At 8.30 on a beautiful evening these guys had been the only people in the water. On their club night you can see large groups of young people on paddle boards training to win another contest!

Brighton Beach Culture is calling the world this week. The Brighton Festival and Fringe Festival – the 2nd biggest arts festival in the UK – is in full swing and befittingly there is plenty of beach culture to indulge in.

Brighton lays claim to be one of the world’s first beach resorts to develop in the 18th and 19th centuries.  To preserve modesty, wooden huts on wheels were made for bathers to change in and emerge into the freezing briny of the English Channel.  So one of highlights of this year’s festival are the Dip Your Toe bathing machines which have been built to house performances, theatre, films and puppets.  Next weekend they will move to Brighton Marina where they’ll say goodbye to the beautiful Boat Project – a 30 foot boat made from wood donated by people from SE England. The Boat Project houses art and memories made from found objects.

This Saturday also sees a first – Rock Up – a series of surf films projected onto the the white cliffs of Rottingdean. The films are all by local surfers and film-makers including the original, Richard Gregory of Wavedreamer! It promises to be a bumper weekend for all culture-gulls.

Another visit to the beach with a super hero, we only had time to dig one hole and make one castle then it was off to swimming lessons.

I didn’t even notice the digger and the dumper truck last week, but they must ave been there to build the huge sand bank needed to accommodate the numerous beach huts in preparation for summer.

As the surf gets relentlessy more crowded, how can we score empty breaks? An article about the new 870 mile Wales Coast Path  gave me a few ideas about how to up your wave count and be more eco-surf friendly.

Wales is now officially the first country in the world to have a walkable path around its entire coastline.  Three of the five sections that were featured in the article are in prime Welsh surfing territory and one other gets waves in bigger swells.  I’ve seen classic empty surf  in one of them while walking the coastal path and and surfed a secret spot in another which involved a lengthy scramble across fields and through brambles.

Walking to the surf is a pretty radical concept these days. We’ve all got so used to being able to drive right up to the break and moan if we have to park more than a few yards away from it (or pay for the privilege) that most surfers wouldn’t normally think of packing a rucksack as well as a boardbag. In some countries with large, undeveloped coastlines this may be the only way of reaching surf . Dr Tony Butt’s excellent Surf Science website has a good guide for novice surf hikers who want to disappear for a few days or weeks.

But even in ‘developed’ well-connected countries this can reap rewards.  One New Year’s Day in SE England I was on a bracing coastal walk to clear a hangover when I spotted a delicious looking A- frame peak about 2 miles from the nearest car park. Marking it on a map, I returned with a mate the next time there was a nice clean swell and we were rewarded with naming rights …and lefts. I’ve also surfed other breaks within the city boundaries which have been uncrowded, simply because they are more than 100 yards from the car park.

For my purely surfish reasons – long may surfers remain lazy!

Another splendid morning. The stream was in deep flow after so much rain and I spent some time studying the little standing waves it creates across the sand. You can see a pic on my wavedreamer instagram account.

I took this at 7.30 while I supervised activities in the sand with Bob the builder and one of his machines.

It’s official – summer is here. The swifts have arrived in my neighbourhood and its time to hang up the 5/4 wetsuit until November. But possibly, it could be staying there.

According to a report this week, the ocean’s around Britain are warming so much that fish species traditionally found in Southern Europe are now being caught here. The good news is that we can have longer winter surf sessions in thinner wetsuits and some of these species are rather delectable, such as bluefin tuna, squid and anchovies. The bad news is that one of the species that will be frequenting our waters is the thresher shark and there will be fish wars as foreign trawlers come into our waters to chase the warm water fish and our trawlers race north to chase cold water species such as cod and mackerel.

And of course, the really bad news is that warmer oceans also mean rising sea levels which will devastate many existing surf spots. So the 3/2 may also be joining the 5/4 in the wardrobe.

This was taken from the back of Potters hill on the side of my favorite road in North Devon.

A stunning makeover (thanks Matt!) and a new blog. The Philosurfer otherwise known as Andrew, Captain Poo or Brother Bonga will be responsible for a constant stream of incredibly well informed surf-related environmental observations and comment. He is often challenging and funny and I welcome him with open arms and an open mind!

No not the colours but the policeman. Only in North Devon would I get a smile from a policeman while I blocked the road to photograph some blossom. If you have noticed my tweet go and listen to James Lovelock

This is the provocative headline for an interview with Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. Although you will find this claim in the depths of the interview with Chouinard’s view that the corporations have won, the majority of the interview is actually very positive. However, accepting this, Chouinard is trying to do something more radical -to change the corporation itself. He’s doing this at Patagonia by changing:

• its supply chain – partly through the Sustainability Apparel Coalition (note – NO other surf company appears to be a member),
• its working conditions – when there’s surf, people downtool and go shred, making the time up later,
• its response to economic downturn – bosses take a pay cut, and
• its corporate structure – the directors are protected from legal challenges if they put environmental or social issues above pure profit.

Coincidentally, BBC Radio 4 has an interesting 15 minute ‘Four Thought’ programme by Clare Melford, CEO of the International Business Leaders Forum about corporate sutainability based on Buddhist principles but coincidentally aiming for ‘the triple bottom line’ that Patagonia’s model is also aiming at.

Unfortunately, the driving force of business seems to be to persuade people that they ‘need’ things that they only actually ‘want’. The likes of Patagonia and the companies represented by Clare Melford are in the minority but seem to be the only hope that an increasing human population with aspirations of increasing consumption can continue to live on the one earth we have.

There is an old saying rain before 7 fine by 11 and it seams to be one of those days. The Horizon is so sharp you could cut yourself on it.

A rare sight, to cold and to flat for the May bank holiday revelers.

A serene start to the bank holiday weekend

The Marine Conservation Society has released its 2012 Good Beach Guide and, while its good news that its recommending more beaches, it failed over 200 beaches because of an appalling hidden amount of run-off from outfalls from streets, agricultural land and other sources. Only a quarter of the 31000 combined sewage overflows have monitoring on them and the MCS has only got the information as the result of Freedom of Information request.

It is stupid that this information isn’t in the public domain and obvious that more pressure needs to be placed on the water companies, highway authorities and others to tell people when the CSOs are operating or when they can be predicted to be operating – based on the amount of rainfall.

I don’t disagree with my iphone.

This is the view from Woolacombe allotments. The evening had turned to summer and there were peas to protect from marauding mice.

‘Back in the caves,’ is the answer. This was one of the enlightening facts gleaned from my bedside reading at the weekend, The River Cottage Fish Book. It was the mind-expanding goodness in a chemical called DHA that allowed the brains in our ancestors homo erectus to expand and evolve into homo sapiens. And where did homo erectus get its DHA? By eating fish.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall lays out the arguments about how a healthy fish intake helps reduce the chances of diabetes and  children to develop better. And a new one on me – how the gloop at the bottom of the ocean contains one billion micro-organisms per cubic centimetre and that 80% of the 100 strains identified reduced cancerous cell growth. So, not only do we appear to owe our existence as intelligent creatures to the sea, but it could contain the cure to many of the diseases we suffer from.

The downside of this though is that we’ve become too ‘intelligent’ for our own good and are abusing the ocean in so many ways, including overfishing. This is why Hugh started his Fish Fight campaign which is aiming to change the EU rules about throwing by-catch back.

If you care about the state of our fisheries, the book contains some useful tips for practical action:

1. buy from sustainable fisheries – look for the Marine Stewardship Council blue fish tick logo and use the Marine Conservation Society fishonline.

2. eat locally caught fish and try different species (the River Cottage Fish Book is also a very good recipe book and available for under a tenner on the web).

3. sign up to Fish Fight campaign to reform EU rules.

I had already taken the days photo and was sitting at my desk when Mr PP popped in to tell me there was a rainbow stretching from point to point. By the time I got on the beach it had traveled out to sea.

On Woolacombe beach there is at least two types of sand. One of them is soft sand which the local builders used to take off the beach for rendering houses and its this sand that gets blown off the beach in high winds.

Used by ancient cultures for millenia to symbolise the sun, the ages of woman and the turning of the seasons, the spiral is the most meaningful symbol for surfers.

The spinning of a low pressure system that generates swell, the turbulent eddies that increase the size of the waves within the swell and the beautiful spirals of seashells on the seashore are the good spirals.

But what goes around comes around. Cheap oil has led to cheap plastic which ends up in the ocean and can survive for hundreds of years The spiralling currents concentrate it into certain areas. The most famous is the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch‘ covering thousands of square miles. These are the bad spirals that poison the ocean and eventually leave plastic litter on the beaches (33 years later in some cases).

What can we do? Take Surfrider Foundation‘s Pledge to rise above plastics, take part in SAS’s 2012 Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue Project and, next time the good spirals deliver you some surf, take some bad spiral plastic home for recycling.

Ive used my phone for the last week of daily waves and got into the instagram thing you can find the original under wavedreamer.

The surprising news that Patagonia have launched a food line shrink-wrapped for easy eating by rough outdoorsy types had me searching for a calendar to make sure it isn’t April 1st. But no – its true. They’re selling salmon from sustainable sources, caught sensitvely by local people. This is great news (although it seems a bit expensive at $12.50 a packet).

Will St Agnes-based Finisterre (the UK equivalent of Patagonia) feel duty-bound to retaliate? If so, they don’t have to look far. For centuries, the Cornish pasty has provided portable sustenance for miners, surfers and even grockles. Now it’s received Protected Regional Identification status, its ticks the ‘made by locals’ box. All Finisterre have to do is source an organic one and flog it in a paper bag made of 100% post-consumer waste paper to make it even more sustainable than Patagonia’s offering. Proper Job.

Taken from inside the Cafe!

An inch of rain fell in my home town today, the sea whipped into a ferment by 60mph winds. There are multiple flood warnings yet we are still in a serious drought. The newspapers are scratching their heads.

Is this a typical UK spring or a sign of things to come? Actually, its both. Variable weather is ‘normal’ but climate change will bring more of the same. It will be more ‘normal’ to have extremes of weather. More big downpours + more droughts. Higher temperatures + bigger storms.

The song Surfin’ Bird always pops into my head as I watch a gull ride the updraft in front of a wave. Where is it from and what does it represent?

It was a hybrid of 2 RnB songs first recorded as a novelty single by The Trashmen (from landlocked Minneapolis) in 1963. This toe-curling film and interview indicates it was pure surfploitation.

At least the next band to cover it, The Ramones, actually lived somewhere surfable and treated as a pukka surf punk song, clocking in at a respectable 2 minutes 31 seconds. High Art.

However, the version I hum is by The Cramps which degenerates into slop before reforming into a beautiful wall of sound ready to shred. Sublime.

Strange but beautiful light breaking through the cloud at 7pm.

Water footprints are a similar concept to carbon footprints. We use a massive amount of water at home (the UK average is about 150 litres / person / day) but water use is also ‘embedded’ in the food we eat, clothes we wear and  stuff we buy.

While water is a totally renewable resource, the way we use it (and abuse it) matters to surfers. Water and sewage treatment uses huge amounts of energy which contributes to climate change and many surfbreaks are polluted by sewage and industrial discharges and run-off from farming land and roads.

Pioneering US surf and outdoor apparel company Patagonia have been campaigning against dams and are taking action to reduce their water footprint through its ‘Our Common Water’ campaign. They are also supporting the idea of ‘water offsetting’ which involves buying certificates that are used to restore damaged rivers. This is a new approach for water although the idea of buying carbon credits has been around for some time and is very controversial among environmentalists as it often doesn’t go hand in hand with reducing carbon use and is a soft option compared with regulating water usage and discharges.

In Europe, improvements to water are being driven by the Water Framework Directive. There are local plans which set out measures needed to improve water ‘bodies’ (including inshore waters).

Here are 5 relatively easy ways to measure and reduce your water footprint:
1) estimate your water footprint
2) take some easy actions to reduce water use at home, including eating less meat
3) buy products from companies that consciously use less water and use proper treatment
4) encourage local government and businesses to reduce their water footprints, and
5) join Surfers Against Sewage or the Surfrider Foundation.

What a spectacular evening!

That was just one of many strong ideas I heard from Billy Bragg about the union jack.

Still out of sync! What a crisp clear afternoon. I got sight of the next rebuild for wave dreamer today…wow! cant wait to show it off thanks Mat!

Out of sync but still an accurate picture!

This is the question being asked in the US as BP gets ready to cough up compensation for the Gulf oil spill. The Guardian report seems to think this is a hypothetical question, but its not. Its an increasingly common way of assessing damage to human health and the environment. There are a lot of ways of estimating it including working out how much it would cost to provide the same ‘ecosystem services’ that nature provides and asking how much people would be prepared to pay to save a habitat or species or to see them survive.

For example, I’ve never seen a dolphin when surfing and would be prepared to pay £5/surf to do so. The massive problem with this is that a government or corporation can now argue that if it compensates me and every other surfer £5 / surf they can argue they can destroy the dolphin and massively underestimates the intrinsic value of a dolphin or any other organism that has taken millions of years to evolve but seconds to destroy.

Surfploitation – using surfing images to sell goods or services unrelated to surfing – seems pretty rife.

At the moment, airing on our screens is the Chanel male perfume surfing advert and a Thomas Cook travel advert.

Perhaps the most famous example is the multi-award winning advert for Guinness.

I’ve never understood the connection between a stodgy stout and surfing and my first surfploitation post outlined my misgivings about the Chanel ad. Much more palatable is the Truro-based Skinners Brewery Betty Stogs ale and Skindog lager. Thank Kahuna, we were saved David Beckham surfing in an ad for Pepsi.

French car companies seem to have been competing with each other a few years ago – there was a Peugeot 106 Quiksilver and a Renault Clio Rip Curl – aimed at young drivers. Both models have apparently now been discontinued.

Even mobile phone, comparison websites and insurance providers have now got in on the act, with a comedy Vodafone and moneysupermarket adverts and a current BUPA advert featuring a pretty inspiring mature lady surfer from Newquay.

The thing is, does surfploitation actually work?
Does it sell more ‘stuff’ than using another sport?
Does it sell more stuff to surfers than non-surfers?
The fact that its used over and over again would suggest so, although all of the above brands have used other strategies to sell their wares. Was that because the surfing connection didn’t deliver the goods? Can any readers provide enlightenment, please?

