It's been a while.....

What a busy couple of months!.

Work's going mental, surf comps most weekends, heaps of long evening surfs and a fair bit od cider!

A month or so ago, i went to go for a leisurely surf at high tide saunton, only to be hounded by Mr Tim Tanton (P4R) to enter the Saunton to Croyde Paddle Race. I tried every excuse under the sun not to compete, but old geez didn't give up and even lent me his 9'10 to paddle (cheers mate). It was a great paddle, all for a good cause, with the sun out and the board I was on flew. I managed to win the paddle and bagged £25 voucher for The Thatch and a holiday in France. A good morning all round!

(Piece taken from the P4R Website - http://www.paddle4relief.co.uk/ )

Back the days events and the first ever race held by the P4R Team was won by the talented young, local longboarder, Greg Norman. Greg needed a little persuasion to enter as he had just come out the water from surfing and was without a big longboard fit for racing! It was a 9' 10” log from P4R Founder, Tim Tanton, that swayed his decision, and he never looked back as he blitzed the opposition to win a weeks holiday in France, courtesy of Errant Surf. Enjoy your holiday Greg – many congratulations. Chris Barraclough and Chris Dyer came in 2nd and 3rd respectively, followed by Welsh entry Tim Aylett in 4th.

Wooly Longboard Club

Last week saw the start of the season for the Wooly longboard club's league.
MSW had predicted a fairly decent swell with moderate NE's, which looked ideal for comp at Combesgate. The morning came too, and the weather was attrocious, but due to the tide the sign was delayed to 11.30 am, by this time the skies were blue.
The forecasted swell never really appeared, which left us with a small but clean wave up for grabs.
A great day was had, with everyone enjoying some great peelers. Plenty of noserides going down and a great atmosphere.

The final result ended up.
1st. Greg Robinson
2nd. Me
3rd. Keeno
4th. Andy D
Fair play to everyone that entered.

A few shots I got.

Quiver

Over the past 2 years or so, I have been working closely with Paul at Black and White surfboards to find the right boards for me. Below is my current "working" quiver.

Really stoked with how they ride, these current boards are slightly tweaked versions of previous boards I've had and so far they're are flying.

Facebook kindly announced to me this morning that the new issue of Corduroy Lines has gone live. Si Mitchell (the editor) promised me at the weekend that it was a 'goodun' and sure enough he was right.

Our recent trip to Moroc featured, spread over 4 pages, with numerous shots. A nice little reminder of a quality trip. My mate Phil Hill also has an article in the mag on Sri Lanka which has got me even more psyched to get out there at the end of this year.

Check it out - http://issue11.corduroylines.com/CL11_DPS.pdf

Summer........

After what must have been one of the coldest winters I can remember, these recent southerly winds have definitely blown a little bit of warmth back into the country. With a spate of recent after work surfs and the sun making a few appearances, I'm almost getting carried away with myself and thinking about removing the gloves!


Any way, I was sat flicking through my pictures and found this one from last summer.

After a heavy night at the Goldcoat Oceanfest (see photo for evidence!)
Zak "The Jizzer" Lawton and I decided to do the Saunton to Croyde paddle race. Why we thought of doing it i'll never know. Both nursing mild hangovers, we arrived at the beach, to see the usual suspects, Cotty, Tim Tanton etc and a load of surf life savers. The criteria stated that you must race on a surfboard 10ft or under, so I arrived with a heavy 9'6 single fin, borrowed from the one and only JL.


There were 30 of us in total, ready for the race, the sea was like a pond (which made it 10x easier!). Both Zak and I thought we'd get destroyed, but much to out surprise as we turned the point we were tieing for first place with Cotty. Maybe we got a little over excited, because as we turned for Croyde, Cotty powered off like Greyhound after a hare. It left Zak and I to battle it out, I got lazy and tired and let him slip away to beat me to the beach by about 10m. Then as i hit the sand and looked at the sprint finish to the top of beach, I remembered "I used to be a runner!", sprinted past a gutted Lawton and took 2nd.





Both of us were stoked in the end, as I won £100 and Zak got £50. So there all those years of training for athletics paid off!





The question is, will I do the race again this year?

What a weekend!

Last week everyone was starting to get a little excited about the prospect of pumping surf at the weekend. With a 950 dartboard like low building it was clear that it was going to be big.

The forecast held true and with a bit of north in the wind, it ruled out many more sheltered spots. There were plenty of excuses why people couldn't surf, injury this, gotta paint that, cor it's a bit cold etc.

Anyway, Ramon and I had some solid, fun and very long waves at Saunton, whilst Robinson and Ash, scored the point firing. Below Croyde much heavier and bigger than it looks in the photo, one taker and 45mins of paddling later he was still only chest deep.Later that evening, we sunk a few pints in the Aggi. All was going well pool wise until Ash 8 balled me. Gutted!

Sunday rolled on, with the next pulse of swell forecast just as the tide dropped nicely. Epic waves had by all, uncrowded and super fun. See below!

Moroc'n'Roll

Xmas this year was spent out in Africa. Morocco was the country of choice. With EasyJet now flying direct to Agadir, there were plenty of familar faces out in the line up over there.
It was my third trip to Tagazhout, a great place with countless epic right hand points.
Keep your eyes peeled for some words about the trip in the next issue of Corduroy Lines magazine - http://www.corduroylines.com/