Victory -

Winning the Uk Pro Tour was a massive achievement for me.

I was on a role.

Coming 2nd in the fist even, the Nike night surf was a good start to the season. After that there wasn't an event for 4 months, i trained in France for the whole summer and came home to finish the tour in september. I won 2 of the 3 relentless events and came 3rd in scotland event, leaving me lying 1500 points ahead of Reubyn Ash in second. I won the tour easily, but dont ask what the formular is, cause i don't know. 

I hope i can do the same next, year, thats if the tour has a sponsor.  Relentless Energy being the main sponsor of the tour, has pulled out of surfing, so not only have i lost a sponsor the whole tour has.

 we can only hope that the tour finds another sponsor, fingers crossed.

oh and maybe i can as well !  

c' est la vie

May in france has been full of surprises, from perfect la Gravier, to catching the biggest Sea Bass, i have ever seen. 

 I spent a week in Mimizan to do my level 1 surf coaching, with legend himself Dean Gough @outer reef surf school  http://www.outerreefsurfschool.com/ A good surfer and coach from wales. We stayed @http://www.puravidalodge.com/, which is a beautiful lodge about 5 mins away from the beach. All the staff were really friendly and made us feel at home. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Mimizan, or wanting to do there level 1 surf coaching.  

 Catching your own food is 1 of the best feelings in the world, well i think so anyway, France has a lot of tres bon sea food to offer, like these oysters. I’m not a massive fan of them to be honest, but all the old geezers over here seem to think they do the job !

Cat walks aren’t really my thing - Rip Curl held there sales meetings and fashion show, for 2013,  the girls seemed to know what they were doing up there, but myself and the rest of the guys just looked like muppets, not a bad view on stage though, to say the least. Looks like some funky shorts coming out next summer, so keep your eyes open    : )

https://vimeo.com/46957757

                                                                                                                   

France -

The summer has started, well it did start and now i think we have gone back in time, to relive a realistic march in which we should of had.

I've been in france for a week now, my girlfriend and i ventured down here in my van, we plan to stay in france and spain for at least 2 months, in which is a test in many ways.

i love europe this time of year, but this time, so far has been pretty terrible, the ocean is a wind swept mess, and the weather, is atrocious, it feels like the middle of winter. 

fortunately i have had some good luck in the first wqs of the european season, i battled through to the semi finals, in which is my best result on the wqs tour so far, so i'm stoked about that, its given me the confidence boost i think i needed to do well on the tour. I really enjoy competing, its something i have done since i was a kid, i love winning and hate loosing, just like anyone  i suppose, the thing i don't like about it is that you arrive at the competition sight and don't really get to explore around the place before you go to your next venue. Thats what i love about having my camper, we can rock up anywhere and stay the night, check out the whole coastline, not just 1km of it. 

Hopefully this summer will be for filled with adventure,  fun waves,  fine wine and good company along side with some more good results. 

 The wind a the rain finally stopped, for a few days, we managed to surf the world famous mundaka, in north west spain and get amongst hossegor’s finest beach breaks. This is what france is all about, this is why thousands of surfers flock here to enjoy these rare occasions in which the swell, wind, tide and sand banks all come together.

https://vimeo.com/43425117

spring -

I’ve been a busy bee these last couple of weeks. 

When we get surf in this country, we all try to make the most of it, we all try to make those that cant get in the water jealous, by uploading pics and updating statuses. Its pretty funny really. 

I wonder if i made the most of it, did i go to the right spots, or should i have gone up the coast a bit more, to that secret cove, that matey said was barreling all week. 

Or maybe i should of gone to the super bank that frank was talking about. 

To be honest i think everywhere was epic and know one could of missed out at all, the sun was blazing as hot as any day in august, the wind was offshore and the sand was groomed, on every beach, trust me i did a fair bit of driving around,

Thanx for everyone that voted for SAS

they walked away with a lovely 25 k to help keep our coastline clean       : )

 I think after the last couple of years, spring has turned into my favourite time of year, it seems to be our new summer, but with waves, Its incredible. Theres a certain feel in the air that makes me smile. Everyone seems to be happy that the long winter has come to an end. The trees begin to show some life and colour vibrantly spreads throughout the country side. I may sound like a complete gay lord, but as i was driving from croyd in land to summerset, i thought to my self, the grass doesn’t get much greener than this. We can all appreciate the uk on times like these.  

