Surf Nation

Highly Sketchy

Surfing and Art

Good to hear from Peter Robinson of The Surfing Museum, who tells me of a new exhibition on art and surfing. As he says: "Art and surfing have been inextricably linked for hundreds of years, from early sketches of surfers during the voyages of Captain James Cook in the 18th century and iconic hand sculpted wooden surfboards, to the flower power of the 1960s and garish fluorescent colours of the 1980s. The act of riding a wave itself is perhaps the purest form of surfing art - the surfer propelled by a pulse of energy from mother nature, painting lines on the ever changing canvas of the wave - but surfing art occurs in paintings, posters, photography and film. With help from Oxbow and Kind Design, we've put together an exciting new show featuring some of the best examples of the blend of surfing and art."

Among the artefacts on display will be original British surfboards dating back almost a century, as well as an eclectic mix of memorabilia showing beguiling artwork from the creative minds of surfers and those inspired by surfing. Also on show will be stunning replicas of ancient Hawaiian surfboards hand carved by the Tom Pohaku Stone – a lecturer in Hawaiian culture and surfer of legendary status.

The show can be seen at Havant Museum in Hampshire form January 19th to March 1st 2008; the Red House Museum in Christchurch, May 3rd to June 14th, and at the National Fishing Heritage Centre in Grimsby, June 28th to September 7th 2008. See The Surfing Museum for more information. Also don't forget to check out Club of the Waves - a top site with some great surfing artwork.

Of Sharpy, Sharks and Swallow

I'm just about to hit the road from London for God's Own County, but before I go let me direct those readers who admire Sharpy's photography as much as I do to www.surfphoto.co.uk. As you'll know, Sharpy had to close Slide recently - a great shame because it was different, a tad subversive and packed with awesome shots. Sharpy tells me he'll be contributing to the UK's longest-running surf mag, Wavelength, so look out for his work there and check out Surfphoto. Here are a couple of Sharpy's typically clean and crisp shots, of St Ives surfer Tassy Swallow in Portugal.

Meanwhile see this link for what Simon Jayham found in the water the other day - not my cup of tea at all, even the baskers scare me (they're very big, and what if they whacked you with their tail?).

Counting the cost

My week is proving more expensive than I'd expected.

Monday: Sam Smart calls to offer me his 6'0" Surftech TL2 for £150. Perfect for Harry so I say yes. (Don't tell him - it's hidden and he has to earn it.) I also buy a pair of wetsuit boots for £10.00. Total unforeseen spend of £160.

Tuesday: Drive to London but forget to pay congestion charge. Unexpectedly I am another £50 worse off.

Wednesday: Awake at friend's house in Brixton and realise that we've all forgotten that I need a resident's permit to park free of censure. A warden has already put a parking ticket on the car; not content with this, he returns 10 minutes later and clamps it. Cost not budgeted for: £130.

Thursday: No disasters so far though thinking about it, did I stray into the Congestion Charging zone yesterday by accident? Not sure but better pay £10.00 just in case.

Tomorrow: Return to Cornwall. Hopefully no extras, just the fuel. Meanwhile, check this link - good to see that the UK Pro Surf Tour will be back soon, bigger and better than ever.

Surf News from the City

Here I am in London (again) but the slew of medical bags from the MV Endeavour continues. Rich Hardy from SAS tells me that they've made their way up the coast to Porthtowan. Tony Plant also gave me one that he'd found in Newquay on the weekend, a horrible-looking thing that's now made its way to London because I failed to remove it from the boot of my car. I have a feeling that Rich might be making a personal return of some of the bags to the Endeavour's Dutch head office - more on this soon.

Meanwhile, good luck to Sam Smart who heads off to Oz for a few months today. His new website has a blog - check it out for updates of what Sam's up to in Australia. Also check this page for a picture of a very cool old school skater (who he? Ed).

Well done to Aggie surfwear company Finisterre, who have just been nominated for this award.

And finally, as they say on the News at Ten, the River Thames is flat, grey and unsurfable, while my local break is going off. Always the way.

From the Gower to the North Shore

Looks like Gower surfer Simon Jayham has been in his element on the North Shore lately.

Sense, Sensibility and Boxing

I'm just back from Sunday night training at St Just Amateur Boxing Club.

It was a hard session but good.

In the room to next to my office, the TV is on. I can hear the dulcet sounds of the accompanying music to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, adapted for the BBC by Andrew Davies.

