I depart for Brazil tomorrow with my (Brazilian) girlfriend Rosana. It has been 2 years since I was last there and I am already stoked to be going back. This time will be very different. It will be my first visit to Sao Paulo (where I actually get off the plane) and I will be staying exclusively with local Brazilian people (Rosana’s famiyl and friends).

I can’t wait to get into the surf again, without having to wear a wetsuit. I will also be seeing (in part) my first Brazilian Carnaval, which is an experience in of itself.

I’ve been avidly checking the webcams and it has been pretty consistent on the line of coast north of Sao Paulo up to Rio (Costa Verde). I will be making a new board purchase soon after I arrive (lucky number 5) and have already got my local lingo sorted: Eu gostaria de comprar uma nova prancha de surfe cara!

Here are a few pics from the latest webcams to whet your appetite.

See you out back!

Maresias

Felix

Floripa

A surf buddy of mine, Alex Wilkinson has just created a new website all about “guiding surfers through the ways of identifying problems and improving their mental state for surfing recreationally and competitively”. Some really interesting stuff on there, go check it out.

Rose and I will be heading off to Brazil next month (February 2009) to escape the cold and dark English winter and trade it in for some Brazilian sunshine.

I last went to Brazil (Rio and Salvador) back in April 2007 for 2 months. I had a great time and it definitely whet my appetite to return. This time around I am not visiting a girlfriend, I am taking one with me, which puts a different perspective on the whole thing as we will be going together and returning together (hopefully).

Our plans aren’t finalised yet, but we are thinking of travelling for about 5 weeks. Our first port of call will be Sao Paulo where we will meet Rosana’s family and friends. We will most likely catch some of the carnaval, which I am told I will either love or hate. From there on in we will be visiting Caraguatatuba which is on the Sao Paulo coast, north of the city where Rosana’s family have an apartment. I am then hoping we will be able to cruise up and down the coast to see the sights, take some photos and of course do as much surfing as possible.

I am hoping also to return to Rio and fill in the gaps from last time (I hardly saw any sights as I was in the water everyday). Other places on the hit list include:

• Maresias
• Islabella
• Ubatuba
• Isla Grande
• Paraty
• Itamambuca

Watch this space for more news!

As with every passing year I try to push the limits of my surfing that little bit further, both in terms of frequency and location, but also in terms of conditions: size and temperature of the water. 2008 was no different. So on a cold winters day back in mid December when the charts were showing a solid 10-15ft swell (it wasn’t actually that big) I made the call to The Dog and we decided to make the trip down to Newquay for a few days of cold water action.

The latest in the year that I have surfed in the UK is 6 December at East Runton back in 2007. This year we managed to push that date back to 13 December (only a week’s difference, but later all the same).

For the past few years, when it has got cold I have been doubling up the wetsuits wearing the 2/2 shortie underneath the 3/2 Rip Curl Classic with a few rash vests, plus Xcel 5mm boots and gloves and an O’Neill surf cap (yes they make you look like a knob, but keep you warm). This year I surfed the first day doubled-up, but the next morning I thought it was time to upgrade and get serious. Richie and I headed down to North Shore surf shop and I tried on various wetsuits. I particularly liked the Alder ones: they were in the sale, but also good quality materials. I tried on the Evo 5/4/3, but found the new top entry style too much of a stress to get in and out of, so I opted for the 5/4/3 Plasma Storm. This wetsuit is a cracker, with glide skin lining, liquid seems, super stretchy neoprene and a nice batwing enclosure to stop flushes.

Immediately after buying it, we headed out into the surf. I was toasty, minimal flushes, more flexibility and more time in the water, happy days!

I was also lucky this Christmas to receive an Xcel 2mm hooded polypro rash vest. I haven’t tried this bit of kit out yet, but I am already getting a solid pre-stoke on about our next cold water trip (penned in for sometime in January) as I know I am going to be even warmer (5/4/3 + 2mm hooded rashie is a sure fire recipe for toastyness). Throw in the Rip Curl tidemaster watch and I am set.

All I can say is thanks Santa (Rosana) for treating me well this Christmas :)

I was pretty stoked today whilst flicking through Carve Magazine to find out that one of my photos made it into the Sessions section of issue 102. The picture was taken just before I headed off to Greece at the start of October when Rich and I hit up an early session at East Runton and were rewarded for our efforts.

During our stay at the Ammos hotel in Agii Apostoli, believe it or not I actually surfed for 3 days. Greece is not renowned for surfing at all and I was quite stoked that I managed to surf, during what was supposed to be a non-surfing holiday.

After a few days of the sea being like a millpond in front of the hotel I awoke on the 3rd morning to find a little wind swell had created a 1-2ft wave. I had seen a kid’s bodyboard lying around the hotel the day before, so I grabbed it and went out for a little session. I was having a bit of a laugh until I snapped it, it is after all meant for little kids and not a 13.5 stone man!

As if by some predestined act, Rose had told me about this “surf board” she had seen lying on the beach the day before. I walked up the beach and found what was actually a 14ft (ish) wind surfing board (without the sail). Keen to get in the water I picked up the massive board and gave it the once over. It would seem it was going to be a bit of a challenge as the board was huge, had no leash, weighed a tonne, had holes in the deck where the sail is supposed to be attached, no wax (for grip) and no fins on the bottom (which provide traction and thrust to aid in turning the board).

Anyway I thought, what the hell I’ll give it a whizz and see what happens. I took the beast out and managed to get a few waves (and the pics to prove it – see below). It was funny riding such a massive and heavy vessel and kind of reminded me of the boards they used to use in the pioneering days of the 1940s-1950s when they utilised heavy redwood and not fibreglass/foam boards.

