Surf Nation

The Birth of the Cool

By Sam Bleakley
The trumpeter steps forward. Piano rolling, sax, bass and drums in synch, he states a crisp melody over the pulse of the quartet. Then he sets loose on a long improvisation. The timing is perfect, slightly behind the beat to create suspense and space. With cool, beautifully pitched notes he plays music that challenges and sets a direction: invention, not imitation.

Girls Just Want to have Fun

By Andy Cox

The best surfer in the world is the one having the most fun. If we take the sentiment of one of surfing’s most famous aphorisms to heart, then the first stop of this year’s Rip Curl Girls’ Tour – in Newquay, on Fistral beach - saw a gathering of at least 160 of the top women surfers in the UK. Few of them may have been on a surfboard before, but by the end of the event, on the weekend of 12 August, all the participants were well and truly stoked.

View from the Line-Up

By Alex Wade

What is a line-up? To surfers, the answer is obvious. A line-up is the place out the back, beyond the white water, where surfers catch waves. The line-up accommodates those who sit right on the peak and snag whichever waves are going, as much as those who lurk on the shoulder, picking up the leftovers. It is heterogeneous place, by turns intense and competitive, mellow and chilled. And today, a line-up is as likely to contain as many women as men. But whatever kind it is, the line-up owes its name to the fact that once there, surfers look to the shore and line up their position with a fixed point, such as a beach hut or a pile of rocks – anything, so long as it’s easily noted from the sea. The reason surfers do this is to give them stability. The fixed point on the shore is both a marker to prevent a surfer drifting out of position, and a guide to where to be to catch the best waves.

Kids Stoked after a Day with Dominique

There is only so much that Dads can do. In my case, as a surfer whose best days are only ever average, it seemed logical to hand over the task of getting my two sons up and riding to an expert. Given the upside to this delegation of responsibility (I could swiftly paddle out the back and have some waves myself), it made eminently good sense to entrust the boys to British Longboarding Union female champion Dominique Kent, who runs a surf school on the north Cornwall coast.

View from the Line-Up

By Alex Wade

The 2006 Rip Curl Boardmasters champion is South African David Weare, who avenged last year’s defeat to Antonio Bortoletto thanks to a week of surf that was always contestable and, every now and then, pretty good. Weare bagged a cheque for just over £6,000 and 2,000 vital WQS points with a win over Australian Cory Ziems, just as fellow South African ripper Roydon Bryson was charging to victory in the 6-star rated Yumeya Tahara Pro in Japan. Weare and Bryson consolidate a strong South African showing on the WQS, with Durban’s Bluff surfer Ricky Basnett also in the top 15.

"Big Wave" Beringer does the Business

By Alex Wade and Andy Cox

Expectations ran high before the inaugural UK National Surfboat Championships at Saunton Sands last Friday. Along the coast in Newquay, the Rip Curl Boardmasters may have been snapping up the media interest, but the surfboat fraternity couldn’t wait to see how the boys from the flat stuff – Marlow and Leander rowing clubs – would fare in the 2-3ft swell that made its way to North Devon. But cometh the hour, cometh the man, and he was a seasoned surfboat rower rather than a flat water pretender. Step forward Nick “Big Wave” Beringer, the President of the UK Surf Rowers’ League.

Spare a Thought for the Lifeguards

The Rip Curl Boardmasters at Fistral beach, Newquay, is in full swing with heavy, shifting surf that might test many a reasonable surfer’s ability to paddle out, let alone a novice. There that is demanding swell is a good thing for the contest, but it is also a timely reminder of just how important our lifeguards are. As much as the Boardmasters is the premier annual showcase for surfing in Britain, the role of lifeguards and the need for greater public awareness of sea conditions is vital. One organisation looking to highlight this is Bude-based Adventure International, who, between 13 and 19 August, will be running a residential adventure week in which children can learn to surf and train with RNLI lifeguards.