Archive for: World Surf Tour

Today was my third outing down to Ocean Beach, San Fran. I got all geared up and ready to rock the line-up. The swell was a little smaller than yetserday, but still waist to shoulder high on the face, so all good!

I managed to perform my first backside cutback today on the old 6’4 (The Duke MKII), who is now sporting some rather tasty stickers! About half way through the session me and a few other surfers spotted this huge humpback whale that breached the surface as it flicked it’s tail, truly awesome!

This evening I am going to head out into town and hopefully get some pictures and go visit the “Little Thai” for some tucker, should be tasty!

Today was possibly the best day I have had in the water in terms of number of waves caught. The surf was a little smaller than yesterday, but just as cold, and the shark potential is always there up here in the NorCal shark pit.

Anyway got numerous rides today, maybe even as much as 50 waves in 3 hours. Lefts, rights, along the face, a few turns, holding the rail of the board, stroking the face of the wave as I went along, all good!

I then headed along the Pacific Highway to check out the Aqua Surf Shop. The guys in there are real friendly and gave me a load of free stickers for my board! More good karma, nice!

Anyway gonna lay low tonight and do some editing on the DVD, 3 hours in the water when it is only 13 degrees kinda drains you a little! The best thing now is I am here until Friday, as I have managed to change my flights, all good!

Today has been another wicked day in the grand old US of A. Awoke this morning to a kinda cloudy day. Stopped in at the hostel kiosk for breakie and a chat with some of the other guests, before heading off to Ocean Beach to get some surfing in. I stopped off at Fort Point where I got a lacca view of Alcatraz and also the Golden Gate bridge.

It kinda feels like a home-coming surfing back in cold water (12 degrees), you can’t beat the cold water experience, there is something about it, some hate it, I don’t mind so much! Granted you need more neoprene and don’t get the tan, but taking a few (waves) on the head sure wakes you up!

So I met the local crew, a cool mid-forties surfer called Scott who introduced me to a few of the other guys in the line up and surfed for about 3 hours. Caught some nice waves, traded stories and generally did what surfers do! I also saw a seal and sea lion in the line-up which kinda shit me up a little.

Early arvo/evening I headed up to Filmore and Haight to meet Sabine (an old work mate) for a drink. The bus journey across town was an experience in itself, with loads of interesting people to look at and talk to on the way.

After a couple of beers we headed over to the other side of town to meet up with Stacey and all headed out for some Thai food. Had a nice feed, went for a night cap and then I headed back to my hostel.

I am constantly amazed at how friendly and nice people are to me, especially here in the states, I am not sure if it is ‘cos I am out of town, or if it is just how yanks are, but it is very cool! I kinda feel on a role at the moment, kinda like on maximum mojo. Surfing well, seeing great things, everyone likes me, everyone is kind, everything is interesting, can’t complain about that at all! I must be putting out some positive karma and vibes or something, as all the good energy is coming right back to me!

Anyway off to bed now as got to be fresh for the waves in the morning. Have got the stoke on about tomorrow already, another day, another adventure, wish this trip would last a lifetime, but I guess I will have to go home and top up the funds at some point, and then go and do the next one!

Living the dream! You can’t beat that!

Well I made it up to my hostel up on Fort Mason just on the south side of the Golden Gate bridge. San Fran is beautiful, well from what I have seen out of my car window. Feeling a little more confident I decided to ditch the shuttle bus idea and just hire a car and drive up from the airport.

The hostel is nice, good people, great location and free wireless internet access, all good!

Tomorrow I am going to drive over to Ocean Beach and then try and get some surfing in, early start I think, as wanna make an all day event out of it. I am then gonna hopefully hook up with all work buddies Sabine and Stacey in the afternoon, which should be really cool.

On Monday I am hoping to head down the coast, maybe stop in at Half Moon Bay and see Mavericks, and then maybe head to Santa Cruz, loads of spots to surf down there.

If I have a cool enough time here, I may stay an extra night or 2 if I can change my flights, so far so good in SF, this place has good vibes written all over it!

Happy times!

Now just arrived at San Fran after a quick flight up the coast, just sitting in a coffee bar at the airport and about to get a car and cruise on up into the city. Hoping to get some waves in here over the next few days, can’t wait, the mighty Mavericks at Half Moon Bay is only 35km from the city!

More stories to follow!

LA was really good to me, apart from in the waves department, they sucked and were 1 ft, nearly double over ankle!

I met a few cool crews in LA, surfy Adam, Faye and Ben, James and the Irish girls! I had a nice time and headed down to Santa Monica Beach, Venice, Malibu and generally cruised around in my hire car!

I headed out to Sunset Strip one night, which was cool, so many colourful characters, all so different and lots of the wildly fucked up in one way or another, funny!

I also made it down to the famous Avenue of the stars, again so many crazy things to look at and absorb, LA really is just like you see in the movies, a classic stereotype of itself!

It was really nice to check out LA and the crew at the Orbit Hostel were really nice and friendly, more good memories and stories to tell in later years!

