kernowkalling

WOODY

2012-01-29T20:41:00.000Z

Good wood at Mount Hawke.

I haven't been to a skatepark for years, but after chatting to a couple of old sk8-m8tes recently I decided to dust off the board and give it a go. It's Winter here, so the only option was an indoor park. Luckily there's one not too far from where I live, and it had just been refurbed with lots of new wood. I have to admit that even the smallest ramp looked deathly to me, but after hesitating for a while on the deck, I bit the bullet and dropped in. Yeah, I was really sketchy, but it felt so good to be rolling again and I managed NOT to break myself, so maybe I'll venture back next week for another session.

TWINZ!

2012-01-17T16:57:00.001Z

Amazing portraits of twins here.

AGGIE

2012-01-15T20:34:00.006Z

A walk across the cliffs...

Looking north across Blue Hills with a splash of gold.

Man and his man.

Lots of colour even in Winter...

Photos: Róisín

SEALED

2012-01-01T16:20:00.003Z

A New Years Day walk at Godrevy. A closer look at those 'rocks' on the beach...

The resident seal colony sleeping off their NYE hangovers.

DOWN THE HOLE

2011-12-26T21:19:00.001Z

A festive pint in the Ship Inn, Mousehole...

ORANJ

2011-12-18T20:00:00.002Z

EARLY SURF WRITING

2011-12-15T11:34:00.001Z

Lieutenant James King pretty much nails it, when describing Hawaiians surfing in the late 1700s. Taken from his account in the final volume of Cook's Voyage to the Pacific, 1784.

Click to embiggen...

JUST LIKE EVERYTHING

2011-12-08T19:50:00.003Z

///

LIVING COLOUR

2011-12-05T14:28:00.004Z

Great set of images from Library of Congress archive: 1930s-40s in Color

...

ROADRIDERS

2011-11-24T08:26:00.004Z

Road Rider 4

Yep, it's Neil Blender, Adrian Demain, Doug 'Pineapple' Saladino and Hagop riffing!

And how about these Blender designed boardshorts for Vans...

Blender inverted.

LEAVE A MESSAGE

2011-11-23T08:15:00.001Z

Not subtle.

LOVE - FIFTYFIFTY

2011-11-18T10:54:00.002Z

More than meets the eye.

Quirky photos from Frank Kunert - with a 'little' bit more going on than it seems at first glance.

QUOTE

2011-11-15T14:06:00.001Z

e.e.cummings

JOURNEYS

2011-11-13T21:29:00.002Z

///

My father began his journey in Dar es Salaam, East Africa, escaping political unrest and hungry for new horizons. My mother, orphaned not once but twice during the chaos of war, grew up a quiet rebel and eventually linked her dreams with the 21 year old immigrant, so exotic in the staid HA5 suburbs of North London in the 60s.

Young love coupled with a desire to escape prejudice and boredom set their sights south and westward, away from the dirty city aiming for the open spaces and simpler ways.

By the time they got as far as Plympton, a small working class suburb just a few miles from the Devon/Cornwall border, my mother was heavily pregnant and with the promise of employment nearby, they halted their exodus and made a nest in a small flat by the railway just off the A38. This was my birthplace. I remember a sandpit and a tumble down the stairs, the rest are but kodachrome memories in black and white. Me on my father's Triumph, my mother looking impossibly young next to a mini-panelvan. Two years was enough time to save for a deposit on a house and they upped sticks again to follow the setting sun.

First port of call was a caravan in a field overlooking an estuary. A sweet summer drifted by of weekend drives viewing cottages for sale in villages with unfamiliar yet friendly names; Playing Place, Lamorna, Laity Moor. Finally they found what they were searching for in Ponsanooth, £2000 for a neat bungalow in a cul-de-sac on a corner plot with fruit trees in the garden. This became home and almost immediately a sister arrived, followed by two cats and a dog.

As I was growing up we spent nearly every weekend exploring from Lands End to the Lizard, coast to coast. Long days on empty beaches, walks out across the moors, picnics amongst the minestacks. These are my childhood memories and I often wonder now just what it was that made my parents choose Cornwall. They had no family in this part of the world, no ties to draw them, why not Wales or Scotland or even New Zealand?

Like many from that generation my parents did little more than paddle in the whitewater or brave a quick dip in the sea. I have a photo taken in 1967 of them walking on the beach at Godrevy. They must have taken notice of the waves that day, could there have been surfers out I wonder? Was my father never tempted to join the men and women riding the waves? Maybe he was just happy to have journeyed this far, to be at the edge, feeling the salt spray on his face.

TFI

2011-11-12T20:14:00.003Z

Friday.

After years of painstaking research I can finally reveal that the best day of the week to go surfing is on a Friday. (or sometimes a Sunday...)

S COAST SILVER

2011-11-06T21:30:00.002Z

Got some South Coast action this weekend - there's something really satisfying about surfing S Coast.

FOTO

2011-11-01T08:25:00.002Z

Wow!

Incredible photo from Jim Russi. He has a new book out.

(I'm not so keen on some of his more 'glamorous' photos, but this one is a killer.)

