INTERVIEW - TOM KAY

Tom Kay.

Tom Kay is the founder and MD of Finisterre, an award winning ethical outdoor clothing company. Rapidly gaining recognition for creating innovative fabric technologies and cutting edge design along with transparent environmental stewardship. Based on the cliffs of St. Agnes, Cornwall, managing to combine hard work with a passion for his products whilst still writing the twice weekly Finisterre surf forecast and getting in the sea. I thought I'd try and get a bit of insight into what makes Tom tick...

How and when did you first start surfing?

I actually started surfing when I was about 16, but before that had massively been into windsurfing and I’ve always sailed.

Do you remember your first green wave?

Absolutely. I kind of took off and half swung down the face – just managing not to fall off – and then there was this wall of water extending away from me. I was probably only up for a few seconds, but it felt likes ages.

Is it possible to say what it is about surfing that so inspired you?

I’ve always done things on/around the sea and so it fitted into everything that I was familiar with in that environment. It also came at a time in my life where I was pretty hungry just to be in all the time and as we all know just out the back is often the best place there is.

What kind of board do you ride?

All sorts – I try and get in whenever I can (whatever it’s like) and conditions here are not always epic, so you have to get the right board for the day. With this in mind I ride a mix of everything from longboards, quads etc. A good friend of mine, Neil Erskine, has re-affirmed this philosophy to me many times.

Carlos Burle, Finisterre Ambassador at G Spot, Ireland.

GUD 1

The Slide Projector.

I fuggin love this board! Spent ages working out the shape, dims etc... Got Jolly Roger to shape it up and now almost a year later I'm even happier with it than ever. It's proving to be just spot on for the waves I ride and the way I ride em.

D caught a few on it the other day and also gave it the big thumbs up (always cool to get some peer approval).

WHAT IS SURFING?

Surfing is pointless - that is the point...

Strip away the physical endeavour, the encounter with the elements, the enjoyment of nature, the beauty of the sea and the challenge to self. What are you left with? Ultimately it is the act of trying to ride a wave whilst balanced on a reinforced flotation device with no other purpose than that. A beautifully pointless and selfish pastime, which has always been part of its great appeal to me.

Poignantly, the single, most important aspect of surfing is also elusive. Waves appear, then disappear. For ever. And to add to the mystique; each wave is unique, a one-off, never to be repeated. Ever. Climb a mountain and it's still there, you can climb it again. Others can do the same. A wave comes, a wave goes. No one will ever ride that wave again. It remains only in your head. Yes, in this age of digital documentation, there may be images, but no one else can ever actually experience it again. It's yours alone.

As surfing becomes more popular, more accessible and more mainstream. As the surf industry tries to contain, package and quantify it I relish the underlying irony that at its heart surfing will forever remain pointless - just someone trying to stand up on a wave for a few seconds.

Painting by Andrew Garner

FINLESS

Derek Hynd - all over it.

This clip has been around a while, but I just wanted to post it up again here cuz it's mental, original, different.

HELLBILLY

HELLBILLY - an intriguing mashup of off-beat travel and vintage bike & car documentation.







Good work Gav.

TOG GO BOG E

Take it easy.

The Irish equivalent of 'No worries' - sometimes also literally translated as 'Take it softly'. A very cool phrase I think.

T-shirt from the Peoples Republic of Cork - Thanks Daragh.

BOVINE BEACH

Moo.

A simple beach scene, but a closer look reveals a herd of young bovine beach-goers cooling off in the afternoon heat at the weekend.
(Low-quality phone pic.)

DREAMERS

Gene Wilder, deviantly perfect as Willy Wonka.

In the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Wonka states that "The snozberries taste like snozberries", Veruca Salt responds in an arrogant tone, "Snozberries? Who ever heard of a snozberry?". Willy Wonka grabs her by the mouth and replies, "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."

I've always loved this quote and (shamefully) only recently discovered that they are the first two lines of Ode, part of a poem by Arthur O'Shaughnessy. Here's the first verse:

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

Arthur O'Shaughnessy - 1874

PIXELS

A few from the pixel archive.

Swim.

Chairs.

Dog.

Huts.

Seats.

Shoes.

Sox.

Sundowner.

