Posts tagged: Surfing

This afternoon/evening Nancy (Elise’s mum) and I headed out for a little bike tour of North Yarmouth and the surrounding areas. It was a beautiful evening, the sun low in the sky, giving everything a beautiful glow and colour. We set off on the 5 towns loop, a little cycle route, which I am not sure is a family route, or an official one. Anyway, we cruised through the countryside, passing by beautiful houses and countryside. The air had a great smell of spring to it, really fresh with all the different trees and flowers in the air! Super refreshing! We had a cool time and by the time we got back to the ranch we had covered about 25 miles, all good!

So it was only a matter of time until I decided to make a list to show off all the places I have surfed since I have been away, so here it is peeps, read it and weep!

• Cape Town
  • Big Bay
  • Melkbos
• Durban
  • North Beach
  • Dairy Beach
• Hong Kong
  • Big Wave Bay
• Bali
  • Kuta Beach
  • Legian Beach
  • Mushroom Lefts
  • Mushroom Rights
  • Nusa Dua
• Noosa (Australia)
  • Main Beach
  • First Point
  • Boiling Pot
  • National Park
• Moololabah Beach
• Bells Beach
• Torquay Beach
• New Zealand
  • Taupo Bay
  • Matauri Bay
• Nagigia Island, Kadavu, Fiji
  • King Kong Left
  • King Kong Right
  • Daku
• USA
  • Santa Monica Beach (CA)
  • Ocean Beach (CA)
  • Half Moon Bay (CA)
  • Saint Augustine Beach (SC)
  • Cocoa Beach (FL)
  • Higgins Beach (ME)
  • Scarboro Beach (ME)
  • Small Point Secret Spot (ME)

Haven’t updated for a while as been too busy having the crack! Am now up in Maine, New England having a blast!

We drove up 550 miles up the east coast on Thursday. Unfortunately hitting traffic in the DC area and also managing to get lost in the Bronx. So by the time we arrrived in Maine it was 3am, 11 hours after we left DC. But it was all good on the basis that it is all a new adventure and experience.

New England is very similar to Scandanavia, the landscape, the architecture and the climate, although it is at a far more southernly latitude. The water here is cold man, 8 degrees at present, making the water in San Fran look tropical!

I met up with a friend of Elise’s family the other day, a cool guy called Adam. He’s originally from New York, but lives here in North Yarmouth now. He is classic, super stoked to be in the water all-year-round and the kinda guy who you can talk about surfing with all day long! We hit the water at Higgin’s Beach yesterday at 6am, after a 5.30 rise. The sky was blue, the sun was out and it was generally one of those morning’s where you are just digging the whole being alive experience. We met one of his mates out in the water, I don’t recall his name, but nice chap too! So the 3 of us traded waves and generally had a nice time! I was back at the ranch by 9am, with the whole day still ahead of me!

It is great when you have those early morning experiences, as you just feel so much more alive, and when the water is onyl 8 degrees celcius, you soon feel awake when you get one on the head!

I took Elise out in the arvo for a surf lesson down at Scarboro beach, she has the potential to get good, but just needs to keep trying at this stage, although for a girl to be in the water at this time of year is respect enough. The waves were clean in the afternoon, with the wind going offshore and the water turning glassy, I guess the only thing that could put a beginner off yesterday would be the fact that it was cold, overcast and freezing in the water!

Today it is brighter, but still kinda cold, off to the gym in a while and then maybe a walk in the fresh air!

To all the boys back home, hope you are enjoying the blog, and didn’t realise that I sounded like a hippy, funny! Will be back on the 7th June (appox.), so get those brews pumping and the BBQ ready!

We embarked on a monster driving mission back to DC on Sunday. The journey from Daytona back to DC was about 12 hours worth of driving, through northern Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Virginia and finally into DC and Maryland itself.

Our week in Florida was nice, we got the opportunity to check out some nice beaches: Cocoa, Daytona and St. Augustine and the sun finally came out over the past few days, with the temperatures hitting the mid 80′s to 90′s, all nice!

