Loss

When loss comes my way it normally takes me completely by surprise and flattens me, knocking the very essence I consider my soul out of me. It happens to us all, most commonly it takes the form of death. Loss is hard for some to talk about and leaves a void in its wake that is never filled, just buried somewhere, I've often thought that's what we call "experience".

 Anyway Loss has nothing to do with people but rather waves. Mexico is somewhere I have never visited to surf. The points of the north look pretty alluring, the beachies further south of Puerto Escondido and Pascales looking a bit too thumping, but it looks like  it has all the hallmark signs of a great surf trip destination and home for local surfers.

 What a shame it is then, that should I go to Mexico I will never to get surf Harry's Point. It looked like the kind of wave I'd love:

It was a right hand point in the warm with quality. I'll never get to go there because it passed away in 2005. It was put to sleep by Sempra Shell LNG who made it into a gas terminal . The real kicker is that it is debatble whether they actually owned the land in the first place, but that's Latin American Politics right?!?!

I can only imagine how local surfers felt watching as the trucks rolled in and filled her in:

There she went and now?

I can't imagine the state I could get into about someone doing this to my beloved G spot or Praa Sands. The places where we ride waves, make and meet friends, run away to, feel stoked, encounter dolphins and sharks, see sun rises and sun sets...you get the picture.

Save The Waves Coalition helped me regarding the changes to the wave "Herradura" just outside Lima in Peru. They do good work and they know they're stuff.

I learnt from them that if you are a surfer from:

1)  Bahia de Gijón, Spain,

 2) Bastion Point, Victoria, Australia,

3) Broadbench, United Kingdom,

4) Various places in Chile

5) La Boya, Dominican Republic,

 6) Los Cabos, Baja, Mexico, 

7) Playa Yankee, Nicaragua,

 8)  Rodiles, Austurias, Spain,

 9) San Mateo, Ecuador .

Then you are experiencing loss, you are losing waves now, today and tomorrow, whether its bulldozers of MNC's or mariners, Military access, dredgers etc... your G-spot is disappearing infront of your eyes, some may come back to you others will not.

Many more are in the waiting room not some distant time to be decided but next month, a couple of beaches are actually waiting for the bulldozers to be freed up from the surf they're destroying now. Save The Wave Coalition give support to breatheren and give us all a chance to stand together, their site is clear and interesting, to check it out click here.

 Despite the Germans trouncing of our football team the other day, they know about loss, pain and suffering, so my final thoughts on the issue I'm going to hand over to Pastor Niemoller who summed up collective action better than most, when testifying in Frankfurt in 1946, he gave the following address:

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist

.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Ladies and Gentlemen The Genius Of Dustin Humphrey

 I saw this work on the web on a Sunday evening half dreading the week ahead and was wondering who Dustin was going to be working with this week and thinking may be life could have been different and I could be parking a motorbike under pumping waves with an army of naked women...for the life of me I couldn't work out which decisions I needed to have made in my life so that our roles would reverse....one of a kind stuff.

Whaling

An International Whaling Agreement fell through this week. After two years of work to reduce the practice of whaling principally by Norway, Iceland and Japan: the process seems to have ground to a halt. Latin American delegates refused to accept Japan's rights to whale in the Antartic and Japan wouldn't budge. It seems as if the whaling countries thought the process was about stock management and everyone else was working on reduction and banning.

 The interesting story for me was that Japan were prepared to reduce their quota from 935 whales a year to 200 within 10 years, which unfortunately will now not happen as nothing was agreed. What is probably more revealing is that Japan sent their Deputy Agricultural Minister and New Zealand sent their former Prime Minister, kinda tells you were it stands on the pecking order of issues.

Bad news for this beautiful chappy who was hoping for better from humanity.

Dolphins..rock

In deepest darkest Penwith life is pretty good. Neptune's been kind to us, the sun is shining even if the wind is blowing and after my shark experience a few weeks ago, I was dealt the other hand. For about 20 minutes a couple of pods of dolphins put on a display whilst I was alone in the water, such a treat.

Most of the photos are by Heidi Row available at heidi.row@hotmail.co.uk

Shots from Cornwall, Spring 2010.