Big wild seas today, feeling very true to the season it is.

Many thanks to Carve magazine for alerting me to these 2 short award-winning surf films that epitomise the new Arty Farty Surf film genre.

‘Dark side of the Lens’ is shot in Ireland.

‘Uncommon Ideals’ is shot around the North Sea, including Norway.

Both ably demonstrate that the tropical ideal of surfing often peddled in our mags and in the mainstream media is only one definition of surfing beauty.

Well its all rather dramatic today, strong on shore winds and lashing downpours.

The Home on the beach for Woolacombe Surf Life Saving Club the club celebrates its 50th Birthday this year!

With half of the UK in drought, what can we do to help? Well, it appears as if the UK water industry treats (to drinking water standard) and supplies 17 billion litres of water every day and has to treat a massive 16 billion litres of ‘wastewater’ (sewage to you and me). This is simply a huge waste of money and carbon as very little of the water has to be drunk or used for washing food that will be eaten raw.

What are the easy ways for us to do our bit to combat the drought when performing toilet duties:
1. As flushing bogs uses at least 3 litres of water, cut out the processing and tinkle in your wetsuit (but rinse it in a water butt afterwards),
2. Pee in the shower or washbasin (probably not while cleaning your teeth)
3. When taking a leak in the bog, ‘if its yellow, let it mellow’.

The above advice is equally applicable to women, although may be harder to perform.

The boss of South West Water, one of the UK’s biggest water companies seems to have caused alarm among some who should know better (like the ex Minister for Poo, Ben Bradshaw) by talking common sense. He said that he wouldn’t swim at Combe Martin after heavy rainfall because of the likelihood of contamination from combined sewers.

This is something that all surfers, and wild swimmers like David Walliams, know from experience. SAS operate an excellent real time sewage alert service but this only covers the top quality bathing waters. At other places – like all my home breaks – there is no automatic warning system. Some Councils have erected permanent signs warning water users, but they should be putting up warning signs and issuing online / social media warnings after heavy rainfall.

I made the mistake of expecting to surf this weekend, never mind.

I made the mistake of expecting to surf this weekend, never mind.

I doubt the creative luvvies at Chanel are old enough to know they’re rehashing the classic 1980s advert for gents aftershave Old Spice. But that’s not stopped them using surfing and a hunky surfer to sell perfume to blokes (or more likely, their partners) . The Chanel Allure Homme Sport ad is just the latest example of surfploitation by companies selling their wares, in this case the olfactory essence of surfing (admittedly, it is a nice stall under the lip).

But what DOES a surfer smell like? Chanel think their Allure Homme Sport evokes a’ Sparkling and invigorating freshness, a natural and radiant sensibility, heightening the scent of a breeze against bare skin…to create an infinitely seductive allure.’

Bizarrely, when I asked my wife what I smell like after surfing, she said it was more like ‘a heady cocktail of decaying neoprene, dilute sewage, crusty saltiness and occasionally stale pee.’

What a splendid day to spend on the beach, plenty of families wrapped up and huddled behind their wind breaks!

Us ‘mature’ surfers often grumble that we had it tougher in the old days – no instant online eyeball surfchecks, slow journeys to the surf and wetsuits like suits of armour. Even worse, the water was colder. Now there is evidence that all is true – even that last bit.

A pukka study shows that the oceans have been warming for over a century – before manmade climate change had time to kick in. The study was comparing new data ftom ‘robot’ buoys with that from the 1st serious scientific oceanographic journey by HMS Challenger in the 1870s.

Mind you, we are only talking about a rise of about 0.6° C, so it just goes to prove that our memories are playing tricks with us.

I almost expected to see a Surrealist on the beach this morning, the clouds, the light, the sea foam on the beach. All rather exciting.

Did you spot the moon on top of the cumulus? It felt like land sea and sky was all a boil this morning.

>Another example of sustainable fishing – the Guardian reports big supermarkets increasing sales of kippers. They are usually herring, packed with omega 3 oils, cheap and a common species. They probably nourished the Hawaiian princes before their historical dip in the Brid briney.

This was taken yesterday before our bank holiday Monday was washed away.

Today’s news that Hawaiian princes surfed England’s east coast in the 19th century makes me wonder how far back in history can the Museum go? The Bayeaux tapestry should be checked very carefully – William of Normandy may have beaten Edward VIII by 9 centuries to be the first English surfing monarch! Hastings goes off.

Swimming, shopping, Gardening, that’s where the day went but not on the beach, tomorrow though tomorrow.

Yesterday, the Museum of British Surfing opened to the public. The night before, about 200 local dignitaries and national surf legends attend a launch event sponsored by Finisterre, SAS and Skinners brewery. Everyone I spoke to was raving about the Museum which aims to be the best and greenest surf museum in the world.

After 8 years of traveling exhibitions and very hard work we opened the Museum of British Surfing this morning well done Peter Robinson!

I sat watching this open-mouthed. I’ve always been a bit sniffy about the ‘purity’ of tow-in surfing, but this video has changed my mind:

Tonight was the last of the BBC2 programme – The Fisherman’s Apprentice. Monty Halls has taken the lessons he learnt from 8 months living in a small Cornish fishing village, including a spell of deep sea trawling and visiting US East Coast fishermen, to come up with a model of how inshore fishing can survive or even prosper.

Essentially, the fishermen started a ‘fish box’ scheme like a veg box. Punters don’t know what they’re going to get but must learn to wean themselves off the 5 species (cod, haddock, tuna, prawn and salmon) that accounts for 60% of fish eaten in the UK.

This can only be a good thing so it reduces the waste of edible fish which gets used as bait or chucked back dead and increases income for fishermen. It must also reduce the pressure on overfished species.

On Friday 6th April, the Museum of British Surfing will open in Braunton, Devon. And to mark this auspicious occasion, the Museum has released the earliest photo of a Briton standing on a surfboard – the future King Edward VIII while on holiday in Hawaii in 1920. Whatever your views of the monarchy in general and Edward VIII in particular, this is an important development in the history of UK surfing. Crowns off to the Museum.

Back to winter it or so it feels and to think I had hung up the 5mm suit!

No, not the latest Reef girls video, but this 3 minute mesmerizing animation of ocean currents, produced by NASA (which has a 20 minute version). It graphically shows how energy, heat, pollution and litter gets transported around the globe.

Actually, Jack Coleman and Dominic Coleman aren’t brothers (or related to me, for that matter), but both are talented surf filmmakers. Jack makes arty retro (if sexist) films like Happy Beach, Dominic has made one absolutely sublime pisstake of a certain kind of newbie surfer, nicely reviewed by Surfer’s Path.

Huge thanks to Mat for a great week of photos! We were only a two hour drive away but it felt like another world.

I’ve been touring the surf shops of Brighton, handing out posters for the Museum of British Surfing‘s first exhibition at its permanent home in Braunton, Devon*. It’s made me realise how much surf retailing has changed and wonder where its going.

There are 3 ‘proper’ independent surfshops (Filf/Bone Idol, Oceansports and Brighton Watersports) run by surfers (or other watersports enthusiasts) all within sight of the sea. These all have long pedigrees and sell the hardware needed by surfers as well as surf brand clothing. The other 2 shops are outlets for global ‘outdoor lifestyle’ brands O’Neill and Quiksilver (2011 gross profits US$1.08BILLION) that are located smack bang in the the heart of the shopping centre and mainly sell their own brand clothing and a little bit of the other hardware (wax) needed by surfers. Then, of course, there is the growing band of online retailers, including the local surf community website, Sharkbait, able to operate without coughing up for retail premises.

I can’t help wondering where surf retailing is heading. My own experience of buying from big online shops hasn’t been too happy – products didn’t live up to expectations or the wrong stuff was sent necessitating time, money and hassle exchanging it. I don’t resent the founders of global brands (surfers themselves) cashing in on the popularity of the surfing lifestyle, but I don’t want to swell their coffers anymore.

Independent surfshops must be getting squeezed from all directions but there has to be a future for them as no-one in the right minds buys a surfboard or wetsuit without inspecting them or trying them on first and its these shops that are most familiar with local conditions. Spending money in these shops helps the local economy, rather than making multinationals even richer. Support your local surfshop.

*All shops I visited were very willing to take the posters and show their support for the Museum which started in Brighton.

A slightly later-in-the-day daily wave again today, after a long day out in Barnstaple. I seem to be one of those folk that only get out the village about once every couple of months or so, so I always enjoy packing my passport & experiencing the bright lights of Barney Rubble, but nothing beats coming back. This is my favourite route back into the ‘Shire, dropping down Challacombe Hill. I was halfway down before I realised I could get the daily wave pic from here, so this isn’t the best angle, but we can save that for another day.

I’ve just been delivering some of these ace posters for the Museum of British Surfing’s opening exhibition. Every shop and cafe in Brighton I’ve been to have commented on the great artwork. Surf art has been in us surfers’ lives for ever and is increasingly making it into the mainstream.

Peter Robinson started his collection and had some early displays in Brighton, some travelling exhibitions and is opening the Museum to the public in its permanent home in Braunton, North Devon on Friday 6th April.

It promises to be an exciting start for a ‘must see’ venue for all British surfers. (I confess, I’m a trustee of the Museum!).

After stepping into Richards shoes this week and picking up the SLR for the first time in a few months, I’m struck by how quickly all photographic knowledge & ability can just drop away so quickly. You could equate it to surf fitness, I guess. You lose all feel for timing, your equipment, a feel for the lineup & getting yourself into the right spot. You just don’t need to take such a pounding & knacker yourself out so much to get back in the swing of it. Not a lot of inspiration in the surf today, which has completely departed, so I’ve gone down a more ‘industrial’ route. And I promise, not so many puns on the title from now on, can’t help myself…

The other night, I watched the BBC’s Global Weirding series. The term ‘global weirding’ looks like an attempt to sex-up ‘global warming’ and possibly make it less politically controversial. But it seems a pretty semantic difference, given that climate scientists have been saying for decades that the weather will get more extreme and less predictable, as well as warmer. My experience bears this out – while Spring is springing earlier every year and we’re in an amazing record-breaking heat wave at the moment, we also had a very harsh winter in 2010/11.

The programme was more useful for nailing the myth that global warming is the sole result of solar flares and that us humans have had no impact.

What are the impacts of global weirding for us surfers? I’ve used the UK’s latest projections to work out that by the end of this century, the sea level will probably have risen since 1990 by around 70cm – 88cm (depending on whether global carbon emissions stay on their current path or not). In 2030 this could be between 19cm and 24cm and it will mean that the best breaks around here will stop working or work for shorter periods of time.

The ‘global weirding’ effects of climate change also include higher waves and higher winds. More hurricanes may give us more long range swell. The Environment Agency’s advice for flood risk agencies indicates that the annual maximum wave height change could be between -1.5m and +1m, in other words uncertain (although revised projections may become available).

So we may end up having to rely on the bigger, more extreme (or ‘weird’) swells to get any rideable waves.

Well, it’s noticeably dropped off today, but considering everyone is pretty well surfed out by now, I don’t think many people were complaining. Aside from a few keen-as-mustard bodyboarders, the only other sign of life on the beach this morning was this fella, who didn’t stop sprinting round in circles for the whole time I was there!

Walking along Marine Drive to get today’s pic, I came across a weird thing I’m sure a lot of you have seen before. There were dense clouds of small flies about 18 inches across, with the clouds equally spaced along a line every 6 feet or so, running for a hundred feet or so at a time. They were always hovering over the tarmac (a surrogate river, perhaps?) & never over the grass, and if you walked alongside them, the ball of flies would move with you? Anyone experienced this before?! Maybe they were also just buzzing at yet another fantastic day with a clean swell…?

The surfing industry has – very slowly – been waking up to its environmental impact over the last few years. Even though we ‘are at one with the ocean’, our sport is actually pretty destructive, as we largely use oil based products and have / want to travel to surf. Foam blanks and glassing also uses nasty chemicals called volatile organic compounds which have also been linked with cancer. The production of cotton for clothing is also pretty damaging to the environment.

So what can a surfer do if s/he wants to reduce their environmental impact? Here are some ideas:
1. Don’t buy if you don’t need to. I’m not advocating stealing or surfing butt naked – just really evaluating if you need new stuff. Try to look after it and mend it.
2. Buy second hand. Buying second hand boards is an especially good way of extending the life of stuff.
3. Buy goods made in a more environmentally friendly way. This can be a bit difficult as not many surf companies use internationally recognised standards, but usually buying stuff made from recycled materials (usually ‘upcycled’ from something less valuable e.g. a fleece made from recycled bottles), a natural material rather than oil (e.g. cork deck pad rather than plastic), organically grown materials is better. Companies that specialise in this kind of thing are Patagonia, Finisterre, SAS and Wave Tribe for wetsuits, clothing and accessories and Otter and Grain or Unsung Hero for wooden surfboards or biofoam alternatives. Even the big brands are now doing more eco-friendly stuff – search an online site like Surfdome using the term ‘recycled’ and you’ll be stunned with what’s out there. It can be a bit (or -for some of these, a lot) more expensive but use online sales and look after it.
4. Travel less and / or share vehicles. Try to use cars and ferries rather than flying. When you get there, stay somewhere that leaves a light footprint.

Tony Butt has set this out far more eloquently in his SAS guide to sustainable surfing, but I hope this provides a few easy tips to help you.

A cryptic title today. The ‘flat’ in question isn’t the surf, which is a healthy waist to shoulder high, clean, sunny & fun. No, it’s my SLR camera battery. I had forgotten that downloading pics directly via USB requires you to switch the camera on, which it has been since yesterday. Oops. So no 18-200 lens today, it’s the trusty iPhone. So, continuing the photography/surfing metaphor: nice and nimble, but no hope of taking off early enough to catch any waves, or even getting out into the lineup.

By far the scariest find on yesterday’s SAS Big Spring Beach Clean at Shoreham, Sussex was this garden fork that had been honed by the pebbles into a potentially lethal impaling device.

Even more worringly, it was found right at one of the area’s most popular surfspots – the Hot Pipe. Altogether, 222kg of marine litter was collected by about 40 volunteers from the local area and as far as London and the University of Surrey. A stretch of beach about a mile long was tackled – from the mouth of the River Adur to the Brighton/Hove boundary.

