00.003+01:00

Even with all the sophisticated ways of predicting and checking the surf, swell and wind from your phone or desktop at work, nothing really beats doing it visually. Even if you have an idea of what you're going to find, the nervous anticipation of glimpsing sections of sea as you near the beach, teasing views with not quite enough scope to reveal the conditions at hand, rounding the last couple of corners to actually eyeball the

waves........

Sometimes lo-fi is the best way to go

quiet peaks.......

2011-05-11T08:23:00.000+01:00

far from the madding crowd.

Braving the wind and dodging flying surfboards i put my new fish through it's paces. At 5'6 x 20.5 x 2.5 ish it has less foam than anything i've had before, little enough to have given a few worries that i'd gone too small. My fears were unfounded though. It still paddles well and is so responsive and loose it feels like an extension of my feet, coming really square off the bottom and whipping through cutbacks with ease.

It's also the best fish i've ridden on my backhand. The decreased length really lets you feel like your weight is fully engaged on the rail on your bottom turn and it sticks less off the top too. Safe to say i'm looking forward to putting her through her paces in depth over the summer.

oh yeah, it's a gulfstream!

the view from out here....

2011-05-07T08:36:00.017+01:00

So yeah maybe we moan about the weather here a lot. Moan about the cold water, the rain, the prevailing westerlies, the crowds of kooks, the windswell. It's easy to get grumpier and grumpier the older you get and the more you think on it.... the grass is always greener. One thing we do have, despite the congested nature of much of the country, is lush green landscapes barely interupted by human hand. Sitting in the line up with a couple of friends, taking it all in on a small day is one of life's simple pleasures. A time honoured antidote to the grumpiness.

driving with bert...

2011-05-03T08:08:00.000+01:00

Anyone who's read this blog since the beginning might remember me posting the video for Neil Halstead's Paint a face single in the first few posts. I'm a huge fan of Neil's thoughtful acoustic english songs as well as his previous incarnation as a driving force behind the Mojave 3. The guy is undeniably very cool indeed and very good live.

I just came across this free download of his set from a truck festival in america last year. If you have half an hour, treat your ears to a performance from a great english singer songwriter at the peak of his powers.......

type 3

2011-04-29T08:21:00.000+01:00

super cool vintage surf mobile!

this photo..

2011-04-27T16:27:00.000+01:00

makes me want to go surfing!

alex knost via mark choiniere

brown microwave television

bay at the bay

2011-04-25T08:20:00.000+01:00

Mc mushburgers...

2011-04-23T08:13:00.000+01:00

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!

winter randomness

2011-04-20T08:47:00.000+01:00

As we start to wave goodbye to winter and say hello to spring (or maybe early summer judging by some of the warmth in the recent sun!), with the anticipation of lighter evenings, small clean waves and shedding the rubber as the water gets warmer, i thought i'd post the last couple of shots from Norway....

goodbye winter, see you round

little packets of stokefulness..........

2011-04-15T09:29:00.000+01:00

A little while ago I rolled into the car park half an hour before dusk, not expecting much, not really expecting a rideable wave if i'm honest. Sea breezes were still blowing and at first sight they were crumbling barely knee high waves. Seconds before I turned tail and headed home, a set came through, hit the best bank on the beach and a familiar silhoueted figure carved it up smoothly with tip time and drop knee.

Decision made, I scrambled into my suit and paddled out anxious to wash off the grime and suncream after a day of shed clearing and visiting the local dump. The sets were infrequent but there were few to share them with. When they came, the waves were still a mushy waist high at best but with just enough shape to allow some fun logging, the bank marshaling the disorderly bumps into decent shape, the breeze slackening as the sun dipped towards the horizon. The small righthanders were playful and teasing, demanding fleet of foot and light of touch but rewarding with stolen moments of ten over and dropped knee. Kick outs with smile lost in the fading light.

As i sat waiting, alone with my thoughts, it struck me how personal the surfing experience is, how little the experience of each wave is shared no matter how many there are in the line up. How the feel and the feelings engendered are different (yet the same) for each of us, modified by board choice and local conditions. For me it's the little things i love, the perfect imperfections. I'm drawn to the edges of things. The warmth of the sun on your face, the glow of the sunset sky, water drawn over soft rails, making the most of a flawed wave. It's in the subtle grace of good trim, the weightless feel of a well placed noseride, the sweeping swing of a well timed cutback and the addictive momentum of a well timed fade as you take off. Grace in adversity, good style making economy of movement more powerful than wild action. It didn't need to be six foot and perfect, i didn't need to be here yesterday, i just needed to be here now.

The light was gone all too soon and I wandered out in near darkness, spent but smiling, storing my little packets of stokefulness like a squirrel mindful of the uncertainty of my next meal but content with an appetite sated.

surplus to requirements

2011-04-12T08:25:00.001+01:00

it may be my somewhat narrow mind, but i'd say some of the surfing in this clip, knost in the final especially, renders progressive longboarding as a concept somewhat superfluous. He effortlessly marries full rail cutbacks with lightning quick footwork, turning as hard as many of the three fin longboard pro's aspire too, yet still with the grace inherent in the traditional aesthetic.

Just my two cents but id watch that every day of the week instead of arm waving, butt wiggling and forcing airs on a board of a length more suited to something else....