BLU @ GWITH

2011-10-23T21:26:00.008+01:00

Watched a few heats of the BLU Sunset Surf Classic from the cliff on Saturday.

There was some corduroy for the event.

Nellie decided the approaching collie was much more interesting than watching Ben Skinner in the final.

JUST DO IT!

2011-10-20T09:00:00.001+01:00

OCTO

2011-10-17T08:16:00.001+01:00

October has delivered some stunning days, with a few waves too... (Saturday @ Godrevy).

BLIZZARD

2011-10-13T08:37:00.002+01:00

Blizzard the Husky pup by Frank Hurley, Antarctica 1914-1916.

CORNISH CLIFF

2011-10-10T08:11:00.002+01:00

ROOFTOPS

2011-10-06T08:50:00.002+01:00

Lower East Side Rooftops - 2011

I really like these very urban yet serenely beautiful paintings by Kim Cogan.

SURF>BOOKS

2011-09-23T08:48:00.001+01:00

I have no idea what's going on here - but I like it.

OLDEN DAYS

2011-09-21T13:07:00.006+01:00

If I could choose a fantasy superpower it would be 'time-travel' so I could go back in time and hang out at the same beaches where I hang out now, but before the crowds...

Anyone recognise this place?

1890. Fishing boats pulled up on the sand & shorefront gardens.

1893. Distinctive cliff-line hasn't changed (but skyline has).

1935. This'll give it away...

1960. Daytrips to the seaside.

FALLING LEAVES

2011-09-19T20:33:00.002+01:00

Millais - Autumn Leaves.

As Autumn leaves settle once more, I'm sorry to see Summer fade away, always too short. Seasons change, hold tight to the light for a few more weeks. By then I'll be ready.

FINLESS WONDERINGS

2011-09-15T08:48:00.003+01:00

Derek Hynd drawing lines.

Nearly 10 minutes long but worth it to hear Derek Hynd describe his thoughts and feelings on how going finless has opened up new possibilities for his surfing...

SUNDAY ROAST

2011-09-11T21:19:00.007+01:00

Swell wrapping around the headland.

... and still working through the high tide.

ps: UK Open Bodysurfing comp was on & folk were bodysurfing 6-8ft!

SLASH!

2011-09-02T14:38:00.001+01:00

Another Tumblr goodie...

I like aerial photos and I like frontal cutbacks.

TALKING OF BURLY...

2011-08-25T13:10:00.001+01:00

END OF THE ROAD

2011-08-24T13:25:00.002+01:00

Teahupo'o...

I'm not really interested in pro surfing - but have to admit that I am interested in seeing this place go off in the next day or two...

CLIFFWALK

2011-08-19T09:03:00.001+01:00

A walk along the cliffs last night...

...

CROWDED SEA

2011-08-18T11:09:00.004+01:00

China's 'Dead Sea' indoor swimming pool, can accommodate 10,000 visitors at once.

Went for a little surf last night, and when I say 'little' I actually mean 'tiny'. But there were a few mini peelers to be had, the problem wasn't catching waves, the bigger issue was trying to swerve a path through the crowd!

SOUP KITCHEN

2011-08-12T08:45:00.004+01:00

February 17th 2008.

This pic of R going out for a clean winter session a few years ago is hanging on our kitchen noticeboard. What are the orangey streaks on the print? Let's just say that one day there was an incident with a pan of tomato soup...

BALMY PALMY

2011-08-10T14:25:00.002+01:00

I'm quietly obsessing about palm trees at the moment.

WAVESHARE

2011-08-09T12:52:00.002+01:00

... another tumblr pic.

AWOL

2011-07-27T15:49:00.000+01:00

See ya in a couple of weeks...

THROWN IN THE TOWEL

2011-07-25T21:09:00.006+01:00

My faithful old beach towel - faded & threadbare - finally got retired at the weekend.

This Raymond Pettibon towel would surely make a fine replacement.

Do clickage if you wanna read the little writing at the top.

BELOVED

2011-07-24T20:19:00.003+01:00

Forever.

Parts of Kernow have been rubbed smooth and characterless by the many millions of 'relocation' pound notes that were used to transform Cornwall into a handy suburb-by-the-sea for wealthy urbanites. But there remains a place that despite the braying crowds of incomers is still resolutely itself; quite scruffy, a bit rough around the edges and often just a few inches away from anarchy.

It's a place of high unemployment matched by equally high self-regard. A place where three generations from local families still live. A place that knows its own place, in fact.

A small village in a coastal valley where a handful of simple beachside flats - built over forty years ago - are still to this day occupied by low wage-earners and those on benefits. Not pretty buildings by any means, but they're certainly not the generic, unimaginative, over-developed, over-priced 'lifestyle' apartments that have appeared in almost every other coastal town.

Circa 1955.

Unlike so many other similar spots up and down the coast that have become empty places, occupied only occasionally by owners that live many miles away. This understated little settlement has quietly carried on being home to its inhabitants.

It also happens to have been blessed with a beach that consistently manages to produce some of the best beachbreak waves around. But beware, the best of those sweet, steep waves will not be freely available, for they will nearly always be ridden by the best surfers - those who happen to live within striking distance - and they will be on it every time there's a hint of swell.

