Fourth Anniversary Today

Well today is my fourth anniversary. Four years since I bought my first surfboard and jumped in. Since then I've learned how to surf. Here's a diagram of how to surf:

Just get a board and get in.

And now the corner of my living room looks like this (need a board rack!):

Loving it all. This year is gonna be the year of turns...

Blustery Lines and Beauty in Austerity

The water is still under 8°C. The wind was up and a good swell - better than forecast - was lining up yesterday. I had a great surf. Took a thruster out and fell into a few good, curling, frosty and mildly unfriendly peaks.

There were only a handful of us out. I took this photograph: not too crowded! Sometimes I feel aggrieved at surfing where I do, in comparison with California, Australia, South America... etc. But yesterday I revelled in the conditions. Once you get used to the cold it doesn't hold the oppresive power that it does at the beginning. I have friends who won't surf through winter. They miss days like yesterday. I don't get it. Once you learn to revel in the sort of funky conditions the joy of not paddling into each wave with about seven other surfers is fantastic. There is basically a beauty in this austerity: an aesthetic in which to languish. I'm loving that rough groomed look on the faces, the spray off the top, off-the-cuff rainbows, chinks, glimpses and sudden dramas. This pleasure is certainly unfolding for me as my ability improves, but, at the same time I guess it's just reward for consistent treasure seeking.

Synonyms of austere: exacting, forbidding, grave, grim, rigorous, serious, sober solemn, stringent.
Antonyms: bland, calm, gentle, meek, mild.

Rubber up, get in, stop whinging...

A Good Swell

It's been a bit breezy and cold but a good solid swell came in at the weekend. Here's a photo of someone enjoying themselves.

I probably surfed some of the biggest (well overhead on the sets) waves I've been out in. Nice to be taking part in this kind of swell now.

I'm still learning how to handle myself in waves like this though - it's hard work, especially when it's this chilly and you take a few on the head. But I've learned that as long as there's nobody behind you it's ok to bail and dive on the paddle out, rather than try and duckdive, if the lip lands right in front of you (if it's ok for Derek Hynd in Litmus it's ok for anyone!).

"Sixties Surfer" - New Exhibition at The Museum of British Surfing

Wondering what to look forward to in this continually freezing weather? Well, here comes The Museum of British Surfing's second exhibition: "Sixties Surfer", opening on the 29th March.

From the press release:

Museum founder Peter Robinson sets the scene: “A massive sea change occurred in the swinging Sixties when the UK met Malibu, Bondi and the Beach Boys head-on, and a new surfing culture was imported from foreign shores. In the 70 years before this surfing had been quite a genteel affair with a handful of hardy pioneers, wooden surfboards & woollen bathing suits.”

‘Sixties SURFER!’ will be the biggest display of original British surfboards and memorabilia from the 1960s ever seen in the UK, and will sample the films, photography, music and fashions of this groundbreaking decade.

“Make sure you come along and ‘hang ten’ with us this year, and check out the radical ‘baggies’, ‘Malibu boards’ and first wetsuits that changed the face of British surfing forever,” says Peter.

Looking forward to it!

Fun Waves on Saturday

I have an SLR camera at last, with a 300mm lens, so I took a few photographs after getting out at Combesgate on Saturday. Really chilly for late March, but well worth it with fun head high waves like this.

Stock Take

I've been a bit quiet. This is the longest between posts since I started this blog, for a couple of reasons. Life and work have been busier, keeping my mind on other things. But also, less is changing. In my surfing it's a slow progression now. I feel like I'm coming to the end of a slow phase though. My pop ups have become pretty consistent, getting lots of waves. Still trying to nail the roundhouse, control my position on the wave, get more dynamics into my turns and style into my surfing. Recently, I've had a few waves with a few moves that have started to feel like I might be getting there. I'd love to become more than an average surfer and I still have that shaky dream of getting barrelled.

So this is where I am now. Where I've ended up after coming towards four years of surfing. This is my current quiver that helps me enjoy the slides I'm served. When I bought my first board (the 7'6 Mini Mal on the far right) I had no idea the trouble it was going to cause!

Left to right:
1. 6'6 Kookbox "Archie's Left" designed by Rusty Preisendorfer, shaped by Hoy Runnels (Hully/eggy/single fin.)

2. 5'9 Kookbox "MC Twin Pin" by Jeff McCallum. (Simmy-Wide into drivey twin fin fun.)

3. 6'2 Quiver "Bumblebart" design Phil Hodge, machine cut. (Overhead waves or dingy-rocky-surf functional thruster.)

4. 5'8 Bing "Dharma" design by Matt Calvani, machine cut. (Super fishy-fun in anything.)

5. 6'0 Hydrodynamica "Simster" design Baugess/Kenvin, shaped by Hank Warner. (Floaty, overfloat, float-glide-cushty-super-swooper.)

6. 7'6 Hawaiian Soul (there's no soul) Mini Mal that got me into this mess...