I SURF, BUT I'M NOT A SURFER

All hail skateboarding.

I have a confession; I've hardly been skateboarding at all lately.

Any free time I get nowadays I try to spend at the beach catching waves, rather than grinding at the local bowl. And the balance has inevitably been tipping that way for the last 10 years or so. But after reading a great post by foulweather recently I had an epiphany...

For me, skateboarding is the source. Discovering skateboarding was a defining point in my life. From that day on I slowly but steadily became a skateboarder.

Of-course, I understand that skateboarding originally evolved from surfing and not the other way around, but personally, it was the skateboard that set me free, that enabled flight, that taught me lessons, that challenged me to push myself and rewarded my efforts.

Sure, growing up in Kernow I knew about surfing and had even dabbled a bit, but it was the skateboard that truly and wholly captured my imagination. And it was skateboarding that provided me with a sense of identity and a set of life-long friends. Funnily enough many of those same friends are now very good at surfing and we still share the stoke, albeit in the water these days.

Skateboarding informed many of my life choices too. When I decided to relocate to a city I chose one with a healthy skate scene. My career path veered into the skateboard industry for a while. The people I gravitated toward and even the bands I listened to were often influenced by skate culture. I wasn't intolerant of other influences and I've always been interested in other realms of music, art & culture. But my roots, if you like, are very firmly embedded in skateboarding.

So despite being a committed non-conformist with a reluctance to join anybody else's club or be stereotyped. I have to admit that there is one label I'd be happy to accept - the one that says "I'm a skater - (who also surfs)".

SLEEVED

Sleeveface.

MISTY SUN

Last night the sun had a fight with the mist.

COLOUR BLIND

Here's a colour blind chart I made earlier (probably not very useful - see below).

I'm actually a little bit colour blind. I've had to finally accept, after years of frustrating and often bewildering debates, that yes I was probably wrong all the time and that I have colour confusion in the blue/green realm.

(ADJ-NOUN) ANIMALS

Band names made up from an Adjective plus an Animal Name (in that sequence). I'm sure there are many more, plus those constructed the other way around such as Wolfmother etc, but these are a few I like.

Sparklehorse (RIP Mark Linkous).

Arctic Monkeys.

Fleet Foxes.

Howlin Wolf.

Longpigs.

Yardbirds (like the typography).

Modest Mouse.

RAIN

Good to see the rain again.

PINING FOR THE FJORDS

Norwegian blue?

I have no idea... your guess is as good as anyones.

¡HOLA

Someone in Chile.

Looks like somebody from San Miguel, Chile visited kernowkalling. Well I hope they enjoyed it, maybe it was by accident, possibly a digital ghost from the ether, or perhaps a new friend from the blogosphere...

FADED GLOVE

Metaphorical.

Foxgloves have always been a favourite of mine - their appearance in early June a sure sign that summer is on its way.

I came across this one, faded but not jaded by the passage of time...

IF IT WAS YOUR HOME

Shockingly direct way to visualise the extent of the Gulf oil spill.

Click here to find out how your home would be effected by typing in your location.

SUNBURST

Last drop of sun.

Went to the beach last night while the rest of the universe watched the footy. Tiny little waves - hardly worth going in, but then Jenny turned up and the wind dropped to nothing, so we went for a splash. The sun finally burst through the clouds just after I got out of the water.

RUB DOWN

I used to use Letraset a lot.

Custom fin graphics anyone? Something along these lines would suit me...

ROCKFACE

This one's for the Druth Boyz.

They know where it's to...

BURNT

July in Kernow is often an odd summery mix of burnt dry yellows and dusty greens.

DS

Just felt like making some shading.

FUN-TO-MENTAL

Last Saturday night was fun - super clean, 3ft glassy swell, just a handful of friendly faces in the water and peeling waves until dusk.

More of the same in the morn methinks...

Last Sunday morning was mental - head high, close period swell, onshore, rippy, choppy and dumping heavily.

What a difference a day makes.

HANDWRITTEN

I can't resist a handwritten sign - just a shame so many of them are prohibitive, I guess that's the whole point. I'll try and find some more positive ones...

TERRY'S DIARY

Every now and then I treat myself to the perfect visual cacophony that is Terry Richardson's Diary - so good!