Archive for: Surfing

For those who aren’t getting a hard copy of the actual DVD, I just uploaded the trailer from the WST06 DVD I have put together, check it out below, it’s also on YouTube:

Here’s the first round of photos the Lee Bay Riders took of their trip to the summer flatness, check them out here.

Our week in Lee Bay was a great success. The (surf)riders re-grouped last weekend to make the annual trip down to North Devon for a little surfing, camping a few beers and a who lotta fun. Our week was characterised by lots of hot, sunny weather, small, but clean surf and plenty of time spent in the water and on the beach.

This year we hit Croyde, Woolacombe and Saunton again, the 4 riders with their quiver of boards. The first day had the biggest swell, which gave us a few fun rides on the 6’4 and 8’2, but no pits or barrels though :)

I think the best day must have been the 3rd day in. After surfing 11 hours on two consecutive days, I hit day 3 feeling a little tired, but still up for it. The difference this time, was that I decided to take it back to where it all began, the 8’2 Mitch. Trying to catch a 2ft wave with a 6’4 board is nobody’s idea of fun, so I went big, went retro, and took it back to the old skool with the 8’2.

It was like bonding with an old friend again. I must have got 50 waves that day, if not more, rights, lefts, grabbing the railing, walking along the deck etc. I spent so much time up at the nose that I may as well have picthed my tent there. Hang time with 5 toes over became commonplace and I was digging it big style.

Another thing I noticed this year, apart from the summer crowds and surf school foamy crews, was that the water was warm, maybe in the 20 degree range, which meant that I could surf (for the first time ever) in just board shorts. Granted, when the breeze picked up, the shivers set in, (after spending 3 consecutive hours in the water) but apart from that it was pretty toasty.

I must mention though, that although it is great seeing more people take up surfing and getting out in the water and trying things, that surf schools need to educate people more about etiquette, as I lost count of the number of times a foamy rider dropped in on me, when I had clearly been on the wave for at least 20 seconds. They need to do something about this, as it i just plain dangerous when you are riding a 8’2 board. I took a few people out on the way, as did Lukey on his bodyboard, but hey it is all part of the fun I guess. This time around we only have a few scars and dings to our boards, but it could have been worse.
All in all a good trip, we have a little footage, not enough for a DVD, but I might edit a short sequence together.

I now look forward to hopefully getting in some late summer/autumn/winter waves at Runton, as hopefully the swells become more consistent and bigger as we approach the latter half of the year. I should also have a little crew to go up there with, as I found out that an old school mate, Steven Sell now surfs, all good.
Onwards and upwards!

So Beej and I have got our sh*t all sorted, and just chilling now with a beer and pizza and watching a little bit of Twister, all good. Tomorrow is a 4am start, 5am on the road, hopefully in the water and catching some waves by 1pm.

Might be a while until I get online to update the blog, so to everyone who ain’t coming with us, well, unlucky.

P Dog, Lukey and Perrie, we’ll catch up with you guys on Sunday arvo and Monday, it is gonna be a quality week, lets hope the waves are there for us, fingers crossed.

Peace people, it’s time for a (Tesco Finest) cookie and tea break.

PS: Elise, not sure when I will next speak to you, but hope the hike went well, you were goo, and it was fun, catch up soon sweetheart x.

Inspired by my recent surf tour of the world, I am thinking about heading off again next year. I will escape the British winter again to hopefully head off to North, Central and South America. Rough idea of countries goes something like this:

• USA
• Baha (Mexico) – feature some Todos Santos, Cortez Bank, hook up with Mike Parsons, haha!
• Costa Rica – Witches rock, hang with Robert (August) and Wingnut
• Chile
• Peru
• Argentina
• Brazil

Mmm, lucky I am busy with the old web dev, looks like I am gonna need the finance. All good though, the dream is to basically surf as many places as I can before I am 30 years old. I have this thing where I write all the differnt breaks on my board bag, think I have got up to 50 destinations, world wide now. Will be kinda funny turning up in North Devon next week, where I am sure if there is any swell at all, people will be hustling over a 3ft slop, best I show them what I learned in Noosa, Fiji, Ocean Beach etc. No comparison really, even though the dominator crew (Mornington Peninsular crew) won’t be there, I will put in a good show for the crowd, haha!

And so after 3 months of extremely hard graft, the WST06: World Surf Tour DVD is now complete. The first few copies are coming off the burner and I am getting read to send them to various people I met on the tour.

The short flim is about 50 minutes long, with about 15 or so different scenes. The footage is a mxiture of surfing, travel and a bit of fu*king around, so a little something for everyone really. Although the language in the film is a bit strong, (so anyone who gets upset with the C word, the F word etc will surely be in for a treat), the dialogue is pretty chill, so all good.

Next video project looks to be a doco about our forthcoming Devon surf trip, keep ya eyes peeled folks!

And so the family grows, look at the 4 of them, so content sitting side-by-side. What a proud father I am! Lets hope the whole family gets wet behind the lugholes next week when we take ‘em down to Lee Bay and let them cavort with the massive!

Well a year has passed, I am still stoked on surfing and it is now the official countdown to our annual summer surf trip to Lee Bay, North Devon. The summer flatness awaits, and last year’s crew are of course going to be in full attendence:

• BCE
• BJC
• Mr. L Reynolds

And this year we are joined by a surfer, who is simply known as The P Dog. The P enjoys nothing more than being cleaned up by a few rogue sets, that full-on, taking it on the head feeling, it is a dog’s world, and it wouldn’t surprise me if P dominates the line-up down at Croyde et al.

Me and BJC will be travelling down on Sunday 23rd, The Dog, with travel kennel and pedigree chum in tow, will be coming down on the train on the same day, and we’ll be joined by Lukey on Wednesday.

It should be a great trip, we have the tools: 8’2 (Mitch), 6’8 (General), 6’4 (Duke a.k.a Dominator), 4 Skims custom skimboard (Mini Mitch) and whatever bodyboards Luke decides to come with. We have swim fins, diving masks, snorkles, cricket bats, badminton stuff, it is all good.

We’ll keep you updated on the tour, may even shoot another video, just to keep the fans happy.

Peace from the east (of Anglia)

So Sulli has added a little entry on his blog about our surf trip to Bali, sweet man, the pics look great, shame you got a few typos! Check it all out here! By the way mate, nicked a pic, just to big you up, this is where he got his ‘wave of his life’, sweet bro, keep it up!

So I was thinking back to when I was over in Fiji with the dominator crew this morning, so I gazed over to www.fijisurf.com to check out the photos Jason had taken from the boat in the channel and saw this one. It immediately threw me back to King Kong Left. This picture was taken by Jason on the first day I was at the resort, I remember having this look of dread on my face when I paddled out, thinking shit, this is mini Teahupoo, most of the other surfers agreed, the only difference between us is that these boys had 5 -10 years worth of surfing experience on top of my modest 3!

Anyway one day I hope to return, maybe to Nagigia, or maybe somewhere new, either way, I will never forget looking at those faces and thinking, shit, I am never gonna make one of them! But I did, maybe not as big as the one in the picture, but I got there!

Peace!

Picture taken by Jason