The yellow 6'6 single fin is proving to be an absolute joy. I've had my best surf ever recently on this and just love the way it turns. It doesn't have the drive of my other boards but the way it moves is so much fun, it can carve and pivot, trim & glide and handle an overhead wave. Likes a clean wave though. It's the one I'd save in a fire first, though to be honest I'd find a way to get the Dharma and the McCallum under my other arm.

I was paddling out on it the other week thinking about how your surfing experience changes as you get better. Looking at the sparkling pearls of leftover foam dancing on top of the water and remembering how things like that used to captivate me a little more when it was new. But then realised that if I'd hung around I wouldn't have made it over the next wave. No wonder so many waves dumped on my head in the beginning - hanging around in the 'impact zone' hypnotised by the beauty of it. Crackpot behaviour. Now it's more focussed, function, spying that next distant sign of a good wave welling up on the horizon.

I just think about surfing all the time. It's like a bloody parasite.

The most exciting thing that's cropped up this week is the possibility of shaping my own surfboard. That's something I've wanted to do for a while and Chris Hartop, in Bude, offers to take you through the whole thing, one on one. (Google him and you'll find him on Facebook/Twitter if you're interested.) I can't wait to find the time.

"Salt + Wax" - Mark Leary's Surfy Photography Book

This is "Salt + Wax". This is the lovely simple cover that surrounds Mark Leary's book of surf photographs, it's the second book of his photographs that he's produced and the first that focuses on surfing.

It's a book to pore over. Love. Look at and think about surfing. And life...

There are various beauties to be found in Marks photography, but the main two things that harrass my mind as I'm looking at them are their leaky-ness and tussle with mundanity. Mark uses traditional photographic equipment rather than digital photography and the joy that his techniques infuse into the images is all about light and character. His images are leaky. There always seems to be a bit of 'extra light' leaking in here and there. Largely in the highlight/quarter-tone areas but the depth of shadow keeps a proper contrast: the photographs don't just look underexposed. This 'bleeding in' of light and colour is what gives the images their life - it's like life leaking in. (I look forward to the time that I finally get to see some of his photographs 'in the flesh' rather than in CMYK ink.) Photography is all about light and absorbtion and Mark pulls the physical nature of the medium tangibly into his images.

The photographs also toy with a wonderful mundanity. His composition deliberately engages the viewer (in this book being a surfer is what it's all about) with familiarity: glancing at the board in the car, the wetsuit hanging up to dry, the board in the corner. These are photographs that we wouldn't consider photograph worthy, necessarily. I mean it's not exactly Kelly Slater in a 10ft perfect barrel. And that is, well it's not really worth saying, but clearly the point. The composition, colour, light, the atmosphere of each photograph gives them a compelling content. Something that reaches out and freezes in a slice of time; the life we often forget to cherish in our repetitive, aspirational, speedy world.

Many of the photographs look cool, pared down, a bit bare. I love this idea that they are as much about taking away as they are about putting in.

The book makes me look forward to surfing again. But not just surfing: putting a sandy bar of wax in the car, remembering my old towel...

Thanks Mark.

A Memorable Bing Weekend and a Memorable Wave

The other weekend, when Bing Copeland and Matt Calvani visited was a particularly memorable one. I met Bing Copeland (see the pic below when he autographed my Dharma) and Matt Calvani (Bing's shaper and designer of the Dharma that I love so much).

This photo below of me and Matt at Saunton was taken by his wife Margaret. It was really nice to meet him and have a quick chat. Matt approved wholeheartedly of the K2.1 FCS fins that I've put on my Dharma - saying that they are the fins he recommends as possibly the best choice for this board. (Whew!) 

Trim Surfboards had set up at Saunton to show their Bing stock and let people have a go on some too. And what happened? There were waves! Unbelievable for a demo day in Devon!!! As I got there early I paddled out on my Dharma. Don't do it: there were about six longboarders party waving everything that came towards me. I caught two waves in about an hour.

It was fun in the water though. Mick Rodgers (Bing team rider) jumped from his board onto a stray board right in front of me and carried on surfing - the sort of jokey fun move I've only seen in the movies! Jamie Bott was paddling around photographing the shenannigans. Everyone was hooting and sharing waves - it seemed like a fun, crowded Malibu retro-vibe had been shipped in specially for the occasion.

After surfing my Dharma I fell in love with a Pig! (Not for the first time.) Trim Surfboards gave me this 9'7 to take out leashless into the shoulder high waves. I vowed to keep a good hold of it and paddled out. After unfamiliar longboardy kookiness (like headbutting the board when paddling out through a wave) I snagged a doozy! Walked back and forth like never before turning, trimming, turning, trimming like a real life longboarder. Pigs are fun. Every so often in surfing you get a 'memorable wave'. I've had a few: my first green wave, one on the Webber Afterburner I borrowed, one on the Gulf Stream Speed Dialler I borrowed for a dawny, a handful - and this was one of those rare ones that we all look for each time we go out. Something unexpected and new. Stoked!