We had some pretty cosmic fog down at Mexico's, with some pumping surf that went from sunny to white out and back again very quickly. I love the body boarders position in this top shot, its Bodhi with the 50 year storm all over again.

All those that wonder are not lost.

Ginga Ninja back in the fold, Taff on the wall with The Stump, waiting for the tide before departing.

Secret spots are always tricky, especially when said spot is accessible from one very quiet and narrow back lane. I'm not sure people will tell me where any more are. I took Fred  with the longboard there after meeting him on the side of the road whilst putting my boards in the van.....I'd blab easily on the rack.....subtle as a brick, secret spot approach.

 Said Secret spot, bridge.

Buttercups at Porthcurno.

The Ginger Ninja back in the water after a five year hiatus.

The Worst Wipeout of 2009/10.

Which one is the worst wipeout? If you can't see the clip properly then click here.

1) Grant Baker
2) Shane Dorian
3) Dan Griffith
4) Ryan Hipwood
5) Brooke Phillips

 Make sure you keep an eye out for the second entries into the world of pain!

Have a vote on the side.

Shaping.

Kelly Slater won Bells in 1994 his board was 17 and a quarter inches wide......it was all about being narrow, heavily rockered and short. In fact you couldn't really get a board that was wider then 18 and three quarters wide. This killed the joy of surfing for many surfers I'm sure, and no one suffered more than the big guys. Boards were hard to come buy some combatants became seperatists and were lost to the Longboarders, other's took up goat boats and some the couch. Heavy times.

 Board shaping seems to be going through its own enlightenment after some pretty draconian years, as if the Virgin Queen herself had released the shaper from his planer and let the volume flow. No one is happier than the bigger guys out there. As I destroyed yet another surf magazine in toilet breaks at work, I could actually envisage myself riding most of the boards.

The left hand board is the Robber, a twinner (two big twin fins and a small pilot) and the right hand board the Dumpster Diver.

 Two events seem pivotal to me. Firstly the closing of Clark Foam the provider of over 80% of the world's blanks simply shut over night and also destroyed some of the most highly regarded templates. This led to epoxy, Firewires, Salmon Core, Surftecs, Resin8's and many more scrambling to fill the void in the market. Different properties led to new characteristics, paddling power, trim, movement of the wide point, gentler rockers, flex...the list goes on. Not only did the core materials begin to change but the way they were constucted and set up also changed. Parabolic stringers, the quad revolution etc.

Left:  A parabolic stringer round the edges believed to have increased flex properties.

Below is the board that Kelly Slater finished runner up at the Pipe Masters at in 2009, or rather the Backdoor fest. He was the only competitor to be riding a quad, a parabolic and was the only competitor going short and fat at a time when most were going longer and thinner. It worked well too.

The other pivotal event in surfboard design has been the approach taken by Pro surfers on the WCT, the use of the 6ft X 18 1/2, 2 1/2 give or take has dominated or strangled pro surfing since the early 1990's. It is only in the last 2 seasons that on occasion more free minded surfers like Dane Reynolds, Kelly Slater, and Rob Machado have used alternative boards to success. Dane Reynolds although famous for demolishing a french beach break on a spurned twin fin he found in a second hand rack,is now credited with starting a movement to shorter and fatter boards that are not fishes. The Dumpster Diver being his incarnation of the future of surfing, may be the most likely rebirth of a divine kind in my life, certainly the way he demolished snapper rocks on the gold coast opened a window previously painted shut. Rob Machado has more quirky boards up his sleeve than he has things living in his fro, I've always fancied a look around his board warehouse and Slater himself seems to have gone board tastic as he's the only guy on the World Tour who actually shapes boards he rides. While Taj Burrows rides the same board everywhere.

Left is some of Slater's quiver for Oz. The Asymmetric board on the far side is something else.

All this spells diversity for me and you, more choice, more options, more foam and more things to burn your hard earned wonger on. I'm packing a few thrusters still, but my sawn off quad fish is what's floating me around Cornwall at present. Things are getting completely out of handnot just with the SUP and Alaia brigade but the other day a guy drew his batman tail out of his car, it was actually a tail in the style of the batman logo......it'll be a while for them to catch on though. This enlightenment will only benefit the regular Joe are my own feelings and hopefully things like demo boards will become more common place.