Surf Nation

For my safety, my window is restricted

Here I am en route to London. I left the far west of Cornwall yesterday evening, stopped to see my folks in Exmouth, then headed on in an attempt to reach the metropolis. I failed, being absolutely knackered, and checked into a Travelodge. What a top place - surfing posters and DVDs everywhere, a skate ramp outside, and a wave pool round the back.

I lie. Travelodges aren't much fun, especially when you're on your Jack Jones. But mine does have a fun sticker on its (ground-floor) window: Warning: For your safety this window is restricted.

Thank God for restricted windows, that's what I say. But also, before I head to town, remember that it's the A1surf.com retro board challenge this coming Sunday - should be fun, especially if the weather is as sunny as it is outside my restricted window. Also don't forget the SAS auction of celeb-designed boards on 23rd October, nor also the O'Neill Cold Water Classic next week at Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz. I'm heading over there with Harry and, restriction-by-window and dodgy internet access permitting, we'll be able to report daily on what's going down - and let you know just crowded (and localized?) Californian breaks are.

Meanwhile, the board is that which has been designed by Sir Paul McCartney for the SAS auction.

Insta-locals, please note: it's best to wait your turn

I was discussing surfing etiquette a couple of nights ago with a friend who wants to get into surfing but finds other surfers intimidating. "Surf fascism," he proclaimed, "it's alive and well." Another friend, himself one of West Penwith's best surfers for years, smiled wryly. "There's always been a pecking order in surfing," he said, "You just have to work at it and climb the ladder." We agreed that our fledgling surfer friend should keep going, but maybe not pick big, good days for a paddle out, when his lack of experience in the water might prove hazardous.

The raw novice can be a problem. At massive Sennen last Saturday, I was astonished by a suicidal take-off attempt made by a beginner who had looked at me flying down the line - had actually seen that I was travelling at serious speed in her direction - but nevertheless, to my horror, decided to paddle for the wave. She dropped down its face lying prone on her board and promptly got annihilated. In the nick of time, I flicked my board away from her and cut back into the white water: my ride was over, but she didn't have a hole in her head. Frustrating, but I don't think it's right to get angry about this kind of thing. Everyone has to learn and if you know what you're doing, even merely to intermediate level, you can take evasive action when required. Besides, part of me admired the fact this lady had somehow managed to paddle out on the biggest day we've had down here for ages. But below is a guest post by seasoned surfer and fine writer Daniel Crockett on a rather different kettle of fish - the insta-local who rocks up and turns your mellow break into a hassle-fest.

I felt the need to write about an experience at a little wave in North Cornwall. I don't want to give away too much about the spot, it's no secret, but I subscribe to the idea that the more times a place is mentioned, the greater the impact on that place becomes. Suffice to say, it's an estuarine pointbreak more suited to longboarding than shortboarding, due to the slow, rolling curl and slack bottom tension. Depending on the water flow, swell size throughout the year, and dredging in the river the bank varies, but on the whole the place sees more dangling toes than busted lips. Because of this, the place has a mellow, friendly vibe from the car park right up to the rocky outside section.

This last weekend was very predictable. Slack winds, small tide, big swell, good bank – you didn't need to be Tony Butt to see it coming. So the crowd was to be expected, and there's no problem with that. I'm sure grim weekday mornings in February won't arouse the same response. It's a beautiful place, and I'm glad people get the chance to share it. However, on 11th October, there wasn't a great deal of gladness or sharing going on. Instead? A flotilla of insta-locals intent on taking everything they could. I wasn't involved in any of the altercations, shouting or hassle, but the anger of these moments swept me up and I had to leave the water.

I just love this particular place, and what it represents. It arouses a strong protective instinct in me. As an interloper to Cornwall, I don't have this for any other spot. But I've put my time in at this one, wasted countless hours checking it and getting skunked, and scored it all-time with nobody about. I scattered the ashes of a good friend in the water here after he was killed, with his family watching from the bluff, and felt chicken skin run up my back when the waves miraculously turned on. The spot means a lot to me, as I'm sure it does to many people, and the good vibes in the water are a major facet of that.

I'm not the first person to have pleasant surf bummed by a crowd. But, in ten odd years of being devoted to this place, I've never experienced a sour vibe there. So, I wanted to note it down, in the hope that some people pack their patience next time. When you are surfing somewhere new, as many fledgling surfers are for the first time this autumn, please be humble.

Image of John Eldridge courtesy of Daniel Crockett.