After a book signing at Nineplus Braunton there was then the movie night in Croyde Village Hall organised by The Museum of British Surfing. Bing spoke a little about his background and then showed the movie "Boardroom" about the history of surfboard shaping in California. Greg Noll! He's got a character and imagination almost as large as he is himself!

Here's a pic of the autographing from Bing and Matt on my board:

And since they'd 'broken the seal' I went and scrawled all over it myself with Posca pens:

Probably now rendered it worthless! Ha! What a fun weekend though...

Miss the Fish Fry this Year?

Then watch this movie:

And as if by Magic.... Bing!

Looking forward to tomorrow as Bing Copeland and Matt Calvani are arriving in North Devon.

First up there will be about eight Bing boards to try at Saunton Sands. At 8.30am Trim Surfboards will be at Saunton with Bing and Matt for a chat and a slide and a taste of what they shape. And, amazingly, there is surf forecast!!! I'm looking forward to thanking Matt personally for the Dharma that he designed and that is my daily driver and a board that's given me soooo many fun rides. (Maybe even arm myself with a Posca and ask him and Bing to autograph it.) You should get down there too - maybe even get over excited and organise a custom order!

Then at midday there will be a book signing at NinePlus in Braunton. I don't think they had many books so get there early or bag your book first online! Burgers and refreshments too.

Saturday evening brings The Museum of British Surfing into the equation as they host Bing and Matt in Croyde Village Hall for  a Q&A, raffle, live music from Matthew P and showing of the movie "Boardroom". I'm gonna win that Bing stick in the raffle for sure! If not I'll be grumpy for days...

And then on Sunday Pete and the Museum of British Surfing are hosting a Vintage Surf Meet in front of the Museum in Braunton from 11am to 3pm.

Whew! All this and then the European Fish Fry at Crackington Haven next weekend. Busy days :)

Jeff McCallum 5'9 Twin-Pin for Kookbox

At last, after a summer away from the surf, I've got to try out this new toy. Hand shaped by Jeff McCallum for Kookbox. The quality of it is unbelievable: absolute shaping refinement, foiled beautifully with a good dose of foam scraped out of the nose to counteract the forward wide point and flawlessly glassed-on twin fins. Hully/bellied nose into single concave into double concave with vee out through the fins. Whatever, it works soooo sweetly.

The board feels Sim-y on pop-up and if you weight your front foot but then when it gets flying the board kind of melts away and your back foot is in the wave and it wants to carve classy smooth turns. Jeff McCallum has really taken the wide influence of the Mini Sim and blended it beautifully with a twin fin tail.

I guess all Kookbox boards will be of this level due to Joel Tudor's overseeing, testing and his ability to use fantastic shapers to handshape the boards.

Trim Surfboards are importing Kookbox's so get in touch with them if you're interested in their boards. I'd recommend Kookbox heartily for their craftsmanship and design and Trim Surfboards for surfy love and helping you get hold of the finest custom handmade boards from other shores.

Buying surfboards is difficult. I feel guilty for not buying locally - in fact I've never found it so weird buying something. There are so many good shapers over here, who aren't exactly raking it in, who could do with the commissioning of a new board. Nobody else is making this shape though. Initially I was trawling the global surfy world essentially for a single fin that appealed to me. Thinking of Morning of the Earth MP boards, Eggs, Hulls, lovely Andreini's and was in the end drawn to the Archie's Left shaped by Rusty Preisendorfer for Kookbox (hully, eggy, singlefin with a bit of a more traditional turn than an out-and-out hull - they say). Hull into single concave. Then the trouble is I found one at Mitch's surf shop at Windansea - mustard resin tint and shaped by Hoy Runnels (who began shaping the year I was born!). They had this Twin Pin too and I could not resist the folly and absolute childish behaviour of buying them both (I shouldn't be in charge of my wage packet). There's no doubt that nagging images of Joel Tudor with his funky quivers have got me all foamy and brand influenced. Yeah - Kookbox dude! But, in truth these are beautiful and rare handshaped lovelies. Perhaps the most delicious boards I've ever seen - and definitely that I've ever surfed... so far.

"What does this mean for your surfing?" a friend asked. This is the other sticky point - as there's a lot to be said for surfing the same shape for a long time to get it dialled and improve your ability. But I feel like I'm on some dreadful ticking clock. Taking up surfing late in life is great but also tinged with a little regret. I want to taste all flavours of surfboards as quickly as possible. (I now have a single fin, a twin-fin, a thruster and a quad.) I guess I would have been one of the horrible little greedy kids in "Charlie and the Surfboard Factory" who meets a grisly early end due to this urge to scoff everything in sight and to hell with the consequences. On the other hand - perhaps I'm willing to sacrifice a little ability and maybe purity in order to experience as many surfy dishes as I can before it's too late. Either way I may be being a complete cock in many ways - but a cock with a couple more surfboards to love and enjoy anyway...

Heading Back to Devon after a Month Inland