We’re using the less-than-inspiring 18-55 kit lens today, so it was good to get a bit of help from this bit of leftover beach architecture; an unusual blend of Mayan, Egyptian & Traditional English Seaside. Fingers crossed for the 18-200 lens for the rest of the week

With Richard taking a well break, it’ll be a guest daily wave photographer for the next week. Today was a slow start but does mean that we get a warm lazy sunset, in comparison to Richards normal bright & early coolness!

That is whats forecast! Yeeeeehhhaaaaaa

Wow the swell is much bigger than forecast. Only a few in the water mostly getting a pounding a couple getting spat out though!

The question is being asked by Sophie for her dissertation, focusing on the relationship between motivation and gender. Sounds heavy. But there are some interesting questions, including:
‘To show others how good I am at surfing’ and ‘I want to be involved in the surfing lifestyle’. I wonder how many people really do it to show off and because its regarded as ‘cool’.

I found myself answering ‘does not correspond at all’ to most of the questions, which made me wonder why I DO surf. It was a combination of ‘being at one with the ocean’ and ‘the thrill’ I think.

Fill in the survey here.

Plastic – the scourge of modern life. Every time I go to the beach I bring some home for recycling. Its usually a bottle or bit of fishing net, but occasionally something a bit more interesting like a vacuum cleaner hose or – on one memorable occasion, a Toilet Duck bottle with 2 goose barnacles attached. I looked up a recipe in a Rick Stein book and cooked them (barnacles, not duck) for my tea, much to my good lady wife’s disgust. They were lush.

Marine litter is a big menace – it lasts for centuries, kills sea creatures and gets into the food chain. This weekend, SAS are doing their annual Spring Beach Clean and I’ll be there (in Shoreham) to hopefully snag myself some more parasitic percebes.

Spotted on Surf Nation, The Economist has a very interesting article about surfing’s increasing problem with crowds and how access can be ‘rationed’ using a number of classic economic means. In recent years, surfing has suffered from its own version of the ‘tragedy of the commons’. Charging for access in one form or another is the classic economic answer and one (in the form of expensive boat trips to the Maldives) that some surfers are prepared to use. Rationing access in one form or another to waves is another possible answer.

As a bit of a lefty, this bothers me. As a bit of a surfer, it attracts me. The crowds at my local break are partly kept down by its heavy reputation for localism. But, worryingly, it could easily be controlled by a clampdown on unlawful parking. A few years ago, access was almost prevented by coastal defence works but surfers still found a way round it. So controlling access doesn’t work.

The answer that the Economist seems to favour is travelling to far-flung unsurfed spots. Mine is traveling to near-flung spots still (unbelievably) waiting to be discovered by the masses.

Falling asleep with the radio on is one of my favourite indulgences (after spitting double overhead barrels, naturellement), especially listening to the shipping forecast and the Radio 4 sign off Sailing By on the cusp of consciousness.

Sometime this week, I heard an installment of Tim Winton’s (author of ‘Breath’ – the only surfing novel ever read in Book Clubs) book Land’s Edge. For surfers it’s an evocative explanation of the lure of the ocean. Its on BBC i-player for a few more days.

This is one of several questions that Monty Hall – a telegenic marine biologist – tries to answer on the programme The Fisherman’s Apprentice. The BBC filmed his attempt to spend 3 months as an inshore fisherman in south Cornwall. Last night’s programme saw him spending a week on a deep sea beam trawler out of Newlyn. Although the boats are old and the work unbelievably hard, the sonar and other kit on board means that fishing is very efficient i.e. not much gets away.

I was stunned by the destruction wreaked on the seabed and the amount of bycatch chucked back dead. His conclusion was that small boats are the only sustainable form of fishing (as well as – presumably – fish you catch to eat yourself). It was difficult to find fault with that conclusion.

Welcome to my blog. Its appropriate that today is World Water Day. Without water, we couldn’t surf, never mind live. That’s the kind of in-depth philosophy you’ll get here. Seriously, as a group of people more immersed than most in H20, we know how crucial it is that it’s clean.

So is the forecast for today, and sure enough on the walk back from the beach a grey vial rose up from the east and smothered the sun.

Mandy on her way to experience some solitary joy. I’m back in the morning routine and a stunning week ahead!

Today has been complex and fragmented. The highlight being a surf on the muscle fish prior to the final commissioning exercise. The surf was an exercise in speed control!

A beautiful morning for a long chat on the beach and a dig around the left over sand castles.

A fantastic display of Cirrus this morning. And another decent swell.

It always amazes me that after nearly three years there are still angles that I have yet to discover, however predictable they might be.

This was yesterday, today I was out of the surf even later. I spent most of the time thinking about a muscle fish.

The sea mist over the last few days has offered quite a spectacle of light and dark vales of grey white. Oh have you seen the Planets visible after sun set close to where the sun has set.

I should really have taken this shot before I got in the water. Though Mr C thought just being there was an achievement.

Oh what a wonderful sight to come back to after a weekend away in the homelands of Essex and Herts.

This was the only chance I got today, out of the van window and into the sun, try harder tomorrow I say.

Today I disturbed a group of seagulls in the grounds of the Woolacombe Bay Hotel doing their little dance to fool earth worms that its raining and get them to pop their heads up.

In the world that I share on an Tuesday mornings this splendid tall ship is non other than a real pirates ship. The excitement was rather profound!

The wave has gone to pants but the sky remains rather entertaining.

Sea foam, ocean foam, beach foam, or spume is a type of foam created by the agitation of seawater, particularly when it contains higher concentrations of dissolved organic matter (including proteins, lignins, and lipids)^[1] derived from sources such as the offshore breakdown of algal blooms. These compounds can act as surfactants or foaming agents.

Its even warmer than yesterday and so many days before spring. I didn’t make it right down to the beach today hence the bit of grass in the foreground!

Wow what a day, so many people not in work as a result. Oh must point you to this: SAS funding for ‘Coastal Protection Activists only takes a click to vote.

I know its 21 days till the first day of spring but it feels like its started in earnest today.

Did you spot the duck diver? Or the ship. It was the colour hues that got my attention this morning.

I took this just minutes before the cloud cover dropped another few hundred feet.

More grey days are more sunny days in the bank I reckon!

What a glorious morning. Another pic taken with the ever ready iphone!

Only in Woolacombe could you find a line of up like this. Add the Down, dunes and ocean to the Plots pitches and ponies, all of which you can see in this photo and you really cant help thank all the turns of fate and kindness of people that have led us here.

Almost left it to late this evening. There was a young man and an old man digging deep holes into the 8 foot cliff of sand cut out by the stream, why though why?

This is a pic from yesterday. Today is rather grey and the wave is rather small.

Grunter I once thought referred to the nature of this wave, but no, it refers to a ship wreck when a group of pigs escaped onto the beach and lived there for two weeks living off of seaweed!

Between the golf course and Baggy there is a challenging power show scenario.

And this is definitely today, another frozen stunner.

I left the village in the dark and came back in the dark, so this pic was from the day before!

What a stunner of a day on all counts, more please much more every day please, thank you.

A phenomenon not seen for some time. Also one of those days when the sea and the sky is indefinable making set spotting very hard indeed.

Today my thoughts have been dominated by pixels, not because I have spent an unnatural amount of time using Photoshop but because my life is once again full of Lego and I think Lego might be the first  interpretation of our world as pixels.

On the inside and on the North side of the Sewer pipe, shot from the window of the van!

Could not melt this puddle today.

I just wanted to use a hot word because I’m really cold!

I’ve seen plenty of people trip up in the street but Ive never ever seen a seagull caught out by an outside set, have you? Just a thought that’s all.

And it was a beautiful little wave saying ride me please. Today is sunny, windier and the wave is smaller.

Peter’s Victorian beach swings have received a new lick of paint for this season. There was a study group on the beach and a beautiful small clean wave that someone should really be riding!

The camera on my iphone is great but not clever enough to deal with this exposure dichotomy

I almost used the pic of the JCB moving sand from Peters Victorian swings site but this one was so much better!

I drove right across Exmoor today and it was dramatic! down to 20 miles an hour for a stretch of persistent hail. Very beautiful it was though.

The brightest colour on the beach was in fact the woman’s coat.

Its been the in the wrong direction or to strong for weeks for the flyers up on the Down.

The amount of sand that has shifted up the beach this winter is quite phenomenal. New rocks exposed, fence posts buried. I didn’t stay out long for this one the wind chill drove me back to the office.

I felt the warmth of the sun today, just on the side of my face, only for a few seconds as I walked through a sheltered area of the village. It was the highlight of my day!

A stunning morning, the sun wasn’t up over the hill yet, only one surfer in and one on his way.

What a fantastic day with shelter from the winds, a great swell, enough wind to fly a kite and enough sun to remind us about summer. The days are getting longer!

I did have a photo lined up from this morning when it was cloudy,  then the sun came out and I decided to wait for the sun set, it was worth the wait.

What a pleasant morning on the beach, hardly any wind, clear skies and a small clean wave. Ive already rearranged my day!

No really it is! How much do we need blue sky and green sea. Its been Grey and brown respectively for so long.

Sometimes the sky seems more disconnected the earth than other days. And fighting dogs seem to have taken over the world of pets, well the beach anyway.

I had a wonderful chat this morning about composting all the seaweed that comes off the beach, how good would that be!

I took this just before Richard (from Parkin estates who own and manage the beach) arrived on the miniature tractor to take it away. Join the campaign against marine litter in case you haven’t already.

The big yellow thing was in fact a wave buoy, it looked like the plate that had been welded to its lover half had just sheered off. With so few opportunities to surf in the last two months Ive started to dream about surfing nearly every night, but its still goes on shore!

I think, is one of the shipping Light buoys that appeared a few years ago off the end of Morte and Baggy. I’m glad I saw this its made up slightly for missing the 6 foot Turtle that washed up last week!

This shot was taken beyond middle beach (which always makes me think of middle earth) the sloping cliff is so steep you cant even see the dunes below. Did you spot the little people?

Forgetting to take my coat is my excuse for not getting out of the van today!

In amongst the huge swells and strong winds there was a moment when it was possible for most of us who surf to catch a wave on the local beaches.

Heavy Christmas colds mean the B list pic for the 25th is now the A list for the 26th! I took this on Christmas eve at the Woody Bay Station’s Santa express event…whooooo whooooo.

I found these brave souls taking a dip on Combsgate. What a very British thing to do. Before I saw this, todays pic was going to be of Santa out of his Grotto! have a lovely day.

It’s dark, wet and grey. I just had to look back at some of pics from a few years ago. This is one of my favorites.

The Torrage the Taw, the Seven, Port Talbot, all relatively local sources of debris found on the beach. Big tides pulling stuff off the banks that the smaller tides left alone. We all live down stream heh.

The beach felt out of bounds today, a white out with lashing rain. This pic is from the other day when this rainbow lasted for at least 15 mins and the muck on my sensor for much longer!

Taken from Marine Drive today, over looking middle beach. The SLR got forgotten again, so another iphone pic.

I took this with the iphone as you can probably tell. It was a mad dash to the cliff top over Combsegate and back to the warmth of the van!

My commando style bobbless bobble hat actually blew off while I took this, the hail stones did more to my face than any exfoliating scrub that I have never used.

I expect the wind turbines over the hill are turned off today. There are so many things flying around that should be fixed down its abit dodgy, must watch out for bits of trees down the lane.

And spectacular rainbows, I watched this one grow from small beginnings to a full arch over 15 min or more.

Almost at the top, just behind Woolacombe down. Reckon I have a whole series to do from these elivated positions.

After more than two years on the daily wave I still haven’t explored all the angles, this was shot from some height up a road parallel to the sea front. Someone thought I looked like a mermaid in the swimming pool today, he has been here for less that 36 months though.

A tough call to find something arty on the beach today, my only offering being the light house light on Hartland point.

Seen from the Royal Hotel the weather is mean and blowy. Apologies for the lack of daily waves over the weekend. Back on the mission this week!

There is some proper weather on the way and this was the start. A huge swell for most of next week all with wind from the west!

The nicest toilet block Ive ever seen I think. That was as far as I got with that train of thought it was superseded by face book cache issues and the need to get an advent calender that doesn’t make a two year old run round in circles for an hour. Oh yer the surf is bigger than it looks.

Oh no another mad day no time to reflect on deadlines past!

I took this with the iphone on the way to the coppicing wood to look for small bears. Then I’m off to the SAS / MBS / AONB beach clean at Lynnmouth. It starts at 2.pm see you there!

It feels cold for a west wind, must be picking up some north in it from somewhere> Since the weekend Ive got deeper and deeper into Sea Shanty world. it was the Exmouth Shanty Men that inspired me.

Down at sea level today and cant think of anything meaningful to say, Ive dried up which does at least link in with yesterdays blog about the stream!

I wonder if this stream has ever stopped flowing. I was reading about mammoths this morning and started to get my head round time scales of thousands and millions of years. A friend found a neolithic spear head on Morte point. Must fly I’m 5 minutes late.

The swell is back and so is the wind! We started to process the video from the Clovelly Herring festival and its looking good!

What does that term really refer too? It is a cut of lamb and mutton, common in the UK and the Commonwealth. It is a primal cut, thus is separated from the carcass during butchering.^[1][2] It is one of the cheaper cuts of meat, and can be used in soups and stews.

I was hard to decide which Photo to use today, there were so many possibilities. In the end it was the arty shot that got the spot. Taken between sets the only thing it doesn’t show is the spectacular size of some of the waves.

A spectacular day, a busy day, just enough time to take a photo. Rush rush zoom zoom I’m going to the moon, 54321 blast off. Another world.

A beautiful morning on the beach, the unwary getting caught out by those surging sets close to high, only wet feet and shocked dogs no drownings. It did leave me wondering if I would venture into the sea without a wet suit to save a dog, would I? If its master was a child maybe.

A huge dark mass of cloud with its face illuminated by the sunrise. It was hard to see the swell in these conditions only when a wave started to feather did it reveal itself.

Most of the swell that was coming this way was in serious competition with another swell going the other way. I watched in astonishment this morning when two blokes walked past me with a sit on kayak and a small toddler in a shorty wet suit!