But it's a special place to me for all the above reasons and more, and I fucking love it.

ENZED WATERFALL

2011-07-22T15:36:00.003+01:00

Go-oooooooo!

Nice little set of photos from the land of the long white cloud here.

THE BIG BLUE

2011-07-21T13:43:00.002+01:00

Jean Reno as Enzo

Should watch this again as well..

37°2 LE MATIN

2011-07-20T12:08:00.002+01:00

Betty et Zorg

Must watch this again - makes me feel like Summer again...

2011-07-19T12:27:00.001+01:00

i'm thinking about it...

FOXY

2011-07-18T22:02:00.002+01:00

via tumblr

GLOBAL CORNWALL

2011-07-15T16:44:00.002+01:00

Global Cornwall @ the Asylum 25th July 2011

Event coming soon - with Kneehigh & Chris Hines involved you know it's gonna be interesting as well as good fun.

DEAD SURFERS

2011-07-13T15:08:00.003+01:00

Panda Bear - Surfer's Hymn. A tribute to surfers taken by the sea apparently.

SURF GEETAR

2011-07-11T08:48:00.007+01:00

A lot of surfers play guitar - and a few even play while they're actually surfing.
Wondering just how they manage to do it..? Paddle with the instrument strapped across their back, followed by a very swift grab and strum perhaps?

Donavon Frankenreiter

THE LOKE

2011-07-07T09:09:00.006+01:00

Whenever the surf got big, he would appear, without fail. Often there would be no-one out at all; just too wild and wooly, whitewater everywhere, any green waves were marbled with ribbons of white. "Not rideable," was the common consensus on the balcony of the surf club. But he'd stroll across the grass of the beachside reserve often barechested even in the Sydney winter. With his thick brown hair swept straight back from his forehead and a full beard he reminded me a bit of Grizzly Adams. Always in plain red boardshorts, usually a smoke in one hand, his yellowed board under the other arm it was impossible to judge his age. Maybe thirty something or possibly even a decade older. The lack of any grey in the whiskers and the taut athletic body coupled with a brightness in his eyes and a lightness to his step made him ageless. On first name terms with all the usual beachfront crew he was never the less a bit of a lone wolf, always traveling solo.

Most surfers would be fizzing with anticipation as they approached the shore, trotting like nervous ponies across the sands. He never hurried. Just walked casually to the northern side of the bay, not even seeming to check the surf on the way. Not that there was much to see apart from lumpy, slow-moving mounds of water. Occasionally the swirling mass would line up and a wave would form way out the back, offering the chance of a clean face amongst the chaos, but it would be a deceptively heavy, seething, unorganised roller that could just as quickly fold under its own weight and dump itself in an explosion of frothing whitewater.

At the water's edge he'd nonchalantly flick his cigarette butt away, drop his board in the sand and tie his leggie around his ankle. Then without haste or panic he'd lunge into the shoredump and stroke swiftly toward the rip that ran out past the sea pool. With the big southerly swell pouring into the bay, the current was moving fast back out along the north side and he was soon swept past the rocks and out into the middle of the bay.

Soon he was just a small, distant shape, defiant amongst the heaving green and white. He would disappear from sight, nowhere to be seen and then reappear fifty metres away, paddling purposefully even further out to sea as a huge set growled in from around the headland. Up and over the first unbroken wave he went, just a sliver silhouetted against a long wall of rising water. As the next wave seemed to draw itself up in menacingly slow-motion he spun around and paddled hard down the dark slope. The wall grew taller and he actually drifted back up the face with the tremendous flow of water. But gravity took over as the wave toppled forward and he sprang to his feet as the lip snarled all around him. He dropped almost vertically down the face and dug a deep bottom turn. Still, he seemed at ease, although there was now a vitality in his movements, a restrained energy to his body that allowed him to surf confidently with power yet smoothly without wasted effort. So many of the other local surfers, even the good ones, moved too jerkily, overdid everything and were self conscious. Whereas even here, in this angry sea, as he swooped back up the face of a wave that was at least triple overhead, he was surfing beautifully. Just the right amount of torque to send a fan of spray out over the back of the lip, a perfectly timed turn followed by a smooth flowing down the line carve, a long arcing cutback and a quick flickout before the section slammed itself onto the inside bank. It was just text book surfing in the most unorthodox of conditions, the fluid definition of grace under pressure.

He'd paddle back out through the maelstrom to get a couple more subtley epic rides against all the odds and then catch one in. Seemingly satisfied that he'd done justice to both himself and the swell. Back on the beach, he'd maybe have a quick chat to some of the crew before strolling off down one of the side streets, barefoot, still dripping wet from the sea. As he never came by car I assume he lived nearby - a real local you might say.

YES!-terday

2011-07-04T10:41:00.003+01:00

More days like that please..

RETRO-TASTIC

2011-07-01T12:57:00.011+01:00

Today's waste of time...

1977 - Ty Page and pals.

1979 - Eddie Elguera.

1978 - Ellen Berryman & Bob Mohr. Tight and tash-tastic.

1978 - Bobby Piercy.