The past few weeks have been amazing. I am now in L.A after having spent 9 days in the beautiful Fiji islands.

Last week I stayed at Nagigia Island, which is off the south-west tip of Kadavu, 1 hour south of Viti Levu. I didn’t know what to expect when I reached Fiji, maybe similar to Bali I thought, but maybe more remote. I arrived in Fiji on the 8th and then flew to Kadavu in a tiny 9 seater propeller plane and took the 1 hour boat ride to Nagigia Island resort, an exclusive hotel.

I can’t over-emphasize how beautiful and peaceful it was there. You are so removed from the rest of the world, with only New Zealand seperating you from Antarctica. I met some really cool people on the island, the Dominator Crew from the Mornington Peninsular, the Gold Coast boys, Bao (and family) from Brazil, the Canadian crew and the Yankee’s. Everyone was so friendly and we had such a great time, both in and out the the water. The week consisted of surfing, snorkelling, swimming, eating, dancing and generally exchanging stories over a few beers.

The waves were some of the heaviest and biggest I have ever surfed, with one day the faces being 10ft and resembling something like a mini-Teahapoo, really intimidating stuff! There were a few days when we couldn’t actually surf as the white water from the breaks was 20ft thick. If you looked to the horizon you could see what looked like islands floating across the horizon, these were actually offshore bombies, with 30 feet faces, the likes of which would challenge even Laird himself.

We all got down and funky a few nights to some traditional Fijian dancing with a Kava ceremony to get us going! The local people from the village of Nabukelevu-i-ra are so friendly, happy and easy-going, hopefully I will take away some of that chilled vibe back to the UK, god knows they need to smile more down in grey old London.

Snorkelling over the reef was amazing, the water was so warm, clear and once you had ducked your head under the surface you were transported into a beautiful world of coral, fish and amazing underwater landscapes.

I left Fiji on the 18th and had a mamouth journey from Nadi to Auckland and then on to L.A. I was a little aprehensive about coming to the USA as it is so big and L.A is just so huge, but I have had a lovely time here. The surfing was crap this week, with super small waves and cold water, but the weather has been nice and I have met even more lovely people here at the Orbit hostel.

I have been staying up on Melrose avenue in West Hollywood and have cruised down in my hire car to Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Muscle Beach, Malibu and along Sunset strip and generally had a blast. Tomorrow I am off to San Francisco where I will hang out for 3 nights before heading off to Chicago and then over to the east coast.

Hopefully I will get some better waves up in SF, home to the notorious Mavericks down at Half Moon Bay. It is only just over 3 weeks until I will be back in the UK and back to normality and work etc.

This trip has been amazing so far, and I have seen so many beautiful places, met some amazing people, ridden some great waves and most importantly seen a little bit more of what is out there and what can be achieved if you look outside the box and get away from London and the rat race.

I am already thinking about doing a working VISA next year to somewhere like Oz, as I always said to myself that this trip would be the warm up for something more adventurous.

Anyway time to crash, living the dream, loving life and all is cool!

PS: Have uploaded the latest photos from Fiji, got some good ones from LA so far, will update soon!

Love to all the special people I know around the world!

What can be said about Fiji, wow, the most amazing place I have ever visited! The island was amazing, the people so friendly and the surf, well 10ft faces and resembling a mini Teahapoo, crazy shit!

Will do a full update when I get some more time, as I am now in LA and have to go and hit the beach and hopefully get some waves!

Hope everyone back home is having a great time!

Last night I stayed in Paihia, in the world famous Mousetrap hotel. I met 2 Scots guys: Kenny and Steven, we went out for a few quiet beers which quickly escalated into 10 or so. Come 3am we were all pretty worse for wear after dancing the night away at some dodgy haunt!

I am back in Auckland now, gonna head out for my noodle fix and then maybe have a quiet beer at the hostel bar and then get psyched for the big trip to Fiji! Can’t wait, checked the webcam the other day and the waves were 6-8ft on the face, should be pretty challenging and probably the best waves that I will ever ride, here’s hoping!

Today has been a really cool day! I started off by wandering down to Haruru Falls, just north of Paihia, where I met two cool Argentinian folk. Chilled out by the beautiful waterfalls for 30 mins or so, and then I drove 5km down the road to Paihia where I hired out a Kayak for 2 hours.

I paddled over to a few of the islands and then across to Russell, on the other side of the bay. It was my first time in a kayak, and it was all good! I got back to the kayak place about 3pm and then jumped back in the car and headed up to the Kauri forest, just north of Waipapa.

The forest was amazing, huge ancient trees about 90 feet tall, surrounded by lush sub-tropical vegetation, simply beautiful, kinda like something out of Jurassic Park.

I then headed back towards Kerikeri and stopped off at Rainbow Falls, another beautiful waterfall spot.

This evening I have been chilling after muching a big tasty pizza and scoffing a few brews. Tomorrow I make my way back down the coast to Auckland, where I will stop off along the way to Waiwera to see the hot springs!

3 days until I hit Fiji and the serious surfing kicks in!