The tan is topped up a little and I am just getting stuff sorted for my trip up North now to Maine, New England.

The next few days will be spent in DC just chilling out, am hopefully going to see Matt Costa tomorrow evening, which should be very cool!

Am now due back in the UK around the 6th June, just need to change my flights and then I am done!

Just a quick update tonight, I hit Cocoa beach again today for some sun, surf and chilled out vibes with the new Chili’s album. Been hanging out for some new tunes from these guys ever since Fortune Faded. The new album rocks, defo worth a purchase!

Cocoa was great today, ok the waves were lame as, but the sun was out in force, not a cloud in the sky and just super stoked to be soaking up the rays.

Tomorrow Dru and I pack up our shit and hit Daytona beach for some more sun. We then start our drive back to DC in the early evening. Should take us a while as it is a good 1000 miles up the coast.

One cool thing is that I am now going to Maine at the end of next week, so once that trip is done I will have pretty much driven the whole of the east coast of the USA, pretty cool!

Anyway off to bed as have notched up 10 hours of paddle time over the past 3 days! Nice!

Today has been a real cracker! Dru and I decided to hit the beach early, well kinda early, woke at 7am, got breakied up, left the house for 8.30 and made the journey down to Cocoa Beach (home of Kelly Slater).

We stopped off at a few surf shops, the infamous Ron Jons, which actually had a pretty poor selection of boards, but nice staff, and then Cocoa Beach Surf Company. The later had a great selection of boards, and again I was sorely tempted to add a forth board to my quiver. There were some real tasty fish boards, I had my eye on a 5’10, real retro styling, but was strict with myself and opted for a Starbucks frap instead!

Dru and I then hit Cocoa Beach, the wind was up and the clouds were out and the waves were poor, but I got in the water all the same! 5 hours later I had got a whole bunch of (small) waves, gotten a load of sun and then chilled up on the pier with Dru having a beer!

I have regained the tan (well some of it) and all is good! We have just been for a dirty-ass 18 inch pizza and now on our way home to chill the fuck out some more, as after 5 hours in the water I am physically knackered! I met a cool crew down at Cocoa, some young surfers, who were all up for a chat and also dug my little left cut along the wave whilst running my hand along the face.

Lets hope the rest of the week stays sunny and chilled, I love this lifestyle, ok I am not working at the moment so that kinda chills it out even more, but one day I will live and work near the ocean, surf daily and generally be stoked and happy every day, I have kinda come round to the idea that it all isn’t about money and material shit, ok granted you need a certain amount of dough to have a nice house and eat nice food, but fast cars, the latest clothes, fuck that, just give me a house near the sea, and rack full of boards, a good crew, some good tunes, plenty of sunshine and a lovely girlfriend, and I am done! God I think I am turning into either a Californian or an Ozzie! Doh!

Oh yeah I think I have another surf convert, Dru wants to get back into shape and start surfing! Another one to add to the global crew, it’s all about spreading the love man!

Today I have spent the day chilling by the pool here in Winter Springs, Florida. The weather improved a little and even got a little sun. I took the chance to chill in the sun and also test my new snorkel and swim fins out in the pool, all good fun!

This evening Dru and I headed to downtown Orlando for a few beers. Unfortunately the city has relocated all the nightlife to down near the theme parks, so to say the scene was lame was a complete understatement, as it was shit! We had one beer and then managed to miss our turning on the freeway and end up paying for a load of extra tolls.

Anyway shit happens I guess. We are going to hit Cocoa beach tomorrow, hopefully get some sun and maybe even a wave, but the forecast is showing a 2.5ft swell at 5-6 seconds, which to put it in a nutshell is also crap! But hey, we will see, I got a few books and some tunes, so I will just cross my fingers for a sunny day and a chance to have a swim in the sea!

On a slightly more exciting note, I may get the chance to go up to Maine in a week’s time, we’ll see, watch this space!