1978 - Stacey Peralta shot by Warren Bolster strobe cam.

1979 - Vans advert.

Scarily I remember most of these. With no videos, DVDs or internets in those days the US mags were the only way to access the info and like a lot of kids I used to study those mags for hours, and when I say 'study' I mean 'STUDY!' I would have confidently gone on Mastermind with '70s Skateboard Magazines' as my specialist subject!

AS PREDICTED...

2011-06-27T08:58:00.005+01:00

This was Lusty Glaze on Sunday morning.

For once the predictions were spot on - fresh swell, offshore winds and sunshine all day. Hope y'all got some...

Loads of interesting old boards at the Vintage Surfboard Meet too.

VINTAGE BOARDS

2011-06-24T08:57:00.002+01:00

If you like vintage surfboards - get along to Newquay this weekend where Alasdair from the excellent Vintage Surfboard Collector blog has organised a gathering.

INTERVIEW - JOHN ADAMS

2011-06-21T15:37:00.019+01:00

John, Sennen 1975.

John Adams was one of the original pioneers of the West Cornwall surf scene in the 60s. Along with co-founding the Sennen Surf Club and the BSA, he was a music promoter and film-maker producing and distributing action sports films from his base in Penzance. Here he shares a little bit of personal history from those days...

John, where are you from originally?
I grew up in Yorkshire and spent my teenage summer holidays working in my mothers snack bar in Whitby, where I was allowed to buy the weekly 78 records for the juke box. Guy Mitchell, Frankie Lane, David Whitfield ... THEN Bill Haley, Elvis Presley etc. circa 1957/58. In September ’58 I went for three years to Courtfield Catering College in Blackpool where I studied Hotel and Catering Management. Whilst there I used to organise our socials and dances.

What turned you onto surfing?
We would get jobs in the summer holidays in kitchens and restaurants. My close friend Bruce from St. Annes had a friend who had come to St.Ives to paint so we decided to try and get a summer job at the Tregenna Castle. They wouldn’t take us but we found work as joint second chefs at the Grenville Hotel Bude where there existed a surf club and the lifeguard was an icon called Peter Cokes, eventually head of the Cornwall Surf Rescue organisation. A couple of Aussies worked there as well and they introduced me to body surfing and surfing with a belly board and fins. I was hooked from the start.

You had a music venue in Penzance called the Winter Garden and put on loads of big name bands didn’t you? Can you tell us how that came about?
After working in Bude, Bruce and I went to Germany where we worked for eighteen months at two top class hotels in Cologne and we learnt to speak German and later French. When I returned my family were offered the Winter Garden Dance Hall in Penzance from someone in Scarborough who had bought it as an investment in case he lost his licence for his other business. I took it on with the idea of developing the catering expertise that I had acquired and did banquets, buffets, club socials, wedding receptions as well as running the weekly dances. I started Beat nights on Fridays and booked bands such as Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, The Fortunes and many other local and national acts.

Can you remember your first green wave?
I had my first green wave at Sennen.

You were also involved in creating the BSA (British Surfing Association) weren’t you?
I met a couple of brothers, Mike and Tony Hole, who I had been at school with. They knew I was interested in surfing and we agreed to buy Malibu boards. At the time Bilbo had a three month waiting period so we got our boards from Fred Bickers in Newquay and paid £30.00 each for them (a lot of money in those days). We were the first surfers at Sennen and formed the Sennen Surf Club. We met other surfers from Porthmeor (who nicknamed us ‘the Sennen Spastics’!), Porthtowan and Newquay.
Mike ran a clothes boutique in Penzance called Modern Man and with Tony this became the office for the British Surfing Association of which we were founder members and Mike became Secretary.

John Adams (left), pictured with Dave Swift who wrote the renowned ‘Talking Surfers Blues’ original song featured in the 1976 epic ‘Getting Wet’.

Where did you surf at the time?
We had a diver friend who made wetsuits, called Olly Crocker, he made us winter surfing wetsuits – at the time no one surfed after November and never on the south coast. As Mike and I both had vehicles we used to cruise around looking for unsurfed spots and this way opened up locations such as Porthleven, Praa Sands, Perranuthnoe, Nanjizal and even Gwenver – pioneering times!

Have you always been a bit of a pioneer?
We were also interested in rock and got into the Doors. We went to the Roundhouse in ’68 and saw the Doors with Jefferson Airplane. I could see that concerts with audiences seated on the floor were the way forward and booked Jethro Tull and Ten Years After for concerts at the Wints that Christmas and continued with all the up and coming bands such as Status Quo, Genesis, Yes, Fairport Convention, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Elvis Costello and many more. With my brother in 1969 I helped him open another venue in Scarborough which we called The Penthouse. The Wints and the Penthouse became a ‘must’ on any tour that bands were making. In 1973 with Tony Hole and another surfing buddy I opened a hamburger joint in St.Ives which we called Space – Great American Disaster and the Hard Rock Café had just began in London and for me the relaxed atmosphere with great food really appealed (unfortunately we were a little ahead of our time as people still preferred the tiny 'Wimpeys').

Hanging out at the 'Wints'.

