Surf Nation

Sickness at Shipstern's Bluff

These pictures of Queenslander Ryan Hipwood at Shipstern's Bluff come to me from Cassandra Murnieks.

They're entries for the Oakley Surfing Life Big Wave Awards.

They're taken by Rodd Owen.

And they're truly sick.

Viva La Hosteria

A while back, when researching Surf Nation, I met Chris Tomson, the 2007 UK Pro Longboard champion and founder of Errant Surf Travel. Chris is a top man and, as I know from one trip with Errant to the Algarve, he runs a pretty fine surf travel business, too. But what's his operation in Spain like? One man who knows is A1surf's David Somerville, just back from La Hosteria in Northern Spain. Read on for what David found there - you might just fancy a trip yourself...



What to do when a rare free weekend presents itself at the same time as the opportunity to go and stay in Northern Spain with Errant Surf Travel?

Deciding whether to opt for a long drive followed by crowded Croyde, as against a short flight and uncrowded Spanish waves, was as easy for me as it was for fellow South Coast surfer James Onslow. James runs Brighton surf community site Sharkbait.co.uk and we're both Surfers With Kids. Love them as we do, having young kids has made overseas surf trips a rarity over the past few years. So when - to adopt Johnny Wilkinson's line - preparation (too long without a surf trip) met opportunity (a free weekend), we were off to Spain before you could say 'Dos San Miguel, por favor.'

We left Brighton on a Friday afternoon, whizzed up to Stanstead, left the car in long stay then hopped on a Ryanair flight to Santander. Less than two hours later we touched down in Spain and were met at the airport by Chris Thomson, the owner of Errant Surf Travel and one of most stylish longboarders in the UK.

A 20 minute drive later and we arrived at our home for the next few days – La Hosteria de Latas (or La Hosteria as it is more commonly known). A former restaurant, La Hosteria has retained its original bar and also has a dining area, table football, TV, Playstation, DVD player, PC and Wi-Fi, all of which are available for guests. The rooms are really comfortable, clean and with loads of nice touches.

Saturday morning should have seen an early start, but too much San Miguel the night before meant our surf check was a little later than planned. But after just five minute stroll down to the beach, up the genius wooden boardwalk and over the dunes, we saw the surf for the first time. It was a sight for sore, San Miguelish eyes - around 3-4ft and clean.

The beach of Somo is a curving stretch of sand which runs for about three miles in total, with numerous peaks all the way along. ‘Main Peak’ is straight out in front and was the most consistent and biggest during our stay. To the eastern end of the beach there is 'Amy’s corner', where the waves are smaller. Definitely an easier paddle out if it’s big but note that also at the eastern end, about a 15 minute paddle away, is the island of Santa Marina, which has a heavy, sucky, right-hand point wave. We didn’t see anyone surfing it during our stay, but a few days before it had been going-off at 8ft plus.

With the tide dropping the waves were closing out a little, but it was sunny, clean and the only other people out were four girls having a lesson in the whitewater.

After a couple of hours we headed back for a quick lunch and a relax in the sun, then at about 3pm we headed back to the beach. With the tide now on the push it felt like a completely different wave, with head-high lefts and rights breaking all the way along the beach.

By Sunday morning the weather had changed for the worse, but the swell had increased so we headed out for a surf with most of the people staying at La Hosteria.

We checked the surf again after lunch, but a combination of an onshore wind and the tide being low meant we opted to find a bar showing the Brazilian Grand Prix. This just happened to be the GP at which Lewis Hamilton took his first World Title, making for another slightly San Miguelish Monday for James and me.

And in accordance with time-honoured surfing lore, our hungover surf check on Monday morning revealed that the waves were looking big, mean and hard work. Did we really want to paddle out, feeling as we did? Yes, not least because it was our last day there. We HAD to go out.