Another glorious morning, Its the SAS beach clean today in Woolacombe it starts at 11am by the stream you can check out when its happening on the other beaches here. Since 1994, plastic items washing up on our shores have increased by 135%.

Andrew Cotton  knows all about big lumps of water, his achievement is still resounding around my head, you can also read about it here.

Not a soul out just a one, one to one surfing lesson on the way back to the comfort of their van. It was the layers of mermaid tears that caught my eyes yesterday. They were revealed by the small cliff cut into the dunes by the stream.

There was going to be a beach theme to this blog, until that is, I got an email from my mate Doug his band Central Casting bring their alt-folk-country acoustic sound and insightful lyrics to the Landmark Pavilion on the 12th November.  buy tickets here in advance because they are going fast!

A steely gray day with biting winds from the North East. The stream has taken a huge turn to the north and carved out a small cliff four feet tall in parts, the sound of large chunks of wet sand falling into the water can easily startle if your not prepared for the sound.

A few of Andrew Cotton’s waves from last season. A warm up to what you can expect from him this winter. Watch this space! Huge thanks to Richard Asquith and Henry Price for the amazing sound track. You can see what they are up to at friend-of-mine.co.uk/

Last day without boots I think, after an hour my toes were suffering from a slight stinging sensation. The air was so clear today the horizon in the see was so so sharp it was hard to see the sets coming.

Same swell predicted for today and tomorrow head for those south facing points for a glassy wave. Every time I look over to the north I cant help have the arguments for and against the Atlantic Array running through my mind, off to do some more research.

In case you haven’t noticed we are in the middle of a wonderful set of rather spectacular swells. Getting in to make the most of them is proving to be a challenge now the clocks have gone back, hanging on for the weekend!

This was the view out of my van window at 7.30 am, it was raining. I was on the way to a swimming pool, just to swim I thought. But such is the feelings about the Atlantic Array that at one point there were 4 of us in the shallow end talking politics and money.

Challenging waves and challenging times for all of us wrestling with the Atlantic Array proposal, only 8 days left to get your feedback form in find it here.

Another big swell. My head is full of wind farms and tidal turbines this morning, as there is a consultation meeting at Woolacombe village hall 7pm. Another splendid binary date.

One man out, if you look hard you can see him. I missed yesterday, I was introducing a new person to an old technology. Why do steam trains feel so romantic? Watching volunteers in their seventies shoveling coke into a boiler was inspiring.

A rare sight in Woolacombe, a group of seven competent Wind surfers enjoying the wind and swell. Hats off to anyone who is prepared to take so much hardware into a critical position on any wave worth speaking of.

Suddenly its summer again, I was way to hot in my 4/3 could have got away with the summer suit. Didn’t take a leash, regretted that, little people in the shore break, no one hurt though.

All of a sudden my photos have some way of reminding me of my work situations. This one isn’t profound in any way just very accurate. is all Ive got to do is make sure I catch the ones that are worth keeping and drop the rest. There is a lovely clean little wave today.

Flying, unaided is a common cultural pattern dream that is shared by all of humanity, Mine have ranged from floating a few inches off the ground (these were responsible for me learning to skate board at 40 years old) to intercontinental excursions that have found me waking with a start and palpitations. Its very cold this morning and the waves are rideable but small.

What a splendid morning chilly and clear, a lovely little wave. It was all going to plan this morning then bamm a big change of situation requiring a rethink and a rejig of working hours, I am not jogging along I’m sprinting short distances.

Of course I’ve added a lighting effect. I haven’t sucked any colour out though, it is this gray. I had another one of those work or surf first dilemmas this morning, waiting is always the riskier strategy and that’s the one I have taken.

I tried to get seven of the different activities I could see on the beach all in one frame. Time though, was not on my side, harvesting root crops up the allotment for dinner was the urgent task.

It really feels like winter today not just Autumn. The Surf was pretty clean this morning as I took my little man to the pool with our mates. I pulled out another two floats from his buoyancy jacket. The consequences of which I could  relate too a feeling you often experience in adult life, sometimes nothing seams to have changed, you have to work a bit harder just to stay afloat.

Quite how I managed to deplete all three of my Nikon batteries without leaving one on charge overnight I don’t know, so this is one of those pics I talked about yesterday. The sea state is a bit smaller, there is less wind and there is a tad more cloud around other than that its today quite like yesterday.

What a surprising morning this one was. First my attention was drawn to the clouds, then the changing course of the stream on its way to the sea, its suddenly taken of to the north. Then my attention was drawn by the base of the Woolacombe Surf Life Saving club‘s shed and the post right in front of it. Which all means I had six contenders for today’s pic.

People are still enjoying the beach even though its the coldest windiest day this side of summer. Dogs do have jobs, dogs should have jobs, not just with sheep, policemen or people who cant see but to bring people together. To give and receive affection for those who find themselves without human company, today I’m not in the dog house, what does that mean?

One mile from the village and 19 miles from Lundy, a very different day to the one before. I must seek out the history books about Lundy, just the fact the Pirates were still in charge until the Crown got them removed in the 17th century, then there were thousands of people living or held captive there.

Summer that is! the sea was the same temperature as the air today which made the swell and the sun even more pleasurable. Took one board down the beach worth £300 came back with another worth £2000, got to swap back tomorrow though!

A smaller swell and a darker morning. I spent the time on the beach talking to Rich who has lived here all his life. Its fascinating finding out that there are 15 foot sea walls built by the Victorians now hidden by sand dunes and the level of the sand is allot higher all over the beach even since the 7o’s.

Its a beautiful morning with a clean swell. Ive been doing these daily pics in Woolacombe for nearly three years, It amazes me that I can still find new angles and perspectives. I’m going to milk this one whenever I can, just need people looking through the telescope.

Another wild and wet day when I didn’t make it down to the beach, this shot is from 12 days ago. Mike must ave been the driver. It made me think of doing some creative rake work, one morning on a big tide, mmm maybe in the spring.

This little chap (about the size of a Labrador dog) is a lesser known Harbour Porpoise, its hard to see why or how it died. Alive or not the Marine Conservation Society are always interested in your sightings of marine wild life.

And the other reality is… I keep leaving the camera in the wrong place and not taking a photo at the right time, still searching for the new rhythm that’s needed now I’m not living on the beach, it will come I’m sure. So will another stable high pressure system over the uk.

Peter is waiting for the JCB to dig his train and swings out of the sand, for winter storage away from the elements. I’m trying to work out how to escape up to London next week as wavedreamer won the NT trailer competition for the London surf / film festival !

My Focus this week has been the Atlantic array proposal, It is a tough one to get your head around and I would encourage anyone to visit the online proposal read the documents and fill in the feedback forms which can be found in the drop down menu on the right.

Just a few days ago I took this as I walked through the grounds of Woolacombe Bay Hotel. Only the life ring gives away the lush location of the outdoor pool. Its so close to the beach the scrub in the background has grown over, stabilised and hidden the sand dune system.

We shot this National Trust trailer for a competition entry.
It was shot on and around National trust properties in North Devon, and the surfers are Neil Randall and Simon Skelton.
The original sound track was created for this trailer by Gordon Dryburgh thanks Gordon!

Its dark its raining and I would much rather share the other view from yesterdays photo’s than struggle trying to make something meaningful out of a grey morning. The first week of free parking on the esplanade and the end of restrictions in the village is just one of the signs that the season is over.

I did risk getting a wet bum for this. I had already took a photo of tiny waves and a blue sky, turned round to see the sun rising in the bottom of the valley and decided this was the one for today. now seven hours later there is such heavy low cloud it feels like its raining.

This was not the shot of the day, I missed that one while I was introducing my toddler to the delights of jumping in to swimming pools. What I missed was two young women enjoying the feeling of freedom by surfing without wet suits, well without any clothes at all actually. They were called in by the Life Guards.

I’m still finding the new rhythm to my daily wave pics living a mile up the road instead of on the beach makes a difference. And this weather and waves have made a huge difference to the village this weekend, its absolutely rammed! Oh yer have you noticed its another binary date.

Wow what a stunning swell and what a day for seven men to go looking for waves on Mat’s amazingly beautiful catamaran, I caught their departure and Mikey is there to catch the action. This is going to be good!

Yes, over the showers is a tiny high tide wave that works so well for body surfing without fins, just a hand plane. My mate Steve PP would be screaming along one of these on his home made plywood belly board, that’s if he hasn’t cut it up into golden sections to paint on!

Oh how sunlight and small waves lift my spirits. There were mushrooms on the Hotel lawn this morning. The seagulls spent the night in a south facing horse field next to the football Pitch and I’m looking out for basking adders and lizards this afternoon.

Its all relative of course, a good size, could be the size of surf you have the most fun in. For me that would be chest high I reckon. Its something I must ask of Andrew Cotton I would place good money on it not being chest high, unless he brought King Kong into the equation. Andrew is also a very very funny blogger.

Small and sweet, I do hope that’s sugar and not perspiration. I’m not sure what was more unforgivable yesterday, the spelling or the photo. Dyslexia has its rewards but not on a public blog. Now being a mile away from the sea means you will get slightly later photos, more likely to see reflected sun more often I reckon.

As I walked back into the office the sun came out! The waves are cleaner and bigger than they look in this photo and my head is still full of stuff about sheep dogs, sheep and wolves after I inadvertently read a news letter that I inadvertently signed up for. I think I should go for a surf before I start work.

Where has the shop gone? Well we never wanted to be shop keepers and cant remember why we thought it was such a good idea. But hey you learn things along the way. Now you will have the chance of getting stuff for free from a GoproHD and T shirts to surf movie DVD’s. Watch this space. Well the space on the right actually.

And dark and spiky, a busy day ahead filming a promo and moving house! You should have seen the beach grooming marks on the beach this morning they were amazing, not as amazing as the pink clouds though.

Same deal as yesterday, early start, dark and wet, so this pic is a wide shot from the other night when I chose a detail of the sky above me. Windmills of my mind, yes Fullabrook and the proposed Atlantic Array have made it into my dream time and FB groups that change their name have something to do with it!

I got into work before it was light this morning, just before the heavens opened! So this mornings offering is a wide shot from the other day when I used a much closer version. It was called Sharing the edge.

After a really wild day we were treated to a sunset sky that reminded me of the first time I saw renaissance masterpieces in the National Gallery. The warm rays were reaching the higher clouds making a dramatic sky full of depth and unexpected layers of which this pic is just a detail.

Small and clean and set for a change to on shores again. The beach huts have left the beach and are now in storage, the beach groomer is still out and so are the life guards, so it could still feel like summer again.

The last hour of a splendid days surf. Allot of shifting of working hours must have gone on. There were definitely more smiles in the village. One of them belonged to a friend who started surfing in 67 and borrowed an old Guts board of mine, he was so excited by it I had to sell it to him!

These intrepid surfers are my neighbors and they Belly Board from April to October. Check out the Museum of British surfing and the World Bellyboard Championships for more on Belly Boarding

Wow a big sea and spectacular sunset. Shame I missed Kite surfers at high tide, I was busy reading the Whale and the Snail for the 53rd time. When the sea gets this big I get excited about the next low tide when you can see how much sand has been moved or dumped on the banks and bays.

A pretty confused sea state today, lumps and bumps crashing. There are only half a dozen beach huts waiting for winter storage. Wind blown sand is making the Marram grass look very pretty. This lighter wind blown sand was considered the best for pointing brick work in the days when builders took their materials off the beach.

Warm winds are blowing hard already, the two eyed monster must have appeared a bit early. Its going to be big tomorrow, head for shelter from the south westerlies and hope they swing round!

I didn’t make it down to the beach, I followed a very smart lad around the grounds of Woolacombe Bay Hotel. Whatever the weather the flags get put out. I wrote our web address on the back of his hand. I hope he remembered to wash it off before serving breakfast.

We were really pleased to be able to record this Community Arts mural at the Braunton Youth Club for the museumofbritishsurfing.org.uk who funded it through the ‘Count Me In‘ scheme. The Mural was designed and project led by artist Conor Wilson conorwilson.co.uk The ideas for the design were generated in meetings with the young people who use the youth club. It was a fantastic achievement and the first of many collaborations between Braunton youth club and the Museum of British Surfing.

Fast forward winter or what, goodness me, its hard to stomach, so few clean waves but this will be my last whinge. I will find a positive spin. Kite surfing that’s it! I saw three kite surfers on the river Taw yesterday. It looks spectacular looking at them through the new bridge.

I really had such high expectations for September. Those expectations have now been transferred to October, by the law of averages that surely cant be an over optimistic position to take. Hoping that the 4 kilo I put on in Aug will come off in that month I know is over optimistic.

Yet another iphone pic, I will, I will remember to take my slr home with me tonight. The rest of the day has been about resolve and confidence. We are moving into a new office and I have spent a disproportionate amount of time looking at the quality of  Celotex.

Another iphone shot, this one taken as soon as there was enough light around 6.30. I have a little poorly helper on my lap as I type this he who got up at 4.30.

From the southerly winds and you could find a clean wave. And when your out of the water this afternoon you will need to take shelter from the rain thats making its way over the atlantic.

Well about fifty of their names actually, are used to identify each beach hut. It would have been so easy to give them numbers but someone who cared had a hand in the process and holiday makers have the pleasure in relating to their beach huts in a way that wouldn’t be possible with a digit.

It was only this morning that I realised how few calm days there have been this summer. The crops on my allotment and the maiden apple trees in our new orchard tell the storry well.

On the beach this morning and thinking how glad I am to be of the disposition not to have one of these heavy clouds over my head. Give me sun shine every day, give me …… da da da da da da la la la la la la la….. I miss Morcambe and Wise!

The north in the wind made this morning feel like the end of the summer. By lunch time it had warmed up. This dramatic pic came straight out of the can called iphone.

What dramatic weather! I spent the time on the cliff thinking about Turner and how he used tied himself to the mast of a ship to experience the full force of a storm at sea.

I forgot to take the Nikon home last night, so this mornings pic was taken with my i phone, not so sophisticated but it often has a painterly quality that I really like.  During the 10 minutes I spent on the cliff top I was treated to a fly past by a flock of Oyster Catchers.

A splendid morning on the beach. Nick Thorn and his training buddy was out on the paddle boards preparing for his next challenge. On the 20th of September 2011 Nick will attempt to become the first ever person to paddle between England and Wales, across the Bristol Channel. Follow him here.