 Baggy lodge has new black sheep !!

 https://vimeo.com/39439376

Healed by the warmth

So here i am for the 5th year in a row out in bali, soaking up the sun,

eating rice and vegetables, surfing incredibly fun waves. Its been small out

here, which is probably a blessing for me as i can't re injure my knee

easily. The heat has limbered me right up and allowed the healing time to be

minimised, which is one  of the main reasons for coming.

 I love indonesia, Its a special place, as any one who has been here would

know, for me its like going to another planet, a place where my mind is set

free and the reality is left at home.

Already in a week we have had 1 crazy police chase, which was stupid, as

we could of been killed on the deathly roads. 2 days later when i was

flagged down again i thought, i might just pay the measly fine of £2.00 this

time, instead of risking my life. It took a while to get the gnarly Javanese

police man from £70 to £2.00, thats the annoying part.

 the surf was small for 2 weeks, and the crowd at lackey peak was getting pretty intense. When its smaller than 3ft at lackeys the crowd doesn't really get separated , everyone starts dropping in and snaking, never mind all the local kids that are hanging out on the inside, with not the slightest worry that someone is going to run them over. anyway thats just 1 of the things that you have to laugh of and not let it phase you. It felt like ground hog day, wake up everyday hoping there is just the slightest increase in swell. realise there isn't, eat my banana pancake, drink my bali coffee, surf,  get my packet of rice and veggies from the dirt lane around the corner, surf again in the mid day sun, to avoid the majority of the crowd. get some dodgy donuts from a lady called dodgy, maybe a banana milkshake. surf again before dark, glassy fun conditions, standard procedure. 

it all gets a bit "samey. and then there it is, a flicker of hope on the charts, an increase in swell and period. We're on. 

2 days before our flight back to bali the swell finally came. 2 days of barrels, 2 days of excitement and exhaustion,  its all us surfers need to make a good trip.  the swell split up the crowd, it separated the beginners from the experienced, my friends and i surfed our selves stupid for those 2 days, we surfed through aches and pains, severe bruising and infections, theres not much that can stop us from missing a swell like that

 every time i come home alive i am grateful, for whoever kept me from danger. The reality of what could happen out there is scary, surfing razor sharp, slabbing, reefs, that could slice you to pieces. Driving on roads with no rules, flying with airlines that probably havn't had a safety check in a few months, malaria, natural disasters, the list goes on.  These are the risks i suppose you have to take if you want adventure, if you want a change from the repetitive life u may live. I've come of lightly this time with only a small infection in my foot, and a million RP (£70) stolen from my bag on an airline. "Don't leave your bag on the back of the aeroplane with valuables inside." A lesson to us all. My knee is almost fully healed now, i'm gutted that i missed out on some amazing waves in ireland, but there's always next year. hopefully i can go back out there with more experience, more knowledge and not make the same mistake i made last time, but for now, well summer is on the way again. Time to get down to europe and give the wqs comps another go. 

 bring it on.  

https://vimeo.com/38085206

Injured update

So shit got a bit crazy out in Ireland before christmas. For sure the biggest waves i’ve ever surfed. 

Was i ready for it, probably not, but how could you let that swell pass with out giving it a go. 

Lyndon was amped and so was I.

 we were the first ones in the water, it was still a bit messy, but we started towing anyway, i towed lyndon into a few beauties, a little nervous, to say the least, but everything was going smoothly.

It was my turn, the wind started to blow offshore, I had a couple under my belt, my heart was pumping and adrenaline flowing. I wanted to go deeper and get the barrel of my life.

as we were sitting out back chatting away, like frothing grommets on a 2ft beach break, suddenly these lumps appeared on the horizon, “you ready big dick”  shouts Lyndon. “ I think so” i said.

Next thing i know i’m flying down  a 20 -25ft wave, thinking holly shizenburg, this thing is a beast, i was to deep, i tried to get more speed by going to the top of the wave and accelerating down it, as i got to the bottom of the wave it felt like slow motion, everything just slowed down, i lost all my speed, either that or the wave was just going a hell of a lot faster than i was. I didn’t make it into the pit, tons of water piled down on me, square on the head. It launched me in the air, i was wait less for about 3-5 seconds and then the giant washing machine turned on. It frashed me around like a rag doll, ripping my limbs apart, i felt my leg pull in the wrong direction, “ouch that hurt a little” i remember thinking. 

I popped up surprisingly fast to see my loyal friend there to save me. 

My knee was pretty damaged, i could tell it wasn’t good. Im still waiting on my scan results as i was lazy and didn’t get it done straight away. But 2 months down the line now and i’m surfing again. very cautiously, but its nice to get back in the water.  was it worth it   ............. of course it was.

https://vimeo.com/35683791