My Mrs.......

A cracking summers evening was forecasted, with a small but fun glassy swell on offer. But throughout the day at work, I tried not to think about it as I was sure I had to spend the evening under the thumb as the whole of the day before I was with mates surfing my tits off.
Much to my delight I had a text from the Mrs, saying "lets got to the beach and I'll take photos of you surfing".
I knew this was to good to be true as once i'd surfed, got changed and checked the camera, 99% of the photos looked like the one below.
But bless her, out of the 3 photos she took of me she did managed to get this one.......

Cheers Kel!!!

Atlantic Games, Spain - Rob Tibbles

Rob Tibbles, North Devon surf photographer, writer for The Journal and all round nice bloke headed out to Spain with us for the Atlantic Games.

Surf photos are always hard to get hold of and to have a photog with us finally meant we might be able to get some shots, that was the plan any way. But as the Atlantic wasn't really playing ball, with a couple foot of swell the biggest it got, conditions didn't really prove for epic shots. Rob did well though and snapped the whole team, see below a couple of the shots he got of me.

Check out Rob's website here........................ http://www.robtibbles.com

Viva La Espana

Cantabria in Northern Spain were hosts of this years Atlantic Games. The team had been looking forward to this for a while, I was glad to have a week off work and hopefully score some sick Spanish waves.

The 24hour ferry journey over was very calm, the beers went down well and the boat barely rocked. This for us was bad news, a lack of swell!
We arrrived at our accomodation, a sports complex and were immediately greeted with plates full of food. The hospitality and food was great all trip, with a dangerous free bar at the athletes village.
The surf apparently had been pumping all summer up until the point at which we arrived, just our luck. So we had to head west to the local swell magnet beach Le Increas to score a surfable wave. Everyone was stoked to be surfing in warm water with the sun out.

Time seemed to fly by, and before long it was the opening ceremony of the comp, where Devon did themselves proud, with the awesome team spirit we had.

The contest was due to start on the Monday but a lay day was called. So it was a day of football an grockle beach activities. Come Tuesday everyone was ready for the comp. Day 1 was a mixed bag, with some team members bowing out, despite putting in decent performances. The standard was very high. I progressed through to the 1/4s, but got beat by Pazza (who won the comp), so that meant joint 9th overall for me. My good mate Greg Robinson, showed everyone what a good surfer he is (even if he doesn't believe it himself some times) by battling through to the finals, doing Devon proud and getting 3rd overall.
Things didn't end up quite so good for the fizzer - Zak Lawton, after smashing everyone in the first round of the juniors, the little tit only went and dislocated his knee!

Overall a great trip. Surf wasn't ideal, we may not have won the event, but we had the best team spirit and everyone supported one another the whole time. Had an awesome time and honored to be part of the team.

Big thanks to Isabelle, Cotty and Tundish.

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