Surf Nation

Surfing the Hebrides

By Tim Kevan

Thomas Malthus, back in the eighteenth century, made a name for himself with his “Principle of Population.” The English demographer contended that the population would eventually outrun its food supply. There are many in the surfing world who might find the Malthus world-view congenial. Just as improvements in public health helped fuel an explosion in the general population, so advances in wetsuit and board design are now contributing to the over-population of many of our best beaches all year round. If Malthus is right, the inevitable consequence is that there will be a catastrophic decrease in waves per person. The evidence is persuasive, from the ultra-crowded beaches of North Devon and Cornwall to the once-deserted, and now all too populous, cold-water havens of Easky and Thurso East.  Even the Algarve resembles a building site with new apartments being built to accommodate the surf tourists.  It is with all this in mind that the Outer Hebrides looked alluring even in late October.

Jersey Juice

I’m in the Hebrides researching Surf Nation. After shimmying across the Moray coastline – where breaks from Fraserburgh to Sandend were all looking good under unusually balmy skies – I find myself on the Isle of Lewis. This is the home of Europie, a wave known to locals and visiting surfers alike as one of the best beach breaks in Europe, as well as a series of quality reef and point breaks that pick up any swell going. But last night’s check of Europie yielded disappointment which, sadly, seems unlikely to be alleviated during my stay. It was huge and blown out, and the bleak weather allied with constant wind – set to increase – does not augur well. But even as I stood on the sands at Europie, in the howling winds next to the forlorn children’s play park, news reached me of further vindication of the theory behind Surf Nation. Rather bizarrely, I’m posting this from Lewis, but it’s actually about Jersey and, specifically, the success of Jersey surfer Ben Skinner in the World Surfing Games in California.

Of Kites and Karma

World Wave kitesurf champion, Kirsty Jones, is not just a pretty face. The Welsh-born kitesurfer is a model as well as a professional sportswoman, and has a packed diary of competition and various intriguing kitesurfing challenges. But this week, she set aside sporting commitments to find time to work with Cancer Research UK to help promote October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I ran into Kirsty in The King’s Head in Llanngennith, opposite legendary Welsh surfer PJ’s eponymous surf shop.  Kirsty was in West Wales demonstrating the health and fitness benefits of flying power kites, using a new range of pink kites made by one of her sponsors, Flexifoil.

The Oahu Seven (1)

The Men’s World Title is sown up, thanks to Kelly Slater’s semi-final defeat of Joel Parkinson at the Billabong Pro in Mundaka four days ago. Slater did not win outright at Mundaka, vanquished as he was by US surfer Bobby Martinez’s charging performance in three-foot final day surf, but in prevailing over Parkinson – one of this year’s form surfers – he did enough to claim an extraordinary eighth Fosters ASP Men’s World Title. I was lucky enough to be in Mundaka for a couple of days at the beginning of the contest, and if its fabled lefts weren’t working I was at least able to observe Slater among his peers. Or rather, I was able to note that there is something about Slater that marks him out from his peers. Like Tiger Woods and Michael Schumacher, he is a man of uncommon self-belief; like them, he seems to drift serenely above his opponents, a benign presence and yet one barely aware of their existence. In all three cases, total domination of the field is the consequence, as if nothing else was ever possible.

From Todos Santos to Plymouth: Big-Wave Master comes to Town

The University of Plymouth looks like being the place to be tomorrow. I say this not out of a yen to resume academia, and, moreover, knowing that my own attendance will be rather like my appearance at university lectures 20 years ago (non-existent). No, what prompts me to suggest a trip to Plymouth is the Finisterre Surf Industry Symposium. This sees Brazilian big-wave surfer Carlos Burle – the man who won the 1998 Todos Santos contest by paddling in to the largest wave ever surfed up to that time – giving a talk on the psychology behind big-wave surfing. Given that UK and Irish surfers are pushing the limits of cold water big-wave surfing yet further this winter, with massive surf scored by a crew including Burle on Irish reefs just a couple of days ago, the master’s appearance could not be more timely.

Surfing, Poker and Aruban Soul

Every now and then a press trip comes along that compensates for the daily penury of writing for a living. One such came my way recently in the form of an invite to play in the Ultimate Bet Aruba Classic, a poker event held on the Caribbean island of Aruba. The kindly folk at Ultimate Bet even said that they would provide the buy-in for the tournament, giving me a theoretical if otherwise wholly fanciful chance of returning home with a cool $775,000. The opportunity was not one that it took long to consider. Roughly three seconds after hearing of the offer, I had signed on the dotted line, and so found myself in the former Dutch colony of Aruba, just off the north coast of Venezuela, two weeks ago.