Eventually we made it out back then paddled up to the main peak. Huge lines were rolling into the bay, many of which were closing out in a way that made me question how on earth I was going to get back into the beach without being absolutely battered. It proved to be a dodgems session for a couple of hours but was well worth it, not least thanks to the food on offer back at La Hosteria and a lift to the airport from Chris and his wife Theresa.

It was a short, sweet and really enjoyable trip. We returned fully stoked and are already making plans for a return to La Hosteria this coming Spring.  If, that is, we're lucky enough to have another free weekend...

To find out more about staying at La Hosteria and the surfing holidays Errant Surf Travel have to offer visit www.errantsurftravel.co.uk. 

A very easy surf quiz

Here's a surf quiz with no prize whatsoever. Why do it? Why not?

Click this link to test your knowledge. Yours truly scored 8 out of 10, which is shameful.

The first person to identify the two questions I got wrong might win an all-expenses trip to the destination of my choice. Which might be the place where the picture was taken. And it might not.

Are intermediate surfers the most stoked?

It's that time of the year when one's mind turns to Nicola McLean and whether she'd like to go surfing.

Afterwards, one's mind returns to sensible topics. Such as, are intermediate surfers the ones who are the most stoked?

This view was hypothesized by esteemed surf writer Matt Warshaw when I met up with him a few weeks ago in California. I explained to Matt how, having had a lifelong love affair with surfing but one which was too often of the Same Time, Next Year variety, I was now obsessed with it and loathed ever missing even a hint of swell. Needless to say, researching Surf Nation proferred plenty of surf-time, but the real difference came in moving back to the sea, here in the far west of Cornwall, over two years ago. My surfing has gone, in that time, from Kooksville UK to half-decent and even, especially when no one is looking, reasonably fluent and almost quite good. In short, as I told Matt, I'm in the intermediate category, with plenty of flaws and capability for ineptitude, but just as much room for optimism, too (even at the age of 42 and a half).

To this, Matt eyed the hefty surf at Ocean Beach and smiled wryly. He said he had plenty of friends in the same boat - those who'd surfed when young, say in their teens or early 20s, but who had then largely left it behind owing to careers taking them away from the sea. "But now they're coming back to it, they're stoked all the time," he said. He even confessed to envying intermediate surfers because of their condition of perma-stoke.

The idea of Matt Warshaw, once a competitor on the World Tour, envying intermediate surfers like me is a curious one - and it may well owe as much to gallantry as to factual accuracy - but could he be right? Are intermediate surfers the most stoked?

Meanwhile, room for improvement has been curtailed by a hideous chest infection. There's nothing for it but to watch I'm a Celebrity. I wonder if Nicola McLean has ever surfed?

Movember comes to Cornwall

Rumours reach me that Big John Navin is currently sporting a MOUSTACHE to be proud of. Indeed, it's apparently so impressive that the leading international ladies man is contemplating KEEPING it for good.

As the 6"10' LOTHARIO said: "My tache is really cool. The girls love it and what's more, it's silkier than Stef's by far. By the way, do you know what I can do with £4.80 worth of 10 pence pieces?"

Stef Harkon, Navin's longtime MENTOR and secret Star Wars disciple, was determined to say nothing, but when pressed with the offer of a free ticket to the NEXT QPR HOME GAME had this to say: "A good thing it is, Movember. For better awareness of men's health issues, funds are raised. This Saturday the Sandsifter at Gwithian is the place to be. A good night, after a good day of surfing, it will be."

Meanwhile, Yoda smiled knowingly, and referred people to the Sandsifter website for more information. "A good website, it is," said he.

Pictured: John Navin International pre-Movember with legendary St Ives surfer, skater and lifeguard Stef Harkon.

Not A Bra Boy

I've never been convinced by the Bra Boys. I know that their rough and tumble high jinks are merely a pose to hide their true Pablo Neruda-reading, Sudoku-solving, Siddhartha-esque selves, and that were it not for the complexities of gang life in Maroubra they'd be social workers, florists or experts in the obscure art of the Hula Hoop, but sometimes their endless macho schtick gets me down.

