2Fins

Great interview with Steve Croft from Empire surfboards over on the Kernowkalling blog. I'm lucky enough to have my 9'6 log made by him and it's a fantastic board that always leaves me with a smile on my face after a surf on it. He also made Whip's Goblin Door and Lumus boards. If you are looking for something a little different to ride you'd struggle to do better than speak to Steve. Check out his website here.

That there London

Managed a trip with Peek to the big city last weekend, our first weekend away from Rhys. Totally avoided any Olympic things and had a really fun weekend of seeing old friends, eating and drinking. The sun also appeared and I managed to get out for a skate for the first time in ages with Barrows finest tattoo expert Smell. Stockwell and Kennington were the order of the day, lots of fun hacking about but Kennington lines were ruined by poor drainage. The new stuff is good though, go schralp it. Took a few pics to document the fact I made it out for a skate.

Anthony's friend Matt rock n rolling. Rad fella although
I felt a bit odd being the only person not having been drawn on.

Anthony aka Smell rocking the other way.

And a 5-0 off the end at Kennington. Lovely muddy puddles eh?

At last

After a few weeks of missing swell through illness and other comittments I finally got in on the weekend. Not a great swell but a fun surf all the same due to it being spent in the company of the soon to be hitched Mr Bisson and the soon to be a lucky-bastard-surfing-Panama Mr Poulet. Surfing with mates always makes it a good time.

Shot not from the session but our first surf at Tonel in Portugal. Poulet laying down a heavy cutty.

PB

We are really missing a bit of sunshine and surf this year. So much so I've resorted to looking at old pictures to remind me what it's like. Pacific Beach, San Diego 2009 taken with the UWS (which seems to have gone missing).

Parque Radical!

Some hastily taken pictures from the skate day on Whip's Portugal stag do. Johnny Haywire took some more, and shot some video so maybe if you keep checking out the Confusion zine blog you might get to see them. Albuifeira park is pretty rad, like Truro Plaza should have been (ie. some decent ransition along with the blocks), so if you find yourself stuck in that particular area of tourist package holiday hell then you'll have something sick to escape too.

 Johnny H layback slam.

More like it - corner carve by Sagre's best dancer.

Johnners melons the hip for the shirtless sexy boys.

Martyn's big snap KAPOW.

 The Stag does a righteous crail on the extension.

Sagres and orange fuelled hurricane from Whip.

Right amount

One guy with the right amount of style.

And his section from one of my most watched videos when I was a grommit. And say what you like about Pennywise I still love 'em.

Up and at em

Having a small child waking you up in the middle of the night sometimes pays dividends. View from the car at Woolacombe for last saturday's dawn raid.

Rubber dump

It's getting to that wonderful time of year again when the whale blubber thick wettys get consigned back to the shed for a few months. I'm already stoked to have gotten rid of the boots and just waiting for that final push of the water temps so I can pull the old 3/2 on again.

Good things came

Well that was worth the wait wasn't it? Hope everyone got some. Might not have been the biggest of swells but it sure was fun. I managed to get in 4 surfs over 1 and a bit days in my old home spot of Rest Bay. Consistant shreddable waves seemed to be the go, with Thursday evening providing a bit more size and hot, glassy conditions, although this did come with the crowd factor as always. I even managed to surf all 3 of my boards - the new shortboard twice, the log when the tide dropped out and then a really cruisy dawny on friday on the fish. Just hoping for more of the same again soon.

The pic above unfortunately isn't of the last few days - it's an old one that was the closest match to the conditions. It did remind me that I need to dig out my film cameras and get snapping again. I've also got a ton of old snaps that are currently being scanned in so you'll be subjected to them soon enough.

Those who wait.

 

Without wanting to blow it, it looks like this horrendous flat spell may be over next week. I certainly hope so. It's sure to be a feeding frenzy too so get some where you can.