Usually, my 12-year-old son Harry goes boxing with me, but tonight he opted instead for Jane Austen. Right now, he is watching the last few minutes of the programme with his Mum. What, I wonder, has possessed him to do this? He is even, believe it or not, reading - and enjoying - the book. Extraordinary. Harry has never evinced a literary side. Something very strange, and no doubt hormonal, is happening.

The programme has just ended. Harry has burst into my office, demanding to know what training was like. He is shadow boxing and telling me that he is a better boxer than me.

All is right with the world.

Is Big Wave Surfing Pleasurable?

While talking to Duncan Scott and Al Meanie yesterday, a question popped into my rain-lashed brain: is it actually fun to surf the kind of wave pictured here (courtesy of top surfing snapper Mickey Smith)?

I was prompted to ask by remembering the last really good wave I had - a shoulder-to-head high right hander, under a clear blue November sky, that seemed to go on forever and sat up beautifully for the whole of its duration. The sensation, as all surfers know, of carving on a wave like that is one of the most exquisite pleasure. You don't want it to stop and when you do kick out, the ride over, you paddle straight back out for another one.

In contrast, it struck me that riding the kind of monsters taken on by Duncan and Al at Mullagmore Head last December doesn't offer quite the same burst of pure fun. They agreed. As Al put it: "The pleasure comes when you've made the wave, when you've got to the channel safely." This reminds me of something Newquay legend Jed Stone told me a while back - that when you're deep inside a triple overhead Porthleven barrel, the main thing on your mind is getting out the other end in one piece.

It must be an incredible feeling, making the drop on a wave the size of a fairly large building and racing down the line, but for the majority, pure fun will have to do.

The best sports book ever written?

What is it with my mates? They never tell me when there's been a good review of Surf Nation (there have been some - honest!) but call me within seconds of the appearance of one that's bad or indifferent. Cheers, lads! Yesterday one of them took this excellent game to new levels, calling me breathlessly to say "Are you listening to the radio? They're talking about surfing books and guess what, Steve Bunce says Andy Martin's Stealing the Wave is the best sports book ever written! You gotta love it!"

I did, indeed, love it. The Cambridge don, who refuses to surf on our shores, severely dissed the UK and Irish scene when he reviewed Surf Nation. Let me remind you of his immortal opening par, which, as my mates know, never fails to bring a smile to my face: "[Wade's] simple and pretty implausible thesis is that surfing around these shores is something other than an exercise in masochism and madness. Contrary to popular prejudice, we live in a kingdom by the surf. The only trick is finding any."

(Er, try telling that to Duncan Scott and Al Meanie, whom I caught up with yesterday at The Cribbar. Somehow, they managed to spot 55ft waves off Ireland last December and surf them, likewise a 40ft session at Aileens a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday my son Harry and I surfed nice and clean Great Western at a solid 3-4ft, so astonishingly we also managed to find some surf. Our experience of surfing is radically different from that of Scott, Meanie and the other tow-surfers charging in Ireland, but all of us are united by one simple fact - we go surfing here, because, er, there is surf.)

Anyway, ever since Martin aired his remarkable views about surfing in Britain and Ireland I have, if I'm honest, found it difficult to take him seriously. Doubts have gnawed away about Stealing the Wave and they're echoed in this review, from the San Diego Union Tribune.

The next paperback edition of Martin's book is out on 4 February, so if you haven't read it yet, soon you'll have a chance to see if you agree with Steve. Meanwhile, what is the best sports book ever written?
 

Pit Pilot and Winter is Here

I wasn't alone when I wondered what well-known surf snapper Greg Martin would do with his first issue of Pit Pilot. Greg took the helm as editor a couple of months ago and faced a challenge: to retain Pit Pilot's core style - edgy, underground, and with heavily lad's mag feel - or do something different with it. The latter course would be risky, but many people felt there'd be no harm in a fresh take on the mag.

As it happens, Greg has done a great job. There's an appropriately wintry sheen to the new issue and the kind of awesome shots those who know Greg have come to expect. The legendary early December Ireland session at Mullagmore Head is covered (with a terrifying shot of an outsize bomb by Tony Plant) and there's a great debate between Alf Alderson and a long-time friend of his over the ethics underlying surfing guidebooks (to tell all, or not?). There are even one or two semi-naked females. All in all a job well done - check it out.

There's also a piece by me on surfing in winter. I've posted it below but if you want to see the accompanying photograph - in which I look as debonair, handsome and stylish as it's possible to be - you'll have to buy the mag.