South Coast Retro Board Surf Challenge

If you're on the south coast and free this coming Sunday, why not check out the A1Surf Retro Board Challenge ’08, held in conjunction with Wittering Surf Shop? It's a free, fun surf event with a difference: all the invited participants surf heats in fancy dress on a randomly selected retro board.

The event is to be held this Sunday, 19th October at Booker Green in East Wittering with the aim of bringing together local surfers and supporters to have fun and raise money for a worthwhile cause - RNLI lifeboats.

Wittering Surf Shop owner Nick Cheshire will be putting forward a fleet of his personal vintage surf boards for use on the day. Scores will be awarded for creative styles, stunts, tricks and just fun fancy dress efforts. The event will be run in the same way a standard surf competition would be run with heats, then quarter finals, followed by the semi final and final. The day will culminate in a prize giving ceremony complete with massive cheques and champagne.

As well as the competition itself there will have a marquee on the green with some surf brands displaying their boards, wetsuits and clothing. These include the likes of Black & White Surfboards, Xcel Wetsuits, Lok Box Fins, Chilled Turtle, Santa Cruz Surfboards, JP Surfboards and Escape Surfboards.

There will be refreshments available throughout the day, and sofas and palm trees on the beach will add to the ‘Aloha spirit’.

A prize raffle will be run too, where for a small donation for a ticket you may be taking home some great prizes at the end of the day and monies raised will be donated to the RNLI Lifeboats.

David Somerville from A1Surf said: “We are really excited about being able to co-host this event, as it’s nice to offer something for surfers who may not necessarily compete in other standard competitions.

“This event is open to all spectators to come down and cheer on for their favourite surfer, soak up the atmosphere on the beach and help raise money for the RNLI Lifeboats.

“And perhaps you may even spot Elvis riding a few waves too!”

Nick Cheshire from Wittering Surf Shop said: “Here at Wittering Surf Shop we pride ourselves as being a surfer's surf shop and because of this we enjoy giving back to the surfing community.

“This event is our way of saying thank you to people who have supported us along the way and hopefully a way of meeting new surfing friends.

“We can't wait for the day, it has been great fun in the past. We look forward to seeing you there!"

For more information about the event please contact David Somerville on 01273 837733 or email
david@a1surf.com.

Is surfing urban art?

Surfing and urban art might seem a strange pair of bedfellows, but they're to be brought together at a Bonhams' auction in London on Thursday 23rd October. Bonhams' first sale of urban art in February earlier this year realised extraordinary prices for work that is variously tagged as urban, or street, or graffiti art, and next week's show avowedly seeks to "continue to document the incredible phenomenon of street art, by focussing on works by a selection of established and emerging international artists, such as Keith Haring, Antony Micallef, Faile, Jean Michel Basquiat, Banksy, Jose Parla, and Adam Neate."

But into the bargain comes surfing, thanks to a collection of 14 eco-surfboard artworks courtesy of both Surfers Against Sewage and a number of renowned artists. The boards have just about the most minor environmental impact possible, being made with Homeblown’s Biofoam and glassed in Eco-comp UV Resins, and they feature designs by artists of the calibre of Tracey Emin, Gavin Turk, Conrad Shawcross and Jonathon Yeo (for a full list, click here).

All profits from the sale will contribute directly to supporting ongoing SAS campaigns such as 'No To Toxics', 'Marine Litter', 'Safer Shipping' and 'Climate Chaos', but can Bonhams replicate the £75K+ raised a few years ago when SAS auctioned a couple of Damien Hirst-designed boards? We have to hope so but meanwhile, spread the word (oh, and let me know if surfing is urban art).

Board by Pure Evil.

Ridiculous Western Oz Wave

Australian surfing compadre - presently toiling, I do believe, for News International in Wapping - Cassandra Murnieks sends this image of Marty Paradisis somewhere in Western Australia. It's an entry for the Oakley Surfing Life Big Wave Awards, which will be decided in February 2009. I haven't seen any other contenders, but this one will - surely - be hard to beat.

It's one of the UK's best waves - but the MoD don't want you to surf it

Good to hear from weathered East Anglian surfer Neil Watson, who alerts me to a story I missed from yesterday's Independent on Sunday. It's about what is apparently "Britain's best kept surfing secret - the UK's perfect wave", a "15ft wall of water [which] barrels its way towards the coast, forming a smooth tunnel that can be ridden by skilled surfers for minutes at the time – the most coveted goal in the sport."