The air is clear this morning and on the beach it felt like you could touch the end of Baggy Point. The sun first illuminated those fields on the end at 6.30. The wind was SSE, I know that for sure as a large fluffy white downy feather tumbled past me from that direction.

I cant remember exactly what time it was, early enough for Hartland lighthouse to show up though. If you cant see it, click on the image to enlarge it. You might also see the surfer on the left now.

The first thing I noticed this morning at 6.15 as I closed the front door, was the noise, it had become almost unfamiliar, the crack of a low tide barrel followed by the roar of whitewater. As I turned the corner excited young men sprinted past with short boards and I began to plan my day around the best state of the tide for me. PS for scale spot the surfer behind the right shoulder on the left.

Its been a while since I’ve posted such a picture. Looks like we have a few days fun ahead with the cleanest and biggest being Monday. I wonder how many work plans and meetings are going to be changed on Monday to accommodate a surf session?

Domestic changes mean I’m in toddler world this morning. This pic was taken at 6.30am. By the time we had our porridge the sun was over the hill and these clouds had moved on or evaporated. Visibility must be more than 20 miles as you can spot so much detail on Lundy.

Eventually I do have find a way of making the grey skies into a image that has some intrigue. Last nights retreating tide left some large pools and some wispy marks which I have never noticed before. They must have something to do with the short period swell that was groomed by the offshore winds.

I just had to share this one, taken just an hour after the firemen training shot. This morning is grey again and the sea looks strange. There is a short period wave with light off shore winds which doesn’t happen very often. Wax up the log.

We are lucky enough to have a fire station in the village. Its not all luck of course, its all thanks to the team of retained firemen that live locally and give up their time to be on call on top of their other jobs. Tonight they were doing decontamination training!

The sea looked particularly inviting this morning, a pushing tide, the occasional shaft of sunlight making its way down the valley, seagulls on the move, a swim suited body boarder already in the water and this was at 7am.

The Title reminded me of the ozone issue. Thanks to the Montreal Protocol of 1989 which banned the use of ozone-depleting chemicals worldwide, the ozone hole has recovered and stabilized. The same UN report which brought us the good news says that now there’s perceptible thinning of the ozone layer over the North Pole.

Three types of clouds in the sky. I was hoping for a dry day for my friend Jane who is passing by today with three wonderful men. They have been walking the coastal path around the UK for 13 years doing a leg every summer. The kettles on!

We recently accompanied one of our media management athletes on  a challenge to cross the English Channel, in a bid to raise funds and awareness for Surf Relief U.K.

It was great to witness the days events first hand, hope you enjoy the piece we put together.

A Huge thanks to Steve Chivers and Steve Doon who surfed the Kaafu’s. We made this promo for oceanmouldings.co.uk Their new design FatYak KAAFU offers the versatility that Sit-on-Top kayakers want. Its unique stable lines ensures that children, fishermen, sport and recreational kayakers will all have an enjoyable time, check out how well it surfs! And yes that’s Mikey fishing for the first time in 25 years!

Another photo from the wavedreamer archive. Really its raining cats and dogs so I needed a reminder of what summers evening can be like. On the left you can see a coastal barge. Not that long ago, before the motor ways these waters were full of similar craft plying there trade around the UK they will be back one day.

Same old story with on shores and grey skies, so I found my attention drawn to the stunning pattens left in the sand. There were also loads of deep holes that seem to have had no relation to sand castle activity.

As I stood on the beach this morning at 7am I watched the last of the low rain clouds skitter over the horizon revealing this blue sky, what looks like muck on my sensor is in fact the last of those clouds as they evaporated in front of my eyes.

In the sky, on the beach and on the cliff top, which is where I watched a common lizard looking for his lunch. I often see a kestrel working the same area probably looking for lizards for lunch.

Nothing to write home about on the wave front today and it looks like another 7 days before any long distance swell kicks in. I’m off to Cornwall this weekend to see my mate Russ who runs Surf Action and is organizing the Surf Fayre pop along if you can.

I couldn’t bare to post up a grey wet pic today, this one was taken the day before yesterday. It is straight out of the can as Mr Nikon saw it. As I write this though there are still brave determined families making the most of their time on the beach, its just a matter of changes your clothes and your mind set I reckon.

We were to busy this morning to do the wave pic. The supper bit is just a bonus, we were filming for a Kayak fishing promo and this is a screen grab. I got to know a bit more about Mikey, despite what he looks like he doesn’t like killing things, he will eat them though, once they are dead.

As I walked onto the beach I saw these lads from a distance, doing circuits of press ups, crunches, sprints and leaps. They are on holiday and were doing it for fun, impressive! (this was 7am). I wondered what careers they will have and what they will achieve, they told me they weren’t in the forces.

Hands up, I did up the values on this pic to make it a bearable offering. People that care always make a difference, Mike is one of them, he drives the tractor that tows the beach groomer and rather than flatten the sand castles in an arbitrary manor he tries to make wave shapes up and down the beach.

It is tempting to try and ride these little peelers but falling off in 10 inches of water when you weigh 14 stone can be hazardous. Ive might have a go later on a knee board, not so far to fall. Or even more appropriately pull out the belly board from under the stairs.

I love seeing the yachts out from Ilfracombe harbour, it just makes those sunny days feel even more summer like. Before I took this shot I spent an hour or more exploring rock pools with a 2 year old. Getting down there in wet suits at 7 am on a dropping tide meant there was plenty of life to see, loads of small fry, one of which was called Nemo apparently.

I am still out of sync for the early morning shots, so expect a run of sunsets if the cloud shifts to allow them. I am missing those long distance swells and stable highs. Its been ages since I haven’t taken any decent close ups of waves of any size. Fingers crossed for September if this pattern sets in for August.

Wow what a day, I missed the early morning shot, to busy with a product promo we are working on. The sea tasted of crab soup last night, there were allot of dead spider crabs washed up but I think it had more to do with the amount of dissolving seaweed there is in the shore break.

That’s because its not, maybe it will build on the push. I was in amongst the rocks this morning looking at rock pools that had been stranded from a fresh fill by the small tides. But I was really distracted by deadlines, battery chargers and wondering how the day will go for Mikey who is filming Nick Thorn paddling across the English Channel

What felt like an unusual sight this morning, the start of a long distance swell. Drill down into the swell breakdown on MS and you can see whats going on. Its been so long I’m getting very excited organizing the week around the tides thinking about what boards and checking out the banks to work out whats working best, hold me down I’m floating off.

A taste of summer yesterday but heavy cloud this morning. Even still with no sun there were families on the beach before 9 and surfers in the water with no waves to speak of. Our very British relationship with the beach always intrigues and amazes me.

A ha, forgot to bring the SLR home last night, so had to use the iphone. I took this at ten past six, we are on a shoot at seven, up at gold coast creating a promo for the waverider which has been installed for the summer, it looks amazing, watch out for the promo on our show real.

Not feeding but grooming and that was also being done to the beach. Sometimes, depending on what the tide has been doing, the beach looks like its been subject to extended mortar fire. Such is the extent of large sandcastle building. Then along comes the tractor, beach groomer in tow and flattens them all out with its front bucket!

I love the light you get with this broken cloud cover. Details otherwise hidden suddenly become visible. The surf is more ride-able than it looks. I spent some of the time on the cliff working out when to retrieve the 20+ lager cans left on a ledge last night by some rather irresponsible people.

Because its raining really hard, its dark, grim and July, so I cant bare to put up another grey photo. This is from a day in the spring when I had more than one usable shot. It shows the mist over flowing from the Torridge and Taw estuary basin and making its way out to sea.

Taken at 7am and not a sunny spell in sight. I hope you enjoyed Mats porridge poetry as much as I did he steps up while I’m away. Mat is the web designer behind wavedreamer and he always goes way beyond 11, you can see what else he does here.

…….it is not.

Here is a little pic to remind us what the world can look like when that yellow ball in the sky can reign supreme.
It was taken from my bedroom window in Mexico, and is probably one of the funnest waves in the world.

The sea was a maelstrom of  onshore mush this morning and wasn’t offering much in the way of an inspiring wave shot. Far more intriguing was the foam blowing up over the esplanade. When I headed over to investigate, looking over the cliff edges North of Shellsbough, the gullies and coves were brimming with this primordial ooze, pulsating & convulsing like some kind of possessed porridge.

Today started with some truly nasty weather. When I finally ventured out, I was drawn to this glassy reflection at Combesgate. At the time, I grumbled about the lack of any nice light whatsoever, but now as I write this looking out at the glorious sky & sea, I’m hoping this pic was taken at the exact point the weather started to break for the day.

As the developer of the wavedreamer site, I’m always thrilled to step up and take the daily wave in Richards absence. Unfortunately, those same responsibilities kept me tied to the office all day friday. So here’s a pic of another busy fella, taken looking over Combesgate on Saturday! The title of the pic is a line from The Dish, a favourite of mine.

In more ways than one, the commitment to end the practice of discarding bi catch is a step in the right direction. Keep up the pressure by supporting campaigns like Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s fish fight.

A high Stratocumulus cloud layer can be hard to distinguish from a low Altocumulus one. It is Stratocumulus when the base of the cloud layer is lower than 6,500ft. So this cloud is either Stratocumulus or Altocumulus. This cloud spotting is less precise than I had imagined. When I have found the ultimate reference site I will let you know.

No swell to speak off, but allot of texture on the beach. Its this that held my attention this morning. How does the tiniest swell, and we are talking inches, create this type of deep pattern, when a huge swell will groom the beach super smooth? It must be to do with the length of the impact the wave has.  A big wave pulls sand over a longer period in space and time. I’ll let you know when I find out more.

A wide shot this morning of the whole bay, taken at 7.50 am. Its very rare to see a flock of gulls (click on the image to enlarge) settled on the beach away from the stream. I wonder if the pickings from the weekends chip leftovers mean they are full enough not to bother looking for scraps that have floated down stream, or have they had their fresh water wash and are just drying in the sun? I wonder.

A glassy sea, with two levels of cloud today. Ive painted or photographed clouds since my teens but never got round to leaning all the names of the different formations. With a quick cross reference to a cloud spotter site I could share this process with daily wave cloud studies.

When its cloudy I try and be ready for those sunny periods, missed them all today, ah ha I’ll wait for sunset, risky, though worked today. Think I might just stick to early mornings regardless, what do you think?

A late one today, with weather and schedules interfering with the visit to the beach. Looking at the charts its another 10 days of sunny periods, showers and south westerlies. My only personal consolation is that having learnt to surf in Brighton I have a special relationship with short period swell.

Core blimey there has been some heavy down pours this morning. Those dry months of April and May seem an age ago. The water quality tells the story, so much coming down the estuary from the river Torrage and Taw. My time in Brighton educated me on the dangers of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) check out Surfers Against Sewage amazing  phone alert service.

I didn’t make it down to the beach this morning, had to take this shot out of the window. Several times a week I have to drive through the biggest on shore wind farm in the UK its all static at the moment waiting for the last turbines to be built. Part of me is thrilled that there is such a thing in North Devon, but I still find myself wondering why development money wasn’t ploughed into harnessing the constant and huge huge tidal race just over the hill.

With another sunny pic from yesterday still on the camera I couldn’t bring myself to put up a grey raining shot, who wants to see them, said my mate Steve pp. The beach groomer this morning was doing its thing behind the tractor. I wondered if it can pick up the mermaid tears that are so prevalent on UK beaches, perhaps SAS know?

Ben Howarth is on a roll.

He has just won the 3rd B.L.U event of the year making securing him the title of 2011 British champ.

As stated in his profile, he is the bright young thing of the U.K longboard scene right now, and his results are testimant to his ability.

Amazing result Ben, well done mate.

Nick was in brighton this last weekend competing at the paddle around the pier events, and pretty much cleaned up.

I think they were so scared they even started the one race without him as he was just completing a 7.5k board race, probably to warm up on.

Read here for the full story from the horses mouth

Three stunners in a row with waves has left me wonderfully knackered on a Monday morning, enjoy it while you can folks its gonna change. I spent the time on the beach this morning admiring the picket fence and thinking how ancient an activity cleaving or splitting the wood is. I wonder if its still all done by hand in those sweet chestnut copsing  woods, or has someone invented a machine to do the job?

Its 6.00 am and only one person in the water. The wind is stronger and colder than predicted. Its the sand castle contest at woolacombe today and I’m filming the world record attempt at the most sandcastles made in an hour! The Guinness book of records team will be here to check it out. Watch out for the video journal!

It only take a few elements to come together to launch me back into art school mode. And for that matter old school mode, a building swell perfect for logging, no leash and lots of sunblock yeehaa!

Whenever I see these type of clouds I think of the universe and mathematics. This my first daily wave post in its new form, not just a poetic title now. I can spout on for a couple of sentences at least! As you can see its part of the splendid rebuild that Mat from goto11 has done for us. Now you can see who we are and everything that we do.

Yes you know by now its true, I do have poetic leanings. However its going to be tough going to continue any poetic enthusiasm for short period swells. Where have all the long ones gone? looks like another short lived 10 second swell over the weekend just to tease us. Ive started looking at the charts again just in case magic seaweed missed something, alas I don’t think they have

This was the first test daily wave for the wavedreamer rebuild. I must say I’m rather excited about having the space to write more, that title just never seamed enough. I am rarely lost for words and always have an opinion about most things, so in theory a daily blog related to my early morning visit to the beach cant be that hard can it? oh dear I feel a touch nervous as well.

A short film we recently produced with the team at Gulfstream Surfboards

I thought he was meant to be on a boat the whole trip but apparently not, otherwise we wouldn’t have the footage of the goat! Enjoy Cotty’s latest from Indo.

Thanks to the guys busking in the park for the amazing soundtrack!

Here we take you into the mind of the man behind Gulfstream, and give you a look at what makes them such a special boardbuilding company.  Enjoy.

……..he would own this board.

5’10 x 19 x 2 3/4

Just picked up my new shralp stick from the Diplock Phoenix boys and am so stoked. Check it out.

It has a carbon/Kevlar cloth deck, the stuff they produce bullet proof vests out of. Might take it to South Africa come to think of it.