We headed down to St. Augustine today and got to the main beach next to the pier about 2pm. On the way we stopped off at The Surf Station, a really cool surf shop just at the southern tip of Anastasia National Park. The shop was kitted out with everything surf-related you could imagine, from boards, to wetties, leashes, clothes etc. And the boards, whoh, did they have some beauties, I had my eye on a beautiful twin-fin fish, real retro styling with a wood laminate finish, if only I a.) had more money and b.) had more space in my coffin bag (only fits 2 boards), so I guess I will have to save up for that next time!

Anyway we got to the beach and were greated with some super small, classic Floridian chop, I thought they only saved this kinda mess for summer in the UK, but it would seem they get it here across the other side of the pond too! Dru chilled on the beach whilst I took a little run down the beach and did a few exercises. I then thought what the hell, I’m going in for a paddle, so I took the 6’4 in for a bit of a laugh. I caught maybe 5 waves today, nothing at all to even merit raising an eyebrow, but fun all the same and just great to be out in the ocean again. The water is around 25 degrees and the air temp was probably in the 80′s, so couldn’t complain, hell even the sun poked it’s head out for a while!

My session was cut short though, as I got this bad nosebleed, and you know that blood and sharky waters don’t really mix, so I though I had better get out of the water until I stopped bleeding. Florida is THE shark capital of the world apparently, they say most attacks are a case of mistaken identity, but that isn’t really concillation if you lose your arm is it!

The forecast for the week is pretty small, but hopefully I’ll manage to get something, fingers crossed! Sun supposed to come out over the next few days and temperatures around 85-100 degrees, hot, hot, hot!!!

On our way down to visit Dru’s sister in Orlando (where we are now), we stopped off at Aqua surf shop and checked out some of their gear. I had a little chat to the guy on the counter, the usual surf banter etc. There was a group of chicks standing behind him all listening in, as soon as they heard my accent, a mini-discussion erupted and there were smiles and giggles! Am loving the fact that people over here dig the English accent, I can’t see what all the fuss is about myself, but hey, it’s kinda different, so all good!

Anyway time to hit the hay!

Woke up this morning , poked head out of the window and rose to another shitty overcast day down in Florida. Kinda sucks that we have driven all this way and the weather and waves are both shite!

Off to St. Augustine in a whlie, so fingers crossed we’ll get some sun down there, as the old tan has faded quite a bit since Fiji!

Anyway can’t complain, better than sitting on a dirty, expensive tube, filled with misrable people back in London!

Ride on!

Dhruva and I left Washington DC yesterday afternoon for our East Coast road trip. So far we have driven down from Maryland, through DC, Virginia and North Carolina, stopping overnight last night at some Econo Lodge (the kind you see in Yankee films) in Summerville, South Carolina.

Today we drove to Folly Beach, just outside of Charleston, SC. There was a surf contest there, but in true contest stype, the waves we knee-high to a hamster so I didn’t even bother to get the boards out of their covers. Unfortunately we also left the sunshine behind in DC as the weather was pretty cloudy and overcast, with some heavy rain in the late arvo.

Anyway we met this cool, 65 year-old surfer at Folly and had a great chat to him about all kinds of stuff. The old dude has been surfing since 1957, so basically has witnesses all the major shifts in US surf culture, very cool indeed!

We then headed into Charleston and had a little look around at the buildings, markets and just got a general feel for the vibe of the place. There are some great wooden buildings around this part of SC, and it all kinda reminds me of something out of Huckleberry Fin, the people also have that classic Forrest Gump accent, which I just think is funny as!

To top off the southern flavour we hit a crab house restaurant and got some shrimp (they call normal prawns shrimp here too). So we had a good feed and all was cool! We are now back on the road heading down to St. Augustine in Northern Florida. We are now at a gas stop just outside Savanah, Georgia. It is kinda swampy and sub-tropical down here, and you can definitely feel a difference in the air between here and DC.

We have a few more hours of driving to do before we hit St. Augustine, then we’ll hit another one of the road-side motels to stop over night. Tomorrow we are hoping to hit the beaches around there and hopefully luck out a bit more with some waves and some sun, fingers crossed!

Right beverage break now, still enjoying the trip, trying not to count the days down before I head back to the UK!