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| A festive pint in the Ship Inn, Mousehole... |
Monday, 26 December 2011
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Thursday, 15 December 2011
EARLY SURF WRITING
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.
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| Click to embiggen... |
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Monday, 5 December 2011
Thursday, 24 November 2011
ROADRIDERS
| Road Rider 4 |
Yep, it's Neil Blender, Adrian Demain, Doug 'Pineapple' Saladino and Hagop riffing!
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| And how about these Blender designed boardshorts for Vans... |
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| Blender inverted. |
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Friday, 18 November 2011
LOVE - FIFTYFIFTY
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| More than meets the eye. |
Quirky photos from Frank Kunert - with a 'little' bit more going on than it seems at first glance.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Sunday, 13 November 2011
JOURNEYS
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| /// |
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.
Saturday, 12 November 2011
TFI
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| 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...)
Sunday, 6 November 2011
S COAST SILVER
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| Got some South Coast action this weekend - there's something really satisfying about surfing S Coast. |
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Sunday, 23 October 2011
BLU @ GWITH
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| Watched a few heats of the BLU Sunset Surf Classic from the cliff on Saturday. |
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| There was some corduroy for the event. |
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| Nellie decided the approaching collie was much more interesting than watching Ben Skinner in the final. |
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Monday, 17 October 2011
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Monday, 10 October 2011
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Friday, 23 September 2011
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
OLDEN DAYS
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?
Anyone recognise this place?
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| 1890. Fishing boats pulled up on the sand & shorefront gardens. |
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| 1893. Distinctive cliff-line hasn't changed (but skyline has). |
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| 1935. This'll give it away... |
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| 1960. Daytrips to the seaside. |
Monday, 19 September 2011
FALLING LEAVES
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| 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.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
FINLESS WONDERINGS
| 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, 11 September 2011
SUNDAY ROAST
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| Swell wrapping around the headland. |
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| ... and still working through the high tide. |
ps: UK Open Bodysurfing comp was on & folk were bodysurfing 6-8ft!
Friday, 2 September 2011
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
END OF THE ROAD
|
| 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...
Friday, 19 August 2011
Thursday, 18 August 2011
CROWDED SEA
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| 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!
Friday, 12 August 2011
SOUP KITCHEN
|
| 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...
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Monday, 25 July 2011
THROWN IN THE TOWEL
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| . |
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.
Sunday, 24 July 2011
BELOVED
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| 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.
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| 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.
Friday, 22 July 2011
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Monday, 18 July 2011
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