Second Skin are going to be stocking the full range, so go check one out in the foam [flesh]

These super strength models are custom made, so have your favourite board scanned and duplicated if you want to save yourself heartbreak, or get Bro to whip you up something new to get excited about.

Nick Thorn is a prodigious Ironman and waterman of notoriety, not only in his native UK, having competed on many a global event and international series in the worlds oceans surrounding the likes of South Africa, Australia and Hawaii.

A multiple champion across all life saving based disciplines, Nick Thorn has an energy and appetite for a challenge that knows no bounds. In an ageless career his fierce determination and motivation continues to astound and amaze, with endurance feats that most will only ever salute, in awe. Nick is now an experienced 35year old and in recent years his focus has shifted slightly away from competition to exploring unprecedented ocean based fundraising challenges. The most recent of which was a staggering 22mile swim from Lundy Island back Woolacombe, North Devon, which raised over £5000 for charity. Upon completion Nick became the first person ever to complete this solo swim, having previously become the first person ever to complete a solo paddle of the same route in 2004, also for charity.

Now in 2011, it is set to be an exciting year with two monster paddles lined up as well Nick competing in the UK long distance paddle series. In June Nick is going to further test his relationship with Lundy, with a boundary pushing 36mile board paddle from Hartland Quay around the Eastern side of Lundy Island and back to Croyde beach, to coincide with the popular GoldCoast Oceanfest. Later on in the year, in September, Nick will attempt to become the first person ever to paddle across the Bristol Channel, from Porthcawl, Wales to Ilfracombe, England. Although this paddle distance is approximately 26miles, slightly shorter than the June paddle, it is set to be a real challenge, conquering one of the most tidal waterways in the world. As always his altruism knows no bounds as both paddles will raise money for local charities and will be personally funded. The total Nick has raised for charity to date stands at almost £10,000.

All of Nick’s challenges are set to receive both local and national media coverage, with all of the event training, build up and reaction being covered by Nick’s production team and on his personal blog – www.nickthorn.tv. Already this year Nick has made appearances on both ITV and BBC, with Sky Sports most recently running a profile piece – giving potential sponsors an amazing opportunity for exposure.

Just listen to this latest piece, entitled ‘Haven’, that I have used as a soundtrack for a short Cornish sequence I filmed in September 2008

www.friend-of-mine.co.uk

www.douglasepowell.co.uk

Now I live in Devon we are completing the production at Ariel Studios at Mullacott Cross under the calming guidance of Lee. As well as a musician Clive is a philosopher, collected Artist and teacher check out Clive’s site

Age – 42

Skills – Surfer, Musician, Model and Yachtmaster

Sponsors – Gulfstream, Snugg, Lokbox, Harris tweed, Lashenal concertinas

Biography – Although born in Cornwall, Skelly and his beloved dog “Bear” have chosen North Devon as home. When not imparting words of wisdom to prospective board buyers at Gulfstream, or playing his concertina while he should be imparting words of wisdom to prospective board buyers at Gulfstream, he can be found lurking around the line up on one of his 60+ classic surfboards.

A die hard traditionalist in every sense, from a strange fixation with old crafts, floating and other, to owning a mobile phone that has never been taken out of its box.

Although Skelly was employed by Saltrock surfwear to model on a nationwide campaign to launch the Spring/Summer 2011 range that is currently enjoying massive visibility, his solid character and extremely honest salesmanship might fit in better with a company or project looking for an ambassador that requires more than just good looks and an ability to ride waves well.

Age:39

Skill: Freeride Snowboarder

Current Sponsors : Quiksilver , Lib Tech , DC shoes , BlueBird Wax

General: James is the longest standing professional snowboarder in the UK and one of the only freeriders . First sponsored in 1991, He been living in Chamonix during the winter for the last 18 years .

With a motivation still as strong as back then as he gone from freestyle snowboarder to riding Big Mountains where the possibilities are endless , being motivated by exploring new mountains and travel to remote places .

Despite a long career with international magazine coverage and film sections he has probably had most impact this last winter competing in the World Freeride Tour, being the first UK rider to compete . Ending up in 6th overall and with two podiums during the season , getting third in Fieberbrunn and third at the prestigious Verbier Xtreme .

No one trick pony, James has actually been referred to as “annoyingly talented”. He rides a skateboard, surfboard, kiteboard and mountain bike with a level of skill that many in either of these fields would be envious of. He is also a demon on the backgammon table and you don’t want to bet against him at pool either.

Career highlights :
Going to Alaska to film (the ultimate testing ground for Big Mountain snowboarding )
Trip to Greenland to explore unridden mountain range with Rightgaurd
Ford SMax internet campaign
Filming TV show on Avalanches with Gethin Jones in New Zealand around Mt Cook
3rd place at Verbier Xtreme

Plans for next season :

Competing on the world tour again next season and looking for a win in an event if everything comes together , hopefully with a good start to the season he can get in the top three overall .

A trip to South America visiting Argentina and Chile and combining it with a surf trip to Peru, as well as a sailing, surf and snowboard trip to Norway or Iceland, and a trip east to Georgia.

A huge media presence, a polished professional attitude and undeniable freakish talent combine to make James a stupidly lucrative investment for any company looking to position and strengthen their brand in the extreme sports sector.

CURRENT BRITISH CHAMPION and recently runner up for mens open European title.

Age- 21

Rides for : Bear surfboards. Boardbarn. Gul. Oxbow

Best boards: 9.0 Lufi Skindog model /5.8 bone short board. The best boards ive have ever surfed.

Ambitions : To be British and European champion. To qualify for the world tour.

Best results:
2007: British and English junior champion
2008: English Champion
2008: 1st place Noosa surf festival
2009: 1st place Atlantic games Portugal
2010: 1st place Jesus long board classic
2010: Ranked 3rd in Britain
2011: Won 3/4 b.l u events so far this year to be crowned British champ.

Ben AKA Fizzer is a longboarder from North Devon, usually found sliding around the caves at Saunton or the tubular caves of Croyde, depending on the tide.

Although he is only 21 years old, it feels as though he has been around the scene for way longer, posting huge results in the contest arena, locally and internationally. Ben has the honor of having won the 2008 Noosa Surf festival event, taking down a field of over 600 of the worlds best longboarders, then backing it up on the podium the following year as runner up. An incredible result from an “unknown” talent from quiet Devon.
A by-product of competing since the age of 9 possibly?

He has been a regular fixture on the English and British surf teams, and is currently dominating the BLU’s contest scene, having just taken out the first and second event of the year so far. [actually as of last weekend he is now British Champ having won the 3rd B.L.U contest of the season and putting himself in an unstoppable position!]

He is definitely the bright young thing of U.K longboarding right now, and on an unstoppable upward trajectory. He has a very dedicated approach to working with the media, starring in a surf movie that was shot, produced and distributed by a supportive family network.

Ben is amazingly unrepresented by any brands offering more than just product at present, and is looking like a perfectly ripe banana for any company who wants to capitalize on his rising star status. Any company willing to offer a sound financial backing will benefit from a huge amount of A grade footage and exposure in return.

Age – 15

Rides for: Quicksilver, Nigel Semmens.

Taz in a nutshell.

Grounded, fearless, phenomenal, mature and talented.

Taz is an extremely well rounded kid, with an adventurous spirit tempered by a very supportive and strong family network.

His surfing is a direct reflection of this. A beautiful combination of new school trickery, reckless abandon and traditional rail surfing. The full bag. A rare feature of someone so young.

Proof of this can be found in the coverage he received in Pitpilot and Carve magazines at the tender age of 11 for charging meaty barrels at Porthleven on a day when a lot of adults would be making excuses for not being out there, as well as recently beating the country’s best juniors at the the Relentless U.K.P.S.A event in Saltburn with a highly progressive new school bag of tricks and clever contest strategy.

Taz is a regular on the junior contest circuit in the UK, winning the British Schools Championships at U-14 level and placing on the podium in numerous national level contests.

If it was not for the media documentation his committed approach has attracted, it would be hard to believe just how many world class destinations he has found himself in recently.
His passport reads like locations on a James Bond movie. Morrocco, the Canary Islands, France, Portugal, Ireland, Hawaii and Indonesia, and that’s all in the past 18 months. Did we mention he was just 15?

Taz was born on a boat to the sway of Mother ocean, spending his first 6 months at sea in a hammock, and we really believe that it has given him a extra special affinity with the sea that kids his age need to work very hard to achieve.

Taz is only just starting to dip his toe into his potential.

With an amazing family unit helping to steer him away from the diversions that hinder other kids his age, there is no doubt that Taz’s trajectory is going to be bright and fast. Any company wanting to put a logo on his rocket are going to get their brand positioned in the market like Batmans logo on the sky.

Age – 31

Skill – Big wave surfer

Current sponsors – Analog, Tiki, The Thatch

General – Andrew is a professional surfer who has made a massive impact internationally as an acclaimed big wave surfer. He placed 9th overall in Chile competing in the APT tow comp against the worlds best tow surfers , as well as making the finals this year in the Quicksilver big wave paddle event at La Vaca in Spain.

Andrew has worked extremely hard to cultivate a highly marketable profile within the surf industry, and ranks as one of Europe’s most media savvy professionals.

A current sponsor once referred to him as a “one man marketing machine”

He plans to generate even more exposure in 2011 with media trips to Madeira, Indonesia, Hawaii and Ireland planned.

Solid financial backing will allow Andrew to continually put himself into the heaviest situations imaginable, generate tons of media exposure and content for his sponsors and galvanise his already reputable media presence.

Really excited, we are busy producing a promotional video for the boys across the road at Gulfstream.

Next step is to get some water footage of the boys at the next “board meeting”

The charts look good and we have a 5AM call time on the beach.

The early bird catches the shot!

Their new website will be going live soon, so be sure to have a look.

Wavedreamer Media is opening up a division which involves assisting with media management for anyone who’s skills or looks have a marketable value.

We are creating a hub from which we connect people to opportunities.

We will be working with our team to create bespoke individual digital profiles that can be used as a selling tool to assist promotion.

Our first person on-board [excuse the pun] so far is big wave hellman Andrew Cotton.

We are going to be working closely with Cotty to assist in developing his already respectable media profile.

We are looking for a diverse range of skill sets, and if you believe you got the skills to pay the bills, we wanna hear from you.

Eye eye captain, thar she blows.

Recently arrived on the wavedreamer shores, a fine vessel if we ever saw one.

Her maiden voyage was a success, and we deem her seaworthy!

Now lets see some action you skurvy riddled sea dogs.

We have just taken delivery of a batch of new T shirts printed over the hill by our friends at A4 Apparel.

If surfing has an “unhealthy” effect on your life you will understand.

All the rage in London, New York and Paris, If you would like to be seen sporting one this summer, visit our online shop to buy direct from us

How many times have you been caught out, a quick glance at the forecast and the web cam, looks do-able but low and behold you find yourself paddling out in a swell well out of your comfort zone. Do you turn around paddle in and go home or grin and bare it, the pounding, the fear ?

This concept grew out of the frustration in trying to make credible surf movies in the UK. With most filming conditions lasting little more than a single day, it was worth trying to complete a project in that same day!

It made sense to choose Woolacombe as the first location, as wavedreamer is based there! From looking at the rushes, the concept certainly works, so we are now looking forward to creating other films in the ONE SUMMER’S DAY series on other local beaches. Eventually, we will hook up with like-minded local crews to work our way around the country and across the world!

In the meantime, check out the ‘ONE SUMMER’S DAY’ website

I had planned to start painting landscapes again when I retired. Until that is, I got an invitation from Mr PP to join a group of like minded surfers who go away for weekends and paint out of doors. How could I resist! My first task for the group was to record the weekend for posterity by way of this video journal. Visit our blog and follow the group: thedevon11.blogspot.com The Devon 11 are:
• Steven Pleydell-Pearce • Paul Kenton • Conor Wilson • Richard Gregory • Shaun Latham • Thos Sharpe • Robert J.Braunton • Jeff Lawton • David Meads • Simon Skelton • Mat Stillo

After his second operation for ACL ligament reconstruction in 5 years, the surgeon told Cotty not to surf for 9 months. When hurricane Igor hit Ireland six months later, he couldn’t resist. The waves were well within paddle range but Cotty decided to take it easy and tow a couple to see how it felt. These are his first few waves with his new knee. We are really excited to be working with Cotty. Watch this space for more waves as Cotty’s Knee gets back to full strength!

Congratulations Nick! Woolcombe’s own waterman is the first person to swim solo from Lundy to Woolacombe and in just six and a half hours! Supported all the way by Steve Newton on a paddle board and Geoff Huelin of Mortehoe Shellfish in his fishing boat.
Thanks to Richard Asquith and Henry Price for the music: www.friend-of-mine.co.uk  Thanks to Dave Jenkins, and the Landmark Trust: www.landmarktrust.org.uk for the stills and to Mat Stillo: www.goto11.co.uk

The local National Trust team put together this lovely afternoon with a speech from Steve Mulberry and Ray Easterbrook, an amazing story teller who immersed us in the history of the point and live music from Jim Jones, oh and not forgetting the sound track from David Kenards sheep.

First impression…. is the size! its tiny!  (H x W x D): 1.6” x 2.4” x 1.2” (42mm x 60mm x 30mm) and only weighs 6.3oz/179g incl. housing. And in this tiny unit is a camera that records three different formats of HD video, including full 1080p and at 720p it records true slow motion at 60 frames per second!

Its so good we are using this camera for our video projects. We will throw everything we can at it and create a technical advice sheet like no other! So you will be able to buy the GoPro HD Surf HERO and accessories from our emporium very soon, with all the support and advice you would expect from people that use and understand it. As a special offer to celebrate the launch of this great product, you can pre-order your camera from us now for delivery later this month along with a FREE SanDisc SD card designed for HD video. As if that wasn’t enough, as part of this limited period launch offer, we are shipping the GoPro HD Surf HERO and SanDisc card to you for FREE!* (*UK deliveries only)

And until we get the opportunity to upload our own footage from our demo cameras, take a look at this mind-blowing GoPro HD HERO preview footage from GoPro themselves. You’ll be back here pre-ordering your unit in no time!

What are RSS feeds?

News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content. You can get the latest headlines and video in one place, as soon as its published, without having to visit the websites you have taken the feed from. Feeds are also known as RSS.

