Sam Bleakley is a multiple British and European surfing champion, has a Masters in Geography from Cambridge and competed on the Oxbow WLT for ten years. He is a regular contributor to magazines and publications all over the world and has recently published his first book, 'Surfing Brilliant Corners' - a jazz-inspired account of a decade of extreme global surf travel. He loves hanging out at home in Sennen, West Cornwall with his family and has created a lifestyle that allows him to combine his passion for surfing remote coastlines with freelance writing. He was kind enough to share some insights into what keeps him stoked...When and where did you start surfing?I started surfing aged 5 at Gwenver thanks to my Dad - Alan ‘Fuz’ Bleakley. He also grew up in Cornwall. There’s a classic story behind his first board - In the early ‘60s there was just a small crew of visiting lifeguards (from Australia) and local surfers. My granddad (Jock) was a fisherman and ran a hotel with a popular bar where the visiting lifeguards used to drink late into the night and play poker. ‘Phantom,’ one of the more colourful Australian lifeguards, was losing heavily to Jock. Phantom did not have the money to pay the debt. Instead, he offered Jock a 9’ 8” surfboard recently shaped by Bob Head (later forming Bilbo with Bill Bailey). Jock knew that his son (my dad) was keen to get into surfing, which had just established itself amongst a young crew locally. Jock hid the surfboard, and gave it to his son for his 15th birthday. My dad pooled resources with his schoolmate, who had a sleeveless diver’s wetsuit top with a beaver tail. They took turns surfing in frigid February conditions.
Dad eventually moved to west Penwith, and as I grew up many years later our family were always close to the beach. So it was only natural that I started surfing with my sisters in the very early 1980s, mostly at Gwenver in the summer and Perranuthnoe in the wintertime.
Can you remember your first green wave?Yeah, I remember it clearly. It was actually in San Onofre, California. We spent 1987/88 in the USA because my dad did a University lecturing work exchange. We were based in Virginia on the east coast, but spent the summer visiting friends in California. I was eight years old and had only ever surfed with my dad pushing me into the waves. At San O, I went solo, paddling out beyond the whitewater. Fellow Cornishman and close family friend, Paul Holmes, had loaned me a 6’ 0” channel-bottomed five-finned board shaped by Hawaiian Brian Bulkley. To me, a gangly kid, it was perfectly crafted and totally ‘magic’. Paul was the then editor of Surfer magazine. He had an injured shoulder from a trip to Bali, and watched from the beach. Outback I remember the pungent smell of kelp and the local pelicans. I stroked into the first set wave alone. It turned green, peaked, and as it broke I took off, angled and found trim. I rode its entire length, locked in the pocket. That wave was a defining moment. Paul gave me the board and I took it home to Cornwall in ‘88. It set me up for life.
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