Whammo

This looks like it should be pretty interesting, lot of characters and the good old Aussie/Hawaii rivalry again. Cinema release over here though? Can't see that happening.

Squid and beans

Made it back from Portugal - epic trip, plenty of laughs, sun, beers, and a few choice waves. Some amazing beaches over there too. More updates soon but for now you can just have a sneaky picture and then go read a nice article about, as I like to say, why you shouldn't take a knife to a gun fight.

The Curse

So it would appear this current incredible flat spell may well be my fault. I've got myself a new board you see and it appears the curse is in full effect. Apologies.

It's a 6'3x20x2 3/4 Flyboy with 5 fin slot option and made by the awesome Alby over at Odd Surfboards. A return to a shortboard for me which could well be interesting. More pics on the Odd site here.

Yes I'm itching to give it a go, but no I'm not taking it to Portugal as I'd like at least 1 surf on it before exposing it to the whims of Easyjet luggage handlers.

República Portuguesa

One week to go, lets hope we get a few days like this.

Plaza-ering

Few more quickly taken pictures from last weekends skate at Truro Plaza. It's an interesting place, a whole lot of it appears to just be steps, massive steps, which not many people seem not to skate. That said theres a few fun bits and bobs scattered about to hit up, and the mini ramp is mellow fun on a shower dodging afternoon.

Standard

Seeing as Chris 'Pikerust' Bisson has stitched me up on his blog, again, I thought it only fair to post this picture taken this past weekend of El Whippito executing his standard "hot street move" at Truro Plaza. He's also due to get hitched so we're all off to Portugal for some warm waves and stag/eel do action in 2 weeks time - stoked.

Some more from this session coming soon.

The other TC

Whilst looking for fins for my new board I was reminded of the other TC - Tom Carroll and the picture of "that" snap at Pipeline. I had a ripped out magazine page of this on my wall and it wasn't just the fact where he was doing it as much as the fact his board was massive and he's not the biggest guy. Insanely radical stuff, as were the 2 10pt rides he also managed that day.

Nothing Meaner

No waves this weekend meant that I got to sneak off for a skate on sunday, and a quickly organised session at the Deaner was the call. This was my old local, I lived 2 minutes skate away and I love this place. Not the easiest to skate, mainly down to the fact it's downhill but spend some time here and the lines will appear.

It's had a revamp recently and there's a new bowl at the bottom where the gnarly old crusty ramp used to be. It ain't the best bowl in the world but then it's the Deaner and something thats fucked up kind of fits in better then something perfect.

This was taken back when you were guaranteed a good crowd down there on a summers evening. Matt 'Boyo' Williams with a well caught backside flip for the peanut gallery.

Gimme shelter

The importance of a sheltered spot in these windy climes is not one to be sniffed at. I grew up with Coney Beach as my go to spot and it's still serving me well. A lot of people hate the place, and with good reason as it's often a massive closeout, overcrowded and, well, a pretty shitty place. There are occasionally a few nuggets of gold amongst all the donkey shit if you get lucky. Some waves you can even do a few turns (my record stands at 5 turns, something I don't think will be repeated for a while).

My last 2 surfs were both at Coney, with a quick hour in a lumpy, confused Rest until the tide got too high and I picked the wrong gulley to get out in. The first Coney session was a late evening, cross shore, typically crowded closeout-fest. Fun for a while but nothing seriously rad. The next morning the swell had dropped a little and it was pretty glassy, perfect for the log. The difference of a less crowded, sunny day seemed to make it a different spot altogether. It also helps that the log loves a walled up wave. 1 spot, 2 surfs and 2 different experiences.

Take 3

So this is the 3rd blog attempt at something a little more substantial. Hopefully there'll be a bit more interesting surf related content and more than likely a few sneaky skate bits. As I'm now a professional "man-of-leisure" (House husband) there should be slightly more regular updates about stuff I (and usually only I) find interesting, random snaps and the odd surf I manage to sneak.