I had always loved making home movies and when asked put on surf films at the Wints such as MacGillivray Freeman’s Free and Easy, Five Summer Stories, A Sea for Yourself, Salt Water Wine and others. As a surfer and presenter I worked hard to get a good atmosphere for the screenings and the Wints became known as the Santa Monica of Britain when you could expect up to 300 people for a screening of a new surf film. As chairman of Sennen Surfing Club I helped organise our annual Surf Dance, where we would have a theme, promote it with parades through Penzance, wear outfits in keeping with the theme (Hawaii, The Jungle or something) put on a name band and project surf films during the dance. As a result Sennen Surf Club became the most prosperous club in the country and members were given a free Christmas party surf dance where everything was thrown in.

Do you have a favourite gig from those days?
It isn’t easy to identify a favourite gig, you are too busy smoothing things over and keeping things to time (live music had to finish by 11.30pm). I do remember the Sonny Terry/Brownie McGee concert as very special. Also the first visit by Fleetwood Mac and I loved the concerts given by Caravan. Incidentally the foam cushions we would throw out for people to sit on proved very popular in those ‘progressive rock’ years!

When did you start making your own films?
Around 1975 I began making super 8 surf films featuring local surfers like Harvey Hoare, Colin Wilson, Mike Cattran, the Cattran twins etc. My first film I called Tubular Swells which came out in 1975 (a year before Dick Hoole and Jack McCoy nicked my title!). Each September with my wife Sally I went to Biarritz in my camper van and whilst there I met Greg Haythorpe an Australian kneeboarder who was a keen stills photographer and who liked fishing like me. He worked as a diver on North Sea Oil rigs but gave up in 1978 to work on a skateboarding magazine followed by becoming editor of Atlantic Surfer, the first British all colour surfing magazine. With Paul Neilson, Rabbit Bartholomew, Bruce Raymond and Brian Creegan, Harry Hodge was making 'Band on the Run' the first sponsored surf film. Greg and I helped them and showed them the breaks including Mundaka. I was getting more into films and film making and punk rock had arrived in the music world. So many of the bands that I had regularly booked were packing up as they could not compete with punk and even though I booked the Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, The Ramones and Talking Heads, I did not connect with the music and so decided to lease the dance hall and start a film company.

I remember watching one of your surf film nights in Porthtowan village hall - did you go further afield showing films?
The first summer I worked with Australian Dave O’Donnell who toured with surf films in Australia and worked as a lifeguard here in the summer. I toured in my camper van screening films like Playgrounds in Paradise, Free Ride, Going Surfin’, A Matter of Style and others. Video had just been introduced and although initially it was just associated with porn it was easy to see what a great innovation it was, and so I put the films I had been screening on video and started a mail order distribution via the surf mags. I obtained films on skiing, shot in Colorado mainly and in winter I would take the whole operation to ski areas and spend the ski season going to hotels and halls screening ski films. In 1981 I released my first 16mm surf film which I called Taking Off which featured Nigel Semmens and Steve Daniels, the first ‘professional’ British surfers. Narration was by Ted Deerhurst and it included the first Fosters event and the European championships in Thurso. I then teamed up with a guy called Tony Mangion and we made I’d Rather Be Surfing which at the time was the first ever film to be made on learning to surf and was fronted by the Bryant twins, John and Nick who started the first-ever surf school at Sennen. We followed that with a film on the fast-developing new sport of windsurfing in waves (originally windsurfing was just on still water) called Funboard Connections. We were screening surf films like Ocean Fever, Ticket To Ride, Many Classic Moments, Storm Riders and even Big Wednesday (in cinemascope!) at venues like the Marcus Hill Newquay, Perranporth Memorial Hall, Braunton Town Hall, Croyde Bay, Driftwood Spars St.Agnes, Polzeath and other surf venues around Devon and Cornwall and at the end of the summer with a succession of buddies I toured the country showing at a different venue each night – Exeter, Bournemouth, Isle of Wight, London (Fulham Town Hall), Lowestoft, Withernsea, Scarborough, Saltburn, Tynemouth, Cardiff, Swansea (Patti Pavilion!), Porthcawl and numerous universities.

Taking Off 1981.

Can you tell us about the origins of Three S Films?
The name Three S Films was originally taken as I was specialising in surf, ski and skateboard but as I told people it is surprising how many pleasurable subjects other than sports began with an ’s’ so we would be happy to oblige! Robin Kewell, a jeweller friend, who ran the local film society teamed up with me in 1984 and together we made Treble Chance which comprised three sports films, Snow Business – skiing in Austria, Winds of La Torche – Britanny windsurf event and The Fosters surf contest which we covered for the BBC as well. When we were working for the BBC at the Fosters, Robin and I attempted to put on a ‘drive-in’ surf movie in the car park at Fistral. We screened Ocean Fever with a big screen on the café wall. Unfortunately the space demanded by the council around each car resulted in us only being allowed 150 cars but it was a balmy evening, the surf during the event was pretty small so seeing the top internationals who were in the contest firing in Hawaii and enjoying the film made it a big hit. We were recognised as the ’break your leg’ merchants and did quite a bit of stuff for the BBC in series such as Duncan Dares and In at the Deep End doing water and aerial camera work in helicopters, micro-lights etc. Robin is an incredibly creative camera-man and with his help Three S won various awards at Celtic Film Festivals. In 1988 we were hired by O’Neill to film the first World Snowboard Championships at Lech/Zurs in Austria. As surfer/skiers we could see that snowboarding was going to be mega so we made a film called Mountain Surfers in which we ‘exploded’ English surfing Champion Steve McNichol into The Alps where he met Austrian snowboarders and learnt how it was done. The film ends with a montage against original music of stunning snowboarding in Austria and surfing in Cornwall. Sadly the film was ahead of its time and it was another 5 years before the sport really took hold.