The board handled pretty poorly as it had no fins, so whenever you got any speed the tail slipped out and you started going sideways into a uncontrollable 180 degree turn, eventually leading to a wipe out and in my case cutting my feet open a few times. The other problem was having no leash, so if after a wipe out occurred and I didn’t get to the board in time, it would be washed invariably all the way to the beach, meaning a 100m swim every time (good for the fitness though). But I had fun and the few people who walked along the beach stopped and watched for a short while at this crazy English surfer trying to get some waves.

I am not sure if I was the first person to surf (not windsurf) at Agii Apostoli in Crete, but I felt kind of pioneering. For 3 days I had the water totally to myself, which is a rare occurrence these days, possibly the surf gods giving me something back for all the crap conditions we’ve had in the UK over the past few years.

This weekend Richie and I hit up a dawn surf patrol at East Runton on the north Norfolk coast. We got up on Saturday morning at the unearthly hour of 5am. We strapped the boards to the frost-covered roof of the car and were on the road for 5.45am. En-route we were treated to a magnificent sunrise, the kind that makes it all worthwhile being awake at that time of the morning.

On arrival we were greeted by a solid 4-6ft swell, clean lines and plenty of enthusiasm to get ourselves into the water, albeit rather chilly.

We surfed for about 3.5 hours and I managed to catch a good dozen or so waves on both the 6′4 and 8′2. It was great to be rewarded with a decent session with some size after driving all that way and also after surfing in Devon earlier this year in quite poor conditions. I think I might have overdone it though, as I was shivering uncontrollably as I got out (took me the rest of the afternoon to warm up).

I took a few photos before we jumped in the water, all of which are on Flickr, check em out!

I returned a few days ago, from what could be described as the wettest holiday in Devon I’ve ever had. We had 1 full day of sunshine and then the rest was either showers or heavy downpours, which put a rather large dampener on the whole thing.

The waves were a mixture of 1-2ft clean lines and 3-6ft storm surf. We improvised and managed to use every board in the quiver from the 8′2, 6′4, 6′2 to 6′0. Richie even got stuck in and bought himself a brand new Tiki 8′4 Megamal and has now he renewed the stoke!

I took my Canon EOS and my new EF 55-250mm telephoto lens and got some pretty nice shots. Check out the a few of them on Flickr.

Hopefully as we move into autumn we’ll get some more sizeable and cleaner sessions, wonders will never cease!

Not many wave shots this time due to 2 factors: 1 not having a good enough zoom lens (yet) to get any close up action and 2. we were in the water all the time and had no one to take any pictures of us (the age old dilema).

Anyway here are a few scenic shots of a moody sunset over Fistral beach. More on my Flickr.

I am sitting in the back of my car trying to occupy myself whilst Beej drives us back from Cornwall. We have spent the past 4 days surfing in Newquay and have had a mixed bag of both weather and waves: a few sunny days, some rain, plenty of wind and varying degrees of small, fun summer waves.

We surfed Great Western (one of the town beaches in Newquay) due to there being too much of an onshore wind at our usual sport over at Fistral. This time we controversially left the 8′2 mal (a.k.a Mitch) at home and packed a 3 board quiver: 6′8, 6′4 and 6′0. The idea was that it would force us to step up our game a little (the longer your board the easier it is to paddle and catch waves). There was swell predicted for the entire week, so we felt reasonably confident that we were making the right decision.

On arrival on Friday morning, we we rewarded for our efforts with a nice clean, fun wave over at Newquay Bay. For some reason I surfed very poorly, I just couldn’t find my flow, and had a rather crap session despite the good conditions. Beej on the other hand was all over it, like a hoover sucking up every possible wave coming within earshot of him. End of day 1, 1:0 to Beej.

That evening a celebratory trip to the Indian summer was the order of the day after 4 hours in the water and the 6 hour drive. We supped on a few pints and then relaxed with a post-meal DVD.

We awoke the next morning to Malcom’s bell ringing and a quality breakfast. Day 2 was characterised by more of the same, although this time I found my flow and grabbed a load of waves, forehand and backhand on the 6′4. Beej bought a new board but managed to put the leash through the tail after about an hour (what a shredder), so that had to go back to the shop. I think it must have been the busted board, but Beej didn’t really get his groove on after returning from the shop, so the score at the end of day 2 was 1:1. That evening we settled for a couple of Strongbows, some fish and chips and another DVD.

The 3rd day, still with new board at the shop, Beej and I hit up a mid-to-full tide Great Western. The waves were a bit thick and dumped a little bit on the beach. The latter half of the day the wind got up and things got pretty choppy. We ended up surfing for 4 hours and called it a head to head heat. Later in the evening we stopped off at the Fort Inn for a massive platter of Surf and Turf and a couple of Guinness’. Bon!

The morning we left, Beej was still without a board after the shop not being able to get it fixed in time for our departure. So after a little stressing and some careful negotiation with the owner, Beej managed to wangle a deal that meant he could swap the broken board for a new one: a rather nice 6′4 Lost short board (that I had my eye on).

Following the “upgrade” we had to test out the new board, so we headed over to Fistral for a “quick” surf before we returned to Essex. The waves were a little bigger that morning, maybe 4ft and a lot thicker. We both got a couple of good rides before the conditions turned to slop.

We left Newquay having had a good time, but as always for me (am not sure about Beej) I wanted more: cleaner, longer and bigger waves. So although my appetite was satisfied for a few days, I am still as hungry as ever to get out there and continue to explore new places, feelings and styles. But there is no rush, as Gerry says “there is always another wave around the corner”.