Japan.

Everyday I lived in Japan I felt I got to know one thing about it and I discovered many more things I had no clue about.

 I left after 2 years more intellectually stimulated than at any other point in my life and yet was sure I knew far less than at any point prviously.

 So with recent events in Japan I have had some memories re awaken ......  the music, the weird bikes and the whole off beat just struck a certain chord with me.


Hayaku: A Time Lapse Journey Through Japan from Brad Kremer on Vimeo.


I found this short film was made by a guy who seems to have shot around the area I used too. Amazing work.

Morocco Numero tres. Safi.

in wasn't quite sure what to expect as we crawled along to Safi. I'd heard so much and seen so little that it was hard to conjure an image. A reverse Piplinesque wave with hints of Mundaka drove fear into my heart.

Safi itself seems like an okay place to spend time though and if you didn't concentrate too hard on the industrial plant at the south end, it was a pretty location. The local lads in the car park seemed pretty happy to chat and pointed us in the direction of other waves which would handle the higher tide.

The pictures here were the last ones of the day and it was all over 3.5 hours after low because the tide simply filled it in. It was probably shoulder to head high and at that sort of size looked super fun. It looked like every wave barrelled on down the line and I can imagine some pretty sweet memories. The guys there said it's a different beast at size and I found that very easy to believe.

The wave like most the points we encountered on this trip (north of the Taghazoute spots) broke in very distinct sections that didn't link. This last shot is the end section which seemed pretty friendly and would take a little bit more of the tide though it was smaller in size than up the point. With a set every 15 minutes and 7 guys out, we settled for a chat in the car park.

I'd like to go back and get a few waves in this sort of size range myself. It takes a fair bit of size just to get this result, so I can imagine the hell men don't get to saitiate their desires too often.

Inkawaves Go Pro

Peruvian resident (inkawaves) Mr T Wade of Californian descent very kindly sent me his Go Pro about a year ago. Since that time I have taken it, free diving, spear fishing, surfing and flowriding. I have never managed to master a device that has two buttons which makes me quite frustrated. it is bad enough having a Go Pro on your board, it is even worse when it just doesn't work. On my recent trip I was riding a quad for 5 sessions straight as I was getting the best tubes of my life. I didn't use lithium batteries I just went with normal ones, they last less than 5 seconds. I lost patience with the Go Pro.

 Chav is an IT nerd who has to be logged on at all times type. We got out his hair dryer ( I know, sad isn't it) and removed the pad from my board and I let him "borrow it for a bit".

 Within days the photos were arriving thick and fast of Chav.........I was happy it was forefilling its potential but also slighly peaved that I couldn't get those tube shots, so here we have Chav in action on Jacks Beach, Bar Bouzza, Morocco.

In England we sometimes urinate in our suits in winter to warm our extremities, Moroccon belly getting to Chav.

What I can only assume is getting rid of the smell.

The bidet. I would have wanted the jet the other way, taking the said material away from my body.....still it's not for us to judge.



Casablanca. Morocco Part deux.

"Surfers travel the world" now that's not really true is it, I've been to coastal Peru with a group of surfers who didn't want to go to Chan Chan, one of the world's greatest archeological sites, some 5 minutes drive down the road  because they wanted to keep their eyes on the point..... .bearing in mind we'd surfed everyday for 2 weeks and were walking like Quasimodo it seemed a little excessive.

Morocco seems to offer a bit of that mentality. Surfers go to Taghazoute or Safi, unless they are doing a van trip the length of the country, where they end up in Taghazoute and tell people about uncrowded breaks and interesting times they had "Up North", whilst somehow deciding to leave such places behind. This was how my previous experiences of Morocco have gone.

Chav was my big hope in life. He was supposed to go get a job in an international school by awesome waves and then accomodate his mates in style whilst they gorged themselves on his home breaks. He started off in Taiwan for 3 years...loser! A swell record worse than blighty and pitiful oceanic force didn't lead to many visits from waterman friends.

 Finally Chav has come good and despite his achilles heal  for being periodically unable to surf due to large amounts of fine and cheap inhalable vegitation, he has done one for the boys. He's got himself a beach pad on Jack's beach outside Casablanca. Yes the school may be as good as a jonny with two holes in it (condom for foreigners) but ....it's all good for his mates who get picked up in a well maintained 4WD and only have to put up with constant moaning for a few days at a time.

Casablanca has one hell of a mosque in it, I've forgotten its name because I went surfing instead of the mosque...but my bird loved it.

I can't make out the moroccan world, was that camel head supposed to be there? or were they trying to pass it off as something....nice....with corriander stuffed in its gob?....tasted good though. I had the fillets in a burger. The old camels taste better than they smell for sure.

If England is "a nation of shop keepers" (this view was uttered by Napolean)  then Morocco is "the land of artisans" (this view was first proposed by yours truly), The tile work, carpentry, metal work and weaving is really quite something. In fact a great trip would be a van trip from Europe and then fill up with swag on the way home.

This is  a Hamman reserved for Allah.....after having to wear a paper G string in one with Chav whilst getting lightly beaten by a clearly intimidated Arab girl, I have concluded that more Hammams should be reserved for deities.

The saddest of times.

Spinalsurfer and everyone he's been around in the last 24 hours have been deeply moved by the events in Japan. It is hard to put into words the feelings conjured by mother natures most violent of acts.

The footage of cars trying to escape the wave and the enormity of it, left myself and my geography class simply staring, mouths open and silent. Huge hugs to Floyd, Sugiko, Usueke, Yamamoto san and the Onishi crew. 

Great waves with no names

I've just returned from Morocco having visited Chav and Chavetta, and of that there will be more to say, but.......

We did score a great right hand point without a name not to be found on any surf guide we used.

It was a great wave or rather a series of waves that peaked and troughed down the point which ran for several miles. There is no real settlement there and if it hadn't been for Chav's rather well suited mobile we would have had to walk for many a mile.

Coming from Cornwall it was so refreshing to stumble upon a class act that had slipped under the radar. In Cornwall a secret spot exists because of one of two factors;   firstly it's a very rare event with a set of conditions that rarely occur so no one is looking there in the first place or secondly it just isn't that good. I'm not claiming this is a bona fide secret spot, rather in a coastline with literally hundreds of waves and not many settlements it's just one of many.

Waves that barrel to perfection and make your heart sling at night are cherished and to us it was a great period of 48 hours of getting our fair share, in warm water with the sun out and a few hardy types knocking about.

Shame the access wasn't remote enough to leave our camera in the cave or wasn't popular enough to be able to leave it with someone. I had yet another Go Pro disaster so I  lent it to Chav for a bit to get it wired.

More to follow on the Moroccan trip in the coming days for sure.