There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but most people plump for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. In essence, the feeds themselves are just web pages, designed to be read by computers rather than people.

How do I start using feeds?

In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications.

Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Hotmail.

Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want it to receive. For example, if you would like the latest Journal updates from wavedreamer, you will notice an orange button placed in various locations around the wavedreamer site. If you click on the RSS button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader. Most sites that offer feeds use a similar orange button, but some may just have a normal web link.

Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, automatically check for feeds for you when you visit a website, and display an icon when they find one. This can make subscribing to feeds much easier.

You can also add an RSS feed to many email programs, allowing you to keep track of news updates at the same time as your email.

eMail feed updates.

Expanding on the function of an RSS feed, some sites allow you to receive RSS updates as an actual email, removing the need for a news reader. The wavedreamer site allows you to subscribe to email updates by clicking here

We worked from 5 in the morning to 10 at night, it was an intense day! thanks so much to all the surfers who took time out and days off of work to be there and to Mat, Jack, Rob, Stu, Gordon, Joel and Steve our camera men and production team who worked so hard on the day. Thanks also to Parkins estates and Woolacombe Parish Council for their support.”

Best described as a ‘scenic surf movie’ the film is a portrait of Woolacombe bay on that day, the surfing, beach life and surrounding scenery.

This promo soundtrack and the final score is the work of Peter Bruntnell who lives up the road. “One of England’s best kept musical secrets”. says Rolling Stone! How excited are we to be working with him and his friends! The music will be recorded in one day and we will be there to film it.

Post production is under way and the DVD will be available spring 2010

For a full credits and production stills visit: the ONEDAY micro site

Tiki in association with GSI brought over three of the worlds best surf board designers to North Devon UK. Where they met the locals and had a surf at Putsborough! Watch out for the full evening Q & A session filmed at Croyde Village Hall. It will be on youtube and itunes as a video pod cast. Thanks again to Richard Asquith and Henry Price for the track called Covert Beat. You can see what they are up to at www.friend-of-mine.co.uk

Its that time allready, another splendid weekend for the girls and what fun they had. Pro surfer Keala Kennely was there to pass on her wisdom and play a set. Sound track thanks to local band Zamba who know how to party!

And talking of the joy of flowing movement, just had to share this footage from the north end of Lundy. Thanks to Steve for organizing his own boys own best ever Stag weekend adventure and to Rudi the inspired skipper of Frolica. Some of the boys were quick enough to don wet suits and jump over the side, to be greeted by more dolphins than we could count! This memory will stay with all of us for ever. You can see more pics on Steves blog and James’s video. Thanks to Richard Asquith and Henry Price for the track Called ‘Horizon Possible’.

Just one evening from a week of stunning sunsets!

Skateboarding has to be one of the most undervalued activities in the world and I can feel the hairs going up on the back of my neck just remembering the speed those guys were whipping round that beautiful beautiful bowl. Crikey almighty, what an amazing event the formal opening opening of Barnstaple’s Rock skate park was. Hats off to all involved in its conception design and build. I was well out of my comfort zone with the camera but you will see a more crafted video of Barnstaple bowl some time soon!

A small collection of memorable moments from March and April

Pardon what did you say? if this is a regular question you ask, get Rob to peer in your ear with his high tech equipment as you may have surfers ear! Even if you haven’t you should consider wearing ear plugs to prevent it, I should know.

Andrew Cotton is working with us to capture the inner world of low tide Croyde. And what a start we have made! This isn’t a progo-thingy this is an Sony HDVA1E with a century optics 180deg super fish eye in an ewa marine dive bag adapted with Velcro, aluminum, closed cell foam and an Ikelite domed port, its set on SDV as the HD compression cant handle the detailed movement of white water. Andrew has the leash end in his mouth as the impact pulled the end off his board. Watch this space as we are going to have some fun and games in the next few months. Thanks to Clive Reeves for yet another track from the Bowl Rider.

This video journal heralds the final phase of development for wavedreamer. We are ready to shout about it now! Hope you enjoy the changes. Thanks so much to Mat from goto11 who has gone to 12 and put his OCD to such good use! The children of the sun are out in force (thanks Rachel and Nathan) so are the adders (early this year) and the fields are full of Mr Kenard’s Lambs. Neil Clifton is competing in local club comps and the waves keep coming. Watch out for the next journal entry which could see on-board barrels at Croyde courtesy of Andrew Cotton who has been working with me to fit our HD 180o fish eye gear to one of his short boards…this could be good!

The track is another we recorded for the journal, you can hear more of Doug’s music on his website and buy his albums!.

If you would like to use any of these images for a non-profit making site, feel free to do so, but please add the following credit and link somewhere on the page: image kindly contributed by www.wavedreamer.co.uk

If you have a commercial use for one of our photos please contact us here for our terms and conditions. Hi-resolution (10mb minimum) versions are available for all the images shown here.

If you really enjoy these micro movies, some of them can be found as bonus material on my NOTCALIFORNIA DVD

Simply put, ReCaptcha identifies whether you are a human being or not! If so, it will allow your form to be sent. This eliminates any robot-spam getting through, which means genuine form results can be dealt with much more speedily, whilst also speeding up the internet for all of us!

ReCaptcha does this by asking you to confirm a small piece of information that you would only be able to do if you were a real person. The main way it does this, is to ask you to enter some text you see in a small image. This text is not editable or selectable & is in effect,  a ‘photo’ of the word. A robot cannot read it as text, nor can character recognising software make any sense of it. The only way is to have a pair of eyes reading it!

Where ReCaptcha leads the way, and for which reason we have chosen it for the wavedreamer site, is that is also offers audio verification, for visitors with impaired vision. This allows for a fully accessible site, to all visitors. (For more info on other ways we have worked to make the wavedreamer site fully accessible, visit our accessibility page).

The following info is taken direct from ReCaptcha and offers some extra help on using ReCaptcha verification:

Instructions

• Please enter the words you see in the box, in order and separated by a space. Doing so helps prevent automated programs from abusing this service.
• If you are not sure what the words are, either enter your best guess or click the reload button next to the distorted words.
• Visually impaired users can click the audio button to hear a set of digits that can be entered instead of the visual challenge.

Helping the World One Word at a Time

By entering the words in the box, you are also helping to digitize texts that were written before the computer age. The words that you see were taken directly from old texts that are being scanned and stored in digital format in order to preserve them and make them more accessible to the world. Since some of the words in these texts are difficult for computers to process, we are using the results of your efforts to help decipher them.

Text for the Billabong Girls Days 2008 to go here

To keep the journal going while we are busy with the next development stage of wavedreamer, I’m adding some of the older promos we worked on. Lunch at Porthleven Dinner in Devon is a concept promo for an eccentric idea yet to go into production, we are still looking for a suitable caravan, thermos flask and china tea set. Thanks to the Porthleven surfers (get in touch!) and to Captain Skelton, the first Test Pilot on the camera board. This clip is also one of the many bonus movies on our NOTCALIFORNIA DVD. Thanks to Clive for another track from the Bowl Rider’s jam sessions at Decoy

Another visit into the wavedreamer archives before we re-launch the site next week. Thanks to Dig and the Bay Surf Shop Woolacombe for the flight. Dig keeps his Pilots licence fresh with jaunts over North Devon. This was my first Helicopter ride and the shaky nature of the footage has more to do with my excitement than engine vibration! Thanks to Clive Reeves for yet another track from the Bowl Rider sessions at Decoy

We are a creative bunch here at wavedreamer & we do like things that look beautiful, even potentially soulless things like websites! That is why we would plead with you, if you have not already done so, to turn your back on lifeless Internet Explorer & start using browsers like FireFox instead. You will be amazed how much nicer a place to look at the internet can be, let alone simpler to use, if you just escape from Bill Gates’ clutches. You will be rewarded more by all the hard work we have put into the site, which is only truly viewable in the superior browsers like Firefox. It has far better security as well.

free download here

Hopefully you have seen some movies here that have stirred you in some way & we hope even more that they have moved you to share the experience!

As we build our collection of wavedreamer movies on YouTube, more and more of the films on this site will be available for you to send to friends or for your own use in a website or blog. There are two main ways to do this:

Whenever you see this icon next to a movie, it means that it is available for linking on YouTube. You can either link to the movie’s URL (web address) or you can embed the code into your own site or blog.

link to a movie

You can use this option if you just want to feature a link to the movie in an email, website or document. It will just forward you to the YouTube page for that movie. Simply click inside the box underneath the link title & it will autoselect the entire link for you. You can then copy & paste* the link wherever it is needed.

embed a movie

By embedding, you can featue a wavedreamer movie directly your own website or blog page. Just select & copy* the code from the embed box, as described above. You can then paste* the code for the movie wherever you like in your own code. You may need to follow instructions for your own blog or social networking site in order to implement it correctly.

*copy & paste methods

(1) right/ctrl-click on the selected text & choose ‘copy’

(3) use ctrl/cmd + ‘c’

Installed on over 850 million Internet-connected desktops and mobile devices, Flash Player allows you to enjoy interactive, rich content with video, graphics and animation. More importantly, here on the wavedreamer site, it allows you to watch all our movies!

free download here

The world’s best browser. Now on Windows too!

Of course, if we are talking creative boffins, it goes without saying that we all use Apple Macs. Luckily, even if you are on PC, you can still have a taste of what awaits you by using Apple’s own Safari browser for your internet experience. Rejoice in the softened texts, rounded edges & uncluttered layout. Now you can concentrate on the sites you want to visit, not the big ugly buttons & panels all over your browser. The suggested browser of choice for wavedreamer visitors

free download here

In the following features, we have tried to cover all the main areas where we think you may need some assistance. If you feel we are not answering any of your questions, or resolving any problem you may be having, just contact us here

Hopefully by now you have already read some of the posts in the wavedreamer journal & are keen to contribute to the discussions. The journal is powered by WordPress, a state-of-the-art website publishing platform. In order to comment on any of the threads in the journal, you need to be registered with us first. You can click here to register.

When you first register, follow the on screen instructions & you will be taken to our WordPress registration page. After choosing your screen user name & submitting your email address, you will be sent a password to that email address. You can now return to the journal, log in and start posting! Remember, initially, as a subscriber, all your threads will need moderating/approving before appearing on the live site. In time, you can request to be a contributor, whereupon you can comment as you wish, with immediate results. We are hoping to reach a wide & diverse audience of like-minded folk, so remember that only pleasant, non-agressive & non x-rated comments are welcome!

Happy posting!

click here to register to contribute to the wavedreamer journal

I’ve always wanted to learn more about the life you can find in the tidal areas around our coast, so documenting what I find in the rock pools will be my excuse. Come back soon to see what I’ve found.

The sun did shine sometimes on some days this August & the unsettled weather provided a spectacular show of cloud formations.

I’m going to use these cloud studies as an excuse to learn more about cloud formations, their names and what they mean in terms of weather prediction.

Some of my photos on a crisp winter afternoon. There was frost on the dunes that morning and some of the north facing slopes remained white and sparkly until the following day.

‘Valley of the Wolves’ derives from the ancient meaning of the place name Woolacombe. As winter approaches, all sorts of things change. The chip shop has closed and its getting dark and cold – what else could we do?

It’s often those that might be considered long in the tooth that reveal their true nature. Watch this one evolve over the next couple of years!

An exiled Cornishman and a big wave rider from Devon, an old Bedford Rascal camper van. Part surf movie, part road movie, meets alfresco food and chintzy restaurants.

We don’t fully understand this project yet, will let you know when we do!

This first short promo is from the signature section of POLLINATION and features Alex Knost in Devon, a huge thanks to Ellie Gregory for the music. Future clips will feature Tyler Hatzikian, Devon Howard, Dane Peterson, Belinda Baggs, Angela King and friends.

other filmmakers

We also champion other British surf movie makers, so look out for their work coming soon in this section too.

Making surf movies in the UK is a tough call and not for the faint hearted. We are determined to do it as well as we can, regardless of how long it might take!

We were invited back for the second year to film the girls weekend and produce this little movie for TV and the internet. It features two local girls, Lucy and Laura, going tandem on our 10ft camera board, watch out for these two! Thanks to Jenna for the music And to Bucky at Hunter

We are proud to have NOTCALIFORNIA archived by Screen Archive South East and some clips used on the ‘Reel Life’ project and made available for education use. The ‘Reel Life’ DVD was initiated and funded as part of the British Library’s Reaching the Regions initiative, in partnership with the Screen Archive South East (formerly South East Film & Video Archive) and the Wessex Film & Sound Archive.

This DVD provides a fascinating glimpse into Saturday afternoons of the last 100 years through examples of films and sound interviews held in public archives. All the material is grouped into six themes: leisure, families, seaside, street life, on the land, parades and festivals.

wavedreamer provided all the in-water and some of the land based footage for this project and we were proud to be with Mark from Maniac Films to pick up the award from South West Media Innovations Award 2007 for ‘best collaboration between business and young people’.

Surfing and surf history from the North Devon region, featuring Ralph Freeman, Steve ‘Pixie’ Godfrey, Alex Baker, Kathleen Spears, Ashley Braunton, Simon Twitchen, Tim Lehan, Gavin Bowden, Jules, Skelly and the shapers from Gulfstream, Ester Spears, Stuart Campbell, DC, Carlo, Lyndon Wake, Angus from The Red Barn, Eddy Knight, Buckie from …Lost, Adam Thornton, excellent surf photos from Extreme Boardshots, great in-water footage from ONEDAY courtesy of Richard Gregory, footage from the Maniac Films surf archive, footage from Chris Preston and Matt Biggs.

Plus wicked music from The Universe Inspectors, Pete Bruntnell, Jenna Witts, Lee Thommen and Becky Loney, Acid County and Horizon. Featuring artwork from the kids at Caen Primary School and Braunton Community College.

Extra Features on DVD – full length surfing sample from ONEDAY, trailer for Universe Inspectors DVD, SAS Eco Grom Litter short (extended version with Gary Elkerton), Croyde Point Surfing, trailer for ‘State of Play’ (new Longboard DVD from Chris Preston), trailer for extremeboardshots.com, trailer for Goldcoast DVD.

A proportion of the proceeds goes to the Woolacombe Surf Life Saving Club, Braunton Community College and Barnstaple Museum.