Mountain Surfers.

Video killed the Surf Film Show as well as Radio, but in 1992 it was revived with Bill Delaneys film Surfers The Movie, the idea being that surfers were nostalgic for the ambience and atmosphere generated by watching a well produced film on the big screen. It had always been my ambition to present a surf film in a way similar to how bands are presented so I made the UK premier of Surfers the Movie at Cornwall Coliseum with live band Wamma Jamma, and merchandising with T shirts, posters etc and guest appearances. We got an audience of just over a thousand but could have done with another one or two! The last film that we screened and toured with was Rolling Thunder with its environmental theme and naff acting but like all of the best surf films it had a great soundtrack – essential and inseperable from classics such as Free Ride, Morning of the Earth and Salt Water Wine - my three favourite films.

Surfers The Movie.

Where can people buy your films?
We still distribute surf films on DVD through the web-site www.surfingdvd.co.uk but as my son Mitch, who now runs the business, is not a surfer we tend to be specialising in the older classics rather than trying to keep up to speed with the latest releases.

Getting Wet 1976.

Are you still getting in the water?
I still surf but not as much as I used to - gone are the days when you knew every surfer in the country.

Finally - what’s next for John Adams?
I regularly play tennis and have taken up golf as well and still go skiing each winter – couldn’t get to grips with snowboards! AND I have three very nice grandchildren!

Thanks John.

Pictures from various sources.

SIREN CALL

2011-06-19T16:34:00.003+01:00

Bentley Rhythym Ace rocked the tent last Friday night!

They cranked up the siren and got funky in a field - fuggin ACE!

HARBOUR WALL

2011-06-17T09:28:00.003+01:00

Few waves peeling along the wall last night.

[click 2 c big]

RAINY SEASON

2011-06-10T10:40:00.001+01:00

I can't help but wonder if we now have an unofficial rainy season here in Kernow.

This is the fourth year in a row that Spring has delivered scorchio weather followed by mid-Summer rains.

BLUES

2011-06-07T16:22:00.001+01:00

How sweet does this look...

Found it on Tumblr - loads of good visuals on there.

GOLD

2011-05-27T09:22:00.007+01:00

Couple shots of yours truly enjoying the sunset recently - snapped by Andy Garner.

click to embiggen

THE GOOD OLD BADLANDS

2011-05-25T13:09:00.004+01:00

Had a quick surf in the Badlands last night.

Got a few rights into this corner...

... but you certainly don't see ships moored up here these days.

LESSON FROM THE TAO

2011-05-23T12:38:00.002+01:00

The Second Noble Truth.

"The second truth is that suffering is caused by craving and desire. We will suffer for example; if we do not get something we want, if we expect other people to conform to our expectations, etc, etc. In other words, getting what we want does not guarantee lasting happiness. Wanting can ultimately deprive us of contentment and happiness."

Last night I watched clouds scudding across the sky, pushed along by strong westerly winds. I felt frustrated that I hadn't been in for a surf that day and was unlikely to either as the wind was still blowing hard whilst the sun began to sink - no evening glass off for me then...

I try to take a philosophically relaxed attitude to surfing these days - the aim being to simply enjoy my moments in the sea wherever and whenever I can. I could quite easily become obsessed with wave-hunting etc, but would rather make the most of the life that surrounds me and not potentially let my desires turn to sorrows.

AIRSTREAMERS

2011-05-20T10:47:00.009+01:00

If you like Airstreams and that kind of stuff, there's a few quirky ones here..

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BDAY BUSH

2011-05-17T12:29:00.004+01:00

...

Every May over a couple of weeks, this bush in our front garden bursts into flower despite me totally neglecting it all year - what a top plant! The bloom coincides with the twins birthday so I always call it the Birthday Bush (not sure of its proper name - some kind of Azalea maybe..?)

VEEDUB

2011-05-16T10:51:00.000+01:00

Yep, we've finally done gone and bought a new van…

OH GWITH!

2011-05-06T12:28:00.000+01:00

STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO

2011-05-04T11:39:00.001+01:00

Another awesome pic snapped from CBI

CASUAL MOFO

2011-04-29T20:20:00.004+01:00

... stylin!

Grabbed this from LSoRo - lovely colour, great style, really liking the coolness, and definitely no window-winding necessary.

EVER FALLEN IN LOVE

2011-04-28T14:22:00.004+01:00

... with something again and again?