But then again, maybe I should rethink my doubts. After all, lots of people seem to adore them, not least Russell Crowe, and perhaps the reason is this: if you too can surf a big and dangerous wave with no fear, you have a passport to do whatever you want, even really crazy things like making a pastiche of Dogtown and the Z-Boys.

For some reason, however, this Aussie TV presenter isn't on message. What on earth went wrong?

The Faroe Isles Surf Trip Is Off

A while ago I read and commended The Lost Musicians, a book set in the Faroe Islands by William Heineson. Its quirkiness, humanity and sense of the absurd made me want to head up to the Faroes, both out of curiosity and to see if there was any surf there. However, this story from Surfers' Village has put me off. Sure, not everyone up there will be an inveterate whale killer, but as these pictures show there are a fair few who clearly relish a spot of non-recreational-but-very-necessary-really cetacean slaughter.

Perhaps, though, the Faroese should be allowed to carry on with it, for, as they argue, it's been a part of their culture for centuries?

Perhaps, too, hardline Somali Muslims should be allowed to stone women to death, for this, too, has long been a part of their culture?

Likewise, shouldn't we repeal the ban on fox hunting, because, for centuries, this was an embedded part of the fabric of English country life?


CULTURAL RELATIVISM: - doncha just love it?

The images are from Surfers' Village. The map suggests that the Faroe Isles are at the heart of Western civilization but moral objectivists beg to differ.

Sub-zero Surf

Neil Watson sends this excellent photo of this morning's sub-zero dawn patrol in Lowestoft. I reckon it beautifully captures the spirit not merely of East Anglia's hardcore surfers - many of whom risked snow-covered roads for this session - but also of those of us who don't stop surfing in the winter because it turns a bit chilly. Mind you, 'a bit chilly' seems something of an understatement...

The Longest Board (or: Why I Surf A Thruster)

Thanks to David Somerville and Tom Maurice for alerting me to a new world record in surfing. Brazilian surfer Rico de Souza broke the record for surfing on the longest board after staying on a 30ft (9.16m) long surfboard for over 10 seconds. Interestingly, the story is reported both on the BBC website and on the Telegraph's. The latter quotes the 55-year-old de Souza - who designed the 16st board himself - as saying: "Life is a joke and we have to take advantage of our passage through earth in the best way possible."

A fine quote, but having checked out the footage, I also rather like the title with which Tom Maurice's email arrived. It said simply: 'Why I Surf A Thruster'. Mind you, those of us who fear the SUP revolution will be hoping that surfing 30ft boards in 2ft waves doesn't catch on.

Surf Diary 2008

Anyone else keep a surf diary? Here's mine for 2008 so far, minus descriptions of waves and rides, because otherwise it'd go on forever.

• Month           Number of Surfs
• January         4
• February        4 (but tore left quad muscle playing football)
• March            25 (includes many in Barbados)
• April              4 (includes Scotland; groin injury from football)
• May               15
• June              14
• July               15
• August           23
• September     15 (quite a few in France)
• October         16 (includes a few in California)
• November      6 to date
• December

NB: Allow at least another 10 surfs which I forgot to enter.

Total so far for 2008: 147.

Expected number of surfs by end of the year: 160/165.

Which is well and good, but what does it prove? Well, looking at January and February, it proves that if you insist on playing football, you run the risk of picking up injuries and having a fair amount of time out of the water. Looking at March, it proves that when you're somewhere like Barbados, free of injury and on a surfing holiday, you surf a hell of a lot. April proves that playing football again and picking up a groin injury will lead to more time out of the water. The rest of year proves that if you're not injured and are lucky enough to live in West Penwith, you can expect to be surfing at least three times a week, if not more.

Overall, this particular surf diary proves that football does not help one's surfing.

The pic is of my mate Stef Harkon, a man guaranteed to have surfed more than my expected total of 160 or so times this year and who, as you can see, rips as much on concrete as he does in the water.