Surf Nation

Sam Smart, surfer and boxer, through to ABA Novice Finals

I've mentioned Sam Smart's boxing skills before, and am pleased to say that the Sennen Cove surfer and all-round decent bloke is through to the finals of the Amateur Boxing Association Novice Boxing Championships this coming Saturday. The event takes place at HMS Nelson Gymnasium, Queen Street, Portsmouth with tickets for the day's boxing costing £10.00. Sam is boxing at middleweight against John Rider of Angel ABC. May the best man - the one from Sennen - win. Meanwhile here's some footage of Sam at work.

If everybody had an ocean

I popped over to the Tate St Ives yesterday to check out an exhibition entitled If Everybody had an Ocean. In doing so I left behind the sanctuary of my local beach (one that sits just a couple of miles from Land's End and, as such, is often just too far for the tourists) for the mayhem that is St Ives on a bank holiday Monday. I don't know what happened to my cognitive faculties, other than to assume that they deserted me, for I forgot all about the inevitable impossibility of parking within a five mile radius of St Ives and, with the boys fighting in the back of the car, found that tempers were running high by the time I took Karen's advice and opted for the park and ride option. A train ride and a stroll among the seagulls later, we found ourselves somewhat calmer and inside the Tate. Outside sundry would-be surfers attempted to learn the art on the mass of surging white water that characterized Porthmeor, to no discernible avail. They would have been far better off abandoning trying to surf in such conditions and wandering into the Tate. For there, above and beyond the wonderful collection of works by the likes of Ben Nicholson, Peter Lanyon, Bridget Riley and Trevor Bell, was an exhibition by turns beguiling and thought-provoking, illuminating and intangible, one that hinges on the life and work of Brian Wilson, the driving force behind the Beach Boys.

Have you suffered misfortune on a surf trip? Dr Juma can help

This comes from Jimmy O'Keefe of World Pro Surfers. I think Jimmy encountered Dr Juma's services on a surf trip. Whether he availed himself of them is another story...

The captain returns

I'm back in a wet and windswept Cornwall after competing in the Highland Challenge organised by Visit Scotland Adventure. Readers will recall that I approached the event with some trepidation, not least because Swedish surfer girl and climber Jenny Glumoff of Visit Scotland had decided to appoint me captain of one of the four teams of intrepid journalists. Captaincy has but rarely been my thing and I feared that I would crumble under the pressure. Early signs were not good for my team after two of us (possibly including me) managed to stay up drinking til 2.30 on the night before the event kicked off, making for a very sore head for the first challenge: canoeing on the River Ness. Despondency grew as pro snowboarder and surfer Lesley 'I used to live for disco dancing' McKenna miraculously appeared to join one of the teams. She and journalist Fiona Russell duly paddled off into the distance and won the canoeing, with myself and fellow canoeist Caroline Willingham from Zest coming in third. I knew then that any hope of overall victory would entail careful strategic planning, determination and skill, none of which felt all that tangible as my hangover continued to assail the remaining vestiges of athleticism in my tired and tiring 41-year-old frame. 

Surfers Village and a fine looking book

There are surely very few people in surfing who would have any gripes with Surfers Village. The site is the industry leader for up to the minute news, looks good and is run by some serious professionals. Good news, then, that Surfers Village is bringing out its own Surfing Yearbook for 2008. The book will be put together by the best surfing writers and snappers around the world and is a surf-industry first. It'll contain insider's views of everything that matters in surfing from Chile to Chicama, Pipeline to Porthleven. I'm hoping to post a Jpeg of the slick-looking cover soon (it's a fine appetizer for what promises to be a collector's edition), but meanwhile here's someone looking suspiciously like Sam Lamiroy from the O'Neill Planet Surf series on the Surfer's Village gallery.