For various reasons I've missed a lot of the good run of swell we had recently - but I managed to get in for a late one last night. It was fairly slack and only 2ft on the sets, but I paddled down the beach and found a little bank that was peeling and surfed until the sun went down.

Fell in love with surfing yet again...

supPORT[RAIT] your local shaper

2011-04-21T14:30:00.004+01:00

Flicking through the latest issue of designweek... Lo and behold, there's Mr Fluid Juice himself - top shaper and all round good guy, Adrian Philips - moodily photographed by Peter Beavis.

SECRETS OF THE MASTER SHAPERS

2011-04-21T09:04:00.007+01:00

In the latest Surfer's Journal there is an excellent feature on Jim Phillips, master shaper/craftsman.

...

Could the double goggles be one of the secrets of the super shapers?

IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE BEACH TODAY…

2011-04-20T08:37:00.001+01:00

Watch your step!

2004

2011-04-19T09:04:00.001+01:00

Went on a little expedition to Northern Spain in 2004, found some beautiful setups. This was one of the more popular spots...

SO TRUE...

2011-04-18T08:55:00.001+01:00

SKATEBOARD KINGS 1978

2011-04-13T15:28:00.002+01:00

So good.

PIXELLATION

2011-04-11T14:37:00.008+01:00

Some digitals from the archivals...

home of morgawr.

tv remote for the short-sighted (or giant-fingered...)

the passmore edwards gothic repository of books.

i'm feeling horny.

the big-legged, small-headed footplant.

the skinny - goes fast.

man i'm tired.

IN 7EVEN YEARS...

2011-04-05T11:47:00.016+01:00

Just realised that The Beatles made all their albums (as a band) in just seven years. When you consider the impact, seven years is not a great deal of time.

// Please Please Me (1963)
// With The Beatles (1963)
// A Hard Day's Night (1964)
// Beatles for Sale (1964)
// Help! (1965)
// Rubber Soul (1965)
// Revolver (1966)
// Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
// The Beatles (aka the White Album) (1968)
// Yellow Submarine (1969)
// Abbey Road (1969)
// Let It Be (1970)

Please please me.

With the Beatles.

A hard day's night.

Beatles for sale.

Help!

Rubber Soul.

Revolver.

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

White album.

Yellow submarine.

Abbey Road.

Let it be.

On the other hand I started decorating the front room in 2003 and still haven't managed to finish it!

BOOKWORM

2011-04-04T12:04:00.003+01:00

Wow!

Insane digital image of a library in Prague that allows you to zoom in for incredible detail.

View and explore here

Found at GEF

SK8HAUS

2011-03-31T15:48:00.000+01:00

Indoor pool.

Tree ramp.

Keith Haring ramp.

Found here.

RHYTHM OF THE RAMP

2011-03-26T17:20:00.003Z

Ker-thunk... ker-thunk.

I was reminded of this quarter-pipe today by Milo.

Now, just seeing a picture of it again, I can clearly hear the sound it made as we bashed our way up and down it endlessly. Metal, just over 6ft high with a bit of vert, only about 6ft wide, topped by worn wooden coping and a 6 inch platform. At the foot of a slope, bolted to a railing opposite a flat paved bank. It was sketchy at best - and we loved it!

Spent so many hours here. Lots of good times, lots of good memories, met a lot of good friends here too. And made enough scar tissue to last a lifetime.

SUNSET @ THE LOCAL

2011-03-25T08:59:00.009Z

Nice evening for it...

Long lulls.

Here comes a set...

... followed by a party wave.

Golden moment.

Last orders.

S'CLEAN

2011-03-24T16:54:00.005Z

I mean it's been small but clean lately...

Apres-surf snappage: DL

STITCHED UP!

2011-03-23T16:21:00.000Z

Ok, so here we have quite a nice simple line drawing of a building...

But look closer to discover that it's actually been stitched!

...

....

See more examples of his infinite patience here.

DRUTH OLD SKOOL

2011-03-18T13:52:00.003Z

Went to the old Redruth School for lunch today.

School dinners would have been a lot cooler if the canteen had been anything like this...

GREENERS

2011-03-18T08:51:00.001Z

QUAKE

2011-03-13T19:38:00.003Z

Tokyo alert.

My good friend and fellow blogger shares a personal account from Tokyo, click here for full story.

LEVEN

2011-03-11T14:52:00.009Z

Popped down to Porthleven for a nose-around...

Harbour.

Flat. (The little wave here in the foreground is actually just on the East side of the harbour wall, with the infamous reef just visible in the background).

Doors.

Steps.

Signs.

Colours.

2DAY

2011-03-10T13:15:00.000Z

HIDE&SEEK

2011-03-07T16:08:00.000Z

BIRDSEYE

2011-03-05T22:08:00.000Z

ANCHORS

2011-02-25T15:32:00.002Z

From 'Chelsea Smile' by Bring me the Horizon - can't say I'm a big metalcore fan, but a good lyric is a good lyric...

HOT WIND

2011-02-16T21:18:00.001Z

TYPE[DRAWN]WRITTEN

2011-02-11T12:39:00.007Z

///

Keira Lyn

NOTABLOG

2011-02-10T16:01:00.002Z

Talkin' loud - sayin' nuthin.