Where is this remarkable 'tunnel'? It's at none other than Kimmeridge Bay, in Dorset, but there is a problem: the wave is smack in the middle of a firing range. As such, it's inaccessible between Monday to Thursday from 9.00am to 5.00pm or on Fridays from 9.00 to midday. In effect, therefore, it's all but off limits, and a bad situation might grow even worse as rumours abound that the army is going to start blasting away on weekends, too.

The Independent piece recounts how local surfers have decided to tell the world about Kimmeridge, a place described somewhat breathlessly as UK surfng's "holy grail" but kept a secret, according to the Sindy, for years (presumably since it was first surfed in 1964). As is often the way, Fleet Street's analysis of surfing may not be strictly accurate, for there are many among us who (a) have known about Kimmeridge for some time, and (b) would argue that there are waves which are better, and more consistent, elsewhere in the UK, but nevertheless its sentiments are to be applauded. Likewise, the formation of the Access Broad Bench Association, created by south coast surfers to preserve access to a wave which, on its day, is almost certainly the best on the south coast. If ever there is a time for a secret spot to be widely publicised, it's when the Ministry of Defence seems to be intent on preventing people from surfing it. If you agree that this is unacceptable, sign the petition on the ABBA website.

Image courtesy of Beach Wizard.

Sex changes and surfing

It's amazing what you can find online. There I was, innocently scouring the web for information about sex changes (of the kickflip with a body varial kind), when I encountered a story in Metro, of all places, about legendary Gold Coast surfer Peter Drouyn and his own impending, rather more literal, sex change. Drouyn, one of the best known surfers of the sixties and seventies, says that his male hormones have "drained away" over the past eight years, to be replaced naturally be female ones. Drouyn intends to take this process a step further by having a sex change, as reported by Metro here.

I make no comment, save to say that I hope it goes well, and to note that there wasn't much time to reflect on sex changes, of whatever kind, at Sennen Cove today. The surf pumped under sunny blue skies, as it did yesterday, too. Then, Harry and I got a session in at Porthmeor - crowded but excellent - while today the outsize sets and fairly gnarly rips at Sennen made just about everyone think twice before paddling out. It proved to be a great session, not so much for the amazing rides (mine totalled three - two drops followed by bottom turns into disintegrating waves, but one left hander so fantastic it's probably the best of my life) but because of the all-round good vibe out there in an ocean that throbbed with unceasing energy. On days like this, West Penwith feels like the best place on earth.

A swift note, before I head off to play a game of poker, to check out the SAS Drawing Boards site. The auction of a number of celebrity designed boards is a couple of weeks away - more about it soon. Meanwhile, here's an image of Drouyn in his heyday, with thanks to SurfResearch.com.

Beachley announces retirement from full-time competition

Layne Beachley, former seven-time ASP Women's World Champion, has just announced her retirement from full-time competition. Currently no. 3 on the Women's World Tour, Beachley will bow out at the end of the year.

I wrote yesterday of Kelly Slater's incredible achievements, but Beachley is, of course, right up there too. Click this link to read more.

Slater in The Guardian

The Guardian - now there's a surf-friendly paper. Why, they've even published a piece by yours truly on the estimable Mr Slater. Click here to check it out. Photo: Reuters.

Chess and Surfing

 

I've just read Stefan Zweig's Chess Story, an excellent novella of obsession with chess completed in 1942 just days before Zweig, an Austrian writer then living in exile in Brazil, committed suicide. What it has got to do with surfing? Consider this, one of the principal character's explanations for what chess, once he discovered it, gave him:

For suddenly I had something to do - something meaningless, something without purpose, you may say, but still something that nullified the nullity surrounding me... I began to map out my day precisely: two games in the morning, two games in the afternoon, then a quick recap in the evening. So my day, otherwise as formless as jelly, was full, I was busy, without becoming tired, for chess had the marvelous merit that, because the intellectual energies were corralled within a narrowly circumscribed field, even the most strenuous effort did not tire the brain, but rather increased its agility and vigour. At first I played the games through quite mechanically, yet gradually a pleasurable, aesthetic understanding awoke within me. I grasped the fine points... and soon I was able to recognise the personality and style of each of the chess masters as unmistakably as one knows a poet from even a few lines of his poems... I felt my mind refreshed, even honed...

For chess, read surfing?

Image of a Malibu chess match courtesy of Zach on Flickr.