The captain speaks

Today my peripatetic lifestyle finds me in Inverness. I'm not here at the beginning of a surf trip along the Moray Firth but to compete in a Highland Challenge for the media. For some bizarre reason, I have been appointed captain of a team of four illustrious hacks, and will lead them to triumph or disaster (it matters not, for they are, as we know, twin imposters) over the next two days. We will be canoeing, mountain biking, orienteering and scrambling up a nice and easy mountain (Mt Suilven, a breeze for a man of my capabilities, if only I had any), competing against three other teams of four, all of whom are reportedly not quaking in their boots at the news that I am at the helm of said team. Regular contributor to this blog and surfing journo Alf Alderson has a bad knee and so had to decline his invitation, but I think that's just a ruse - there are rumours of a tasty swell arriving just as I will find myself half way up a mountain. No matter: the scenery is awesome, and certain defeat is as pleasurable in its own way as miraculous victory. Oh, the connection with surfing? It's that nice Swedish girl Jenny - a surfer who helped me out on my trips to the far north, as a result of which I rather rashly said '"count me in" to her Highland Challenge...

See www.visitscotland.com/adventure for more information. 

Susan Chaplin: Surfing's Greatest Adventuress?

A while ago I posted a brief mention of Surfing's Greatest Misadventures, an excellent book published by Casagrande Press and superbly edited by Paul Diamond. I still haven't read every one of the 30 contributions, but can say that everything I've read so far is of the same high standard I discerned in Susan Chaplin's wonderful short work, The Idiot Savant. Particular favourites include Permutations of a Bohemian Bubble Chaser by Magnus Schaus and, as much because I got to meet the main man in France recently as anything else, Buzzy Kerbox's account (with Ben Marcus) of his crossing of the Mediterranean between Corsica and Elba with Laird Hamilton. There's a great piece by Glenn Hening entitled Lost Cause in El Salvador: The Filming of Big Wednesday, and a number of typically insightful contributions by Matt George. Still, it is Chaplin's writing that resonates the most. The Idiot Savant is a truly beautiful story, fluid, almost Spartan, enigmatic and warm. It lingers as much as its last line - c'est un voyage pour cherchez les vagues - and I felt it only right to try and talk to its author, whose work can often be seen in The Surfer's Journal and The Surfer's Path (when, that is, she is not surfing or paddleboarding vast distances). Here are some thoughts from Chaplin, a resident of Tortola on the British Virgin Islands and, in 2004, the first person to paddle the five big islands between Guadeloupe and Grenada.

For some nice lines, try The Ryde

Some very cool gear is available thanks to The Ryde, a clothing company born in California with two outlets in the UK: the Loose Fit shop in the town of my stag night, Barnstaple, in North Devon, and Trans Surf, in Newquay. The less said about my stag night the better (Croyde stayed flat for three days; needless to say, we didn't drink and misbehave to fill the time but played chess, read poetry, that kind of thing) but the designs from the men behind The Ryde are things of beauty. CA surfers Mike Figueroa and Matthew Allen have created engaging, witty clothing that will bring a smile to your face and, better still, fit you well too. Here are some sample designs - I think there might be a summer sale at the mo...

Hobgood wins, Fanning consolidates at Billabong Pro Tahiti

Here's Cassandra Murnieks with an update of events at the 2007 Billabong Pro Tahiti.

Mick Fanning continues to be the leading surfer in the world after finishing runner-up to Damien Hobgood at the Billabong Pro in Tahiti. He extended his lead by 432 points to hold the lead from fellow Australian Taj Burrow, who was knocked out in the fourth round. Fanning flew to Tahiti two weeks prior to the event to practise, and the extra work clearly paid off for him: finishing second is his career best finish in Tahiti. However, the event continues to haunt the Australians. The last Australian to win at the treacherous break was Mark Occhilupo back in 1999.

Surfboat carnage

My mate Mole (aka Perranporth Andy) keeps telling me that I'd enhance my life if I got into surfboat racing. He sends this clip to convince me.