MAELSTROM

2011-02-07T15:20:00.009Z

One of the earliest uses of the Scandinavian word maelström was by Edgar Allan Poe in his story "A Descent into the Maelström" in 1841, about the Moskstraumen, a powerful tidal current in the Lofoten Islands off the Norwegian coast.

The Corryvreckan is another well-known Maelstrom in Scotland.

One Spring morning a year or so ago, me and DL went out for a dawny on a dropping tide - there was a new chest high swell building with light cross-offshore breezes at one of our local spots. The usual paddle out was via a small stream in the corner of the beach. So we suited up and got in the water - just the two of us as the sky started to lighten.

Almost instantly I was rushed out the back on a speedy conveyor belt of moving water that dragged me away from the clean waves I had been aiming for. I found myself in a swirling, choppy, ripped up patch of water that was a lot further out than I wanted to be. It was literally a big circle of churning, boiling sea, and I was stuck in the middle of it! I'd surfed this beach many times and thought I knew most of its moods but was taken by surprise at how violent this particular rip was. I tried to focus and paddle across and away from the rip back to the relative calm that seemed only 20 metres away yet I was still going further out to sea in the opposite direction. A change of plan was needed so I steered off toward a bouncy, backwashy impact zone that would not normally be an option, but I wanted to get out of that rip before I ran out of gas. After another 15 minutes of sustained hard paddling I finally got away from the rip and across the dumping sandbank and decided to recoup back on the beach.

Back onshore I waited for DL, a strong paddler, who had also been caught in the same predicament and was making his way back to the beach.

"That was like a fuggin maelstrom out there!" I declared.

Not really understanding how it had been so ugly, because as we looked out on it now from the safety of the beach the rip had disappeared, and while I had been seemingly paddling for dear life the rip had faded away, the waves had cleaned up and a whole crew of surfers had arrived and were out having a whale of a time on the clean lefts.

The combination of a fresh pulse of swell meeting a quickly dropping tide above some particular bathymetry had produced 20 minutes of almost whirlpool-like conditions if you happened to have paddled out at exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.

Bad timing? Not really - I can't say I enjoyed it, but I can say I'm glad I experienced it.

TORTOISE

2011-02-04T09:28:00.002Z

millions now living will never die.

Dug out a couple of Tortoise CDs last night, cranked em up, turned the lights down low and dived deep into the soundwaves.

I'd forgotten just how good they sound.

Got to say thanks to my good friend Meany for turning me onto Tortoise (amongst others) all those years ago. He was a sort of musical mentor to me for a while when our paths first crossed.

TNT.

VIVIAN MAIER

2011-02-03T13:49:00.013Z

These Vivian Maier images are awesome for so many reasons.

Over 100,000 unpublished and many undeveloped negatives unearthed at a junk sale. Her personal life still a mystery. An archive of candid street photography going all the way back to the 1950s.

Those three sentences alone would be enough to get me interested.

But what really knocks me out is the quality of the work - the composition, the subtle details, the choice of subject, and just what a great eye she had. And don't forget that she was doing this day in and day out such a long time ago and for such a long timespan.

It's somewhat easier nowadays with a digi-camera to capture real life pics from the street, and then broadcast them via the internet, but I haven't come across many collections of images as good as this.

See more here.

Vivian Maier - Photography blog.

VIRTUALITY

2011-02-02T09:49:00.002Z

Now you can get really close to Vincent's Starry Night at the Museum of Modern Art in New York without having to leave your house. Thanks to this.

COMPASS

2011-01-31T10:01:00.003Z

Born and bred in the South West - that's where I got my bearings.

An affinity with South and West is something I've always taken for granted. Growing up in Cornwall, North and East were always 'away'. Therefore I felt totally aligned in that lower left quadrant of the compass. Used to knowing which way was which. Being able to orientate myself easily and quickly depending which body of water I was near (the distance between the North and South coast being only a few miles).

Going any further South or West wasn't really an option until I was older and had the means to do so. And even then my first independent forays away from home in my teens were to the similarly situated coastlines of South West France and South West Ireland.

Later in life I lived for ten years on the East coast of Australia. Although initially thrilled and often dazzled by the sun rising over the Pacific ocean in the mornings there was also something perplexing about being an East coaster. Sunset surfs just didn't feel the same with night already fallen out on the horizon while the sun slowly sank inland...

I no longer take being in the South West for granted as I strongly believe there is a form of calibration between our sense of belonging and the particular point on the compass to which we naturally feel aligned.

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

2011-01-28T13:47:00.000Z

SICK!

2011-01-25T10:05:00.002Z

Day off work! However I'm ill in bed. The mind wants to go out and do stuff, try to make the most of this little window of opportunity - but the body just ain't up to it today...

Our old pal Johnny 'Gomez' Wright used to say that you should always make the effort to go to work when you're feeling rough and then pull a sickie when it's pumping and go surfing. Much better time management.

Unfortunately that hasn't quite worked out for me today.

CHARLEY HARPER

2011-01-21T16:26:00.002Z

Digging Charley Harper.