Now for sale online at Surfers Against Sewage, Magicseaweed.com and a1surf.com. Also available in Redwood surf shop, Croyde, le sport Barnstaple, Woolacombe and Croyde plus Genesis Surf Shop, Ilfracombe. Winner of the Appledore Visual Arts Film Festival ‘Best Film’ as voted by the Audience. Winner of the South West Media Innovations Award 2007 for ‘best collaboration between business and young people’

www.maniacfilms.com

We were one of the founding sponsors of The British Surf Museum. It is a real and vast collection and an online resource. Conceived, researched and run by Peter Robinson using his experience as an investigative journalist, he has set himself the task of writing and documenting the history of surfing in the UK.

His tireless search means there is something to surprise and entertain everyone. Also, the collection should soon have a permanent home that you can visit in person.

If you are interested in what we can do for your business or project have a look at some of these movies and contact us

What has the soil association got to do with the coastal environment I might hear you say? Well, what runs off the fields flows into the rivers and out to sea, that’s what.

riverOcean is a largely voluntary, non-profit environmental organisation, specialising in water. riverOcean is made up of three areas – research, education, and communication – working together for positive change their motto ‘We All Live Downstream’ emphasizes this collective responsibility and interdependency, and highlights the links between river and marine ecosystems.

We have been providing design support to riverOcean for many years and would urge you to get involved in the brilliant work that they do.

Without the National Trust our coastline might look very different, support the custodians of what we all consider to be so precious. Their strap line says it all ‘for ever, for everyone’.

The Woolacombe Surf Lifesaving Club do great work with lots of young people and have allowed us to film them for ONEDAY.

Tim continues to do loads to help the victims of the tsunami. To see what he is up to visit him at the site below.

Saunton Sands to Crow Point Beach Clean Sunday the 29^th November 11 AM Start. Surfers Against Sewage, with help and support from local businesses and members of the community request your help to give our beach a full spring clean all the way from the rocks on the North side of the beach to Crow Point.

Everyone is asked to come in and help if possible, and all ages, sizes and genders will be hugely appreciated. Please bring all weather gear and some heavy duty gloves if you have them.

Surfers Against Sewage are one of the most successful environmental groups in the uk. The impact they have had on the quality of the recreational waters around the uk is profound. I’m proud to have been actively involved for more than ten years and would encourage everyone who enjoys the water to become a member.

David Somerville is one of my super enthusiastic old surfing friends from Brighton and he heads up A1, where is that eccentric photo Dave?

Jackie & Roger are inspirational organic farmers who sell direct to the public and you can stay on their farm.

they love what we do and the feeling is mutual!

Thanks to Geoff and his family for letting me film them for my video journals

Thanks so much to the Christie’s estate for allowing us to film on the burrows and the beach at Saunton.

apologies for any content on this website for one of the UK’s oldest & largest surf clubs

Tim is one of my poshest friends an author and surfer just look at what he has done! Oh and he is going to read some poetry for a sound track to some deep north Devon video journals next winter.

James is that rare old breed, a seasoned travel photographer. Ive lost count now but he is in his late 60′s and you can still find him out the back on a solid swell at Saunton sweeping away with his mate Rob!

Trevor is my cultural fast track back to my youth in the 70′s he has an encyclopedic knowledge of music and films.

Buckie is my unofficial and probably reluctant business mentor and one day I will film him in a deep skating bowl with his shirt off to return the favour.

Sally is featured in our Belly board championship video journal she has reinvented the British belly board

Dig is the proprietor of one of the last real surf shops, give him a visit to see what I mean. Oh yer and he is also bit of an action man come adrenalin junkie and has taken me up in his helicopter check out the video from this trip.

Richard and Henry write and perform the most amazing music they been really generous and allowed us to use in on many of our video journals my favorite being Good Morning Cornwall

Peter was my first painting tutor at college in 1976 he is a darling and taught me many things

John and Rod are that rare bread: creative consultant techies. They built the last NOTCALIFORNIA site.

Russ and Jill arrived in Cornwall via Brighton, a creative team, together they are helping me document the making of ONEDAY. You will find their images all over the south west. This image is of Jill and a friend at a famous party, Russ is shy.

Aha! That loverly Welshman who encouraged me so much at the start. Chris built the first two camera boards that I used in the Brighton Project. They are still going – I’ve resprayed them for ONEDAY – thanks Chris!

Lord Tyler and Lady Catherine taking tea and scones in North Devon, Sir Mikie was out of shot scoffing scones. I do miss them and so does the little fisherman.

Emma helped me out with the first planning trip for the ONEDAY project and some of the footage in Lunch in Porthleven is hers. She is an award winning underwater photographer. She has bought some new kit since this pic was taken!

My mate and co driver on missions, Steve has helped me with a lot of the onboard filming designing and building kit in his garage. The pic is from the 1975 the only thing that’s changed is the technical specs of his leash. Oh, and the tash has turned into a goatie!

Martin was the first person to talk to me about surf boards, he opened his shop in an arch on Brighton sea front in ’92, is still designing and manufacturing his own range of clothes – another little fish surviving in a big pond.

The River Ocean Foundation is a charity dedicated to increasing awareness and encouraging care for our water environments. Their activities are focused in the fields of environmental education and research. They organize the global lowtide event and publish that splendid lunar calendar.

I met Mark on the MA in sequential design and he built the first NOTCALIFORNIA site for me. I owe him big time. He now lives in Oz and does much more meaningful things every day now, but I wish here was still here.

One of the first community surf sites in the UK, James Onslow has been providing Brighton surfers with surf reports since 1999 and winning awards for it ever since!

Thanks to David for being a super shepherd

Mark is my technical mentor & a mate!

Steve is featured in ONEDAY living the life in Woolacombe & its all his fault that I live 200 yrds from the beach. Thanks Steve!

The band of the multitalented man Clive Reeve who wrote the intro and the last track on my Brighton project and is writing and performing the score to ONEDAY. Clive is a collected Artist and teacher as well as a musician His work can be seen here.

The Surfing Museum is a real and vast collection and an online resource. Conceived and run by Peter Robinson a journalist and my mate, he has set himself the task of writing and documenting the history of surfing in the UK his tireless search for surfing stories, boards and paraphernalia means there is something to surprise and entertain everyone – check it out

Always up for a project, the men at Gulf Stream are a cultural beacon shining bright in North Devon. They don’t just make pieces of art that you can ride waves with, they do other stuff too, pop into their gentleman’s outfitters in Braunton, it’s full of girls stuff.

Surfers Against Sewage campaign for clean, safe recreational waters, free from sewage effluents, toxic chemicals and nuclear waste. Using a solution based argument of viable and sustainable alternatives, SAS highlight the inherent flaws in current practices, challenging industry, legislators and politicians to end their ‘pump and dump’ policies. And sometimes they do this by cross dressing. Yeeeha!

NOTCALIFORNIA is a revealing portrait of surfing in and around Brighton. Exploring the five main breaks in the area and vividly expressing the different vibe of each place. Sustained by an amazingly eclectic Brighton-based soundtrack.

It was the enthusiasm of the Brighton surfers that got this done and it shows!

You can contact us here to purchase a copy of NOTCALIFORNIA

Talking of big wave riders I must mention Devon’s own Andrew Cotton (seen in this clip from my promo work of three years ago) who, as I write this, is riding big waves in Hawaii. I was inspired to mention Cotty by Steve England’s ‘Take off’ article in the current Carve magazine.

Cotty’s journey into the world of big wave riding was documented by Mr B in his film DRIVEN. You can purchase this from our emporium. According to someone who knows, the reason why Cotty can ride big waves is because he never ever panics. I can’t wait to talk to him about Hawaii!

The music on this clip is from the ONEDAY sound track and was written specialy for Cotty by Clive Reeve

It only takes a bit of sun, no wind, clear water and a chest high wave to transport me to summers past. This weeks offering is from the wavedreamer archives, all the things I ache for at this time of year. Thanks to Skelly, Sandra, Steve Altram and of course Steve PP who is a master of beach and Landscape painting parties!

Thanks again to Doug for the lovely summery ‘yet to be titled’ track.

Mat is a superlative designer, surfer, comedian & all-round magnificent human being. Calling on his abundance of talent & the impressive resources of his design agency, goto11, Mat created this stunning wavedreamer website. And yes, he wrote his own entry for this page…

Nearly two years ago Woolacombe was treated to a visit from the waterman himself. Courtesy of Oxbow He came to Dave’s kayak shop and stayed at the Town Farm House Mortehoe. Laird made good use of a messy day at Woolcambe and allowed us to film. This was a cold dark day in May, everyone had wet suits on, Laird had a rolled down shortie! A big wave super hero, Laird’s gritty self belief and determination has inspired many people. How he met his Dad is my favorite Laird story, Bill Hamilton tells this on the ‘Laird’ DVD, prepared to be moved. Thanks for the visit Laird!

Thanks once again thanks to Richard Asquith and Henry Price for the track

A simple offering of light, color and waves this week. This clip is part of a project we are releasing this year called: SURFING WAVES an inspirational DVD for visualization and meditation. Thanks to Ellie, www.elliegregory.co.uk for the track called ‘momentary’

If you’re a regular visitor you will have noticed we’ve been busy with the next stage of wavedreamer’s development. Let us know what you think by contributing to the journal. If you haven’t already registered you can do that here.

The new colour ways were inspired by an evenings filming in Cornwall with spear fisherman Rich Emerson we were working off a rib and as the sun went down this was the colour of deep water.

Huge thanks to Mat for all his hard work on this stage of wavedreamers development.

Last Friday wasn’t what was predicted but a dramatic morning all the same. Nick Thorn is the surfer and Paul O’Grady the scarecrow. Catching up with old mates in the coffee shop was good. Today I had a fantastic recording session with my wonderful friend Doug and this track is one of many we recorded for use on the Journal. You can hear more of Doug’s music on his website and buy his albums!.

With leaden sky’s the light is flat today, thankfully the sea isn’t! Thanks to Andrew From Pickwell Barton who kindly allowed me to film his family and friends bringing in and processing the last of the brussel sprouts for Christmas. The farm has been in the Cook family for nearly 100 years and overlooks Putsborough and Woolacombe Sands, you can find out about staying on the farm here.

The featured style master was local lad Neil Clifton (the surf doctor). If you need to improve your surfing check out his website.

Thanks to Kevin MacLeod for his beautiful arrangement of Silent Night.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone

Having indulged my work ethic I’m going surfing tomorrow, Yeehaa!!!

A1Surf is holding its first surf movie and party night on Wednesday 3 December at Walkabout in Brighton in association with WAVEDREAMER to launch the NOTCALIFORNIA DVD which you will be able to buy on the night!

It’s fair to say its been some time coming, so thanks to everyone who has kept the faith and encouraged me along the way. Surfing in Brighton is unique and well worth celebrating. I’m looking forward to meeting all the new surfers and the old crew! You can find more details here.

It was 3 years ago that Jon Finch opened Loose-Fit surf shop with help from a group of surfers, they also went to Ireland as guests of Lahinch surf club and I was invited to film them. It has been a tease waiting for time to work on the project, but we now have a title and a schedule! We will continue to share clips with you as we work over the winter. This first short promo is from the signature section of POLLINATION and features Alex Knost in Devon, a huge thanks to Ellie Gregory for the music. Future clips will feature Tyler Hatzikian, Devon Howard, Dane Peterson, Belinda Baggs, Angela King and friends.

I just had to find some footage that had something to do with light and clarity, which are the only words I can find to express the impact of Barack Obama’s victory speech. Enough said, watch it here if you haven’t already. The clip, is from Morte Point on a very clear day in August last year, the sound track is from the ONEDAY project.

What a weekend that was! I have to hold my hands up and admit to losing my focus. Broken van, cloudy sunrise, too much wind, missed phone calls, I could blame many things but the truth is I was distracted by my need to surf and surf I did! Which means this weeks video is of a similar swell from the wavedreamer archives. The footage is of Nick Thorn at home. Apologies to Ben and Neil, next time heh! Thanks to Clive for letting me use this track that I recorded during one of Bowl Rider’s Studio sessions at Decoy, it sums up my weekend.

Once the sun came out in September the bees seamed to be making up for lost time. This post is a slide show of stills from my wild flower filming in Braunton Burrows, a Biosphere Reserve, designated by UNESCO. It’s a magical place, the two people who have helped me explore and understand it, are Mary and John Breeds. Mary has written a book about the wild flowers that you can pick up in Braunton Countryside Centre. You will be able to see the footage of the flowers and dunes in one of my surf movie projects, I will let you know when its released. The music is from the ONEDAY project sound track and was written by Clive Reeve.

I popped down the coast to catch up with my friends Russ and Jill. We spent a couple of glorious mornings on the beach, you can see Russ’s great still photos at www.russpierrephotography.blogspot.com/.Thanks to James Parry, Sam Bleakly, Elliot Dudley, his partner and the men in the harbour for letting me film them.

I was also there to see Andy Cummins from SAS surfing a very special board (the quad half way through the clip). The blank comes from Home Blown and is made from about 34% plant based materials and the resin is from 98% plant based materials – producing a board that has more than 50% sustainable materials. They are priced about the same as their petrochemical cousins and under strength tests are proving to be stronger and lighter than polyurethane blanks. Andy was also testing out the camera board for a project we are working on for a bigger darker day.

Thanks so much to Richard Asquith and Henry Price for the beautiful track called Haven. You can see what they are up to at www.friend-of-mine.co.uk

It was a long time coming but at last, sunshine and a clean swell! Missed the moon setting but up early enough for the sunrise. Spent the time working through ideas for the ONEDAY schedule. The rough cut is from that morning, with an evening section from a previous day (it clouded over by lunch) Thanks to Sandra, Steve, Graham, Mark’s son and Chris and the other lads out. The music is the beginning of dawn section of the ONEDAY soundtrack.

The clouds parted last Sunday! And I was at Chapel Porth, Cornwall, for the 6^th World Belly Board Championships. It was even more splendid than the last time I came in 2005. Its amazing how much difference the sun makes. This clip is just a taster of things to come, I will edit a much longer piece in the next couple of months that will include interviews and some history of the bellyboard and the event. The music is an old Cornish tune called the Boscastle breakdown and was kindly played by Mr skelton on his English Concertina. He won the World Championship in 2004.