My Great Granny once told me ‘Hard work pays off in the future, Laziness pays off now’ and after all these years I think I know what she meant. She also once said ‘Never trust people with big hands’ but that’s got nothing to do with what I’m gunna write in this blog but if you like the sound of the first saying read on.
So the New Wavelength surf magazine has hit the shelves and yet again I have a feature in it from a trip to Portugal. ‘How the hell can you have another feature in a surf mag yet you haven’t surfed in 3 months’ I hear you say, well I went nuts last winter and although I was injured a lot (knee scenario, pelvis situation and shoulder nightmare) whenever I wasn’t and where ever the swell was on, I was chasing it. Trying desperately to make the best of it and bag that gold I’m so aimlessly and pointlessly searching for just to give me that tiny bit of happiness I so wish to have in my life. I made a couple of hoax calls which can happen from time to time in surfing and also experienced a couple of faux pas which kind of got me down and it felt like I was being followed round by a massive grey rain cloud just above my head while everyone else was in glorious sunshine and wave selection bliss. But like Great Gran said ‘hard work pays off in the future’ and thankfully she was right. So check out the new WL and read how happy I was on the Portugal trip.
Photo Selway/wavelength
‘Rooooooooooooooney, Roooooooooooney’, I just love it when grown men chant footballers names, cracks me up. Personally I’m not much of a football fan; in fact I have no interest in it what so ever. Stopped playing when I was in the 3rd year at school, during a lunchtime kick around some little shit just came up to me and did a full on running boot into my left shin. ‘What the fuck was that for? You weren’t even going for the ball’ I shouted at him while rolling around on the floor in absolute agony. ‘Yeah I know but I just really wanted to kick someone’ was his reply and from this second I never set foot on a football pitch again and my interest in the game just dissipated into nothing.
But check the sheer joy and happiness on my face as I watched England play their game on Friday evening. This was slightly enhanced as I managed to win the best seats in the house which just so happened to be a hot tub situated just feet from the big screen. Within seconds of realising I had the winning ticket I was stripped off and in there shouting ‘Roooooooooney’ and ‘Come on England’ with the best of them.
Not sure who won the footy but someone did say to me on Saturday that they thought I’d had a better game than England, wasn’t 100% sure what that was supposed to mean and I sort of wished I’d paid more attention to the football so I could of given him some sort of meaningful informed reply, also I’m not too sure The Blue Groove staff would agree. Agh, full scale scenario of gigantic proportions, but look how happy I look.......’Rooooooooooooooooooooooney’. Can’t wait till the next game, its Thursday innit?
Thought I’d post this DonJoy Ad as unless you subscribe to Orthopaedic Product News, which is a magazine read by surgeons and other medical practitioners involved in orthopaedics you probably won’t see it. Pretty unlikely sponsor but when you have the sort of luck I do it’s a pretty dam good one and without their super light weight custom knee braces I wouldn’t have been able to surf last winter so for me it’s been essential.
There’s a few things I can tell you about this photo which may or may not interest you, it was taken one evening at a little beachie called Windmills by Selway/wavelength in West Australia: another thing would be that this is me doing a turn and although admittedly it isn’t a very good one it is a turn and it doesn’t happen very often. Secondly is that prior to this wave I had a full on freak out, I mean like a proper emotional surf breakdown. I’d spent nearly 30 mins at this beachie without even getting a wave, I cracked and paddled in a broken man, chucked my board in a massive bush and demanded we get the fuck outta here, preferably via somewhere I can sell all my boards so I have some cash before I embark on a 2 week bender in Perth and actually start having some fun. Surprisingly enough I didn’t get much resistance from Selway. ‘yeah whatever you want to do cotton but the lights still pretty sick and Jayce or Capel are still getting good waves’
I sat on the beach for a few minutes before losing the plot with the constant bombardment of fly’s landing on my face, It all seemed to be going from bad to worse and the realisation that maybe surfing wasn't that bad of an option I decided to try and retrieve my board from the bush I so stupidly launched it into a few minutes earlier, this wound me up even more because it was really deep and the bush had those horrible thorns on it which really ‘stuck in’ as I frolicked about searching for my board, maybe I slightly over reacted and I need to find a bit more patience.
I ended up going back in and getting a couple waves before dark, but the third thing was when going through the photos later on it was remarked that although this was a ‘nice’ photo it would never ever get used and probably should have just been deleted of the back of the camera like most of my shots that day.
I’m pretty happy it wasn’t.
Ok, so it’s a little late, 4 months to be exact but I’ve been busy, busy doing not a whole heap except ‘belittling’ painters and decorators via email which has taken up more time than I care to think and is worth. (Long story but hopefully a blog about this soon, just need to run it by the lawyers first.)
Times are tuff and the old credit crunch and global recession is hitting hard, even more so in the surfing industry. Surfers, filmers and photographers just haven’t got the extra cash to spend on trips and projects these days. For example before I headed to Ireland I flicked through my contact list to see if I could get someone to shoot ‘hey mate its cotty, how’s things? I’m off to Ireland to get some waves fancy coming along and shooting?’ ‘What’s the chart looking like and who else is going?’ ‘um not great and it’s just me’.......(silence) ‘hello’ ‘hello’ just more silence prevailed so I called back but it only rang once then went straight to answer phone?! Very strange I thought, This happened 2 or 3 times to various people before I rang Richard Gregory from Wave dreamer, ‘oh Andrew this sounds amazing’ he said in his enthusiastic manner that he always seems to have ‘I can lend you a camera’ ‘Richard you’re not quite getting it I’m a technical disaster waiting to happen, I’m looking for some company and how can I film myself surf?’
Anyway, off I headed on a solo mission to Ireland, loaded with boards, wetsuits and a GoPro camera, like the one man band I used to fascinate with when I was 7 who played outside dingles in Plymouth.
The reality of life reared its ugly head and I was dealt a shitty hand of 2ft dribble for 10 days, combined with camping in below minus temperatures and a near death experience on the Conner Pass in Dingle, sort of goes to show that Irelands not always death pits at Riley’s, perfect Aileen’s or monster Mullaghmore. So this is what 10 days of solitude and a few waves can look like, yes it’s another GoPro clip but I hope it’s not too boring!
Check out Paul and Barry Chuckle this morning in Croyde; think they were filming some sort of comedy sketch in the village ‘Chuckle brothers go surfing’ or something along those lines. 'To me, to you, to me, to you'!
Actually, if you haven't guessed already, its not the Chuckle Brothers but it is like something they'd do, and if i'm honest I haven’t got the foggiest who these guys are, apart from i guess there heading to surf the infamous Croyde low tide as they heard in The Thatch last night that there's some sick banks at the north end at the moment, and you can obviously tell by the little looks on their little faces they don’t know me. But I just couldn’t help but get a photo, seen quite a few of these little scenarios in the past week but this is the first time I’ve actually managed to capture and document one. Your probably thinking what the hell am I dribbling on about, but look closely at the photo again and tell me what’s wrong with it! You don’t have to be a surfer or even have studied physics at a degree level to work this one out. Yet why do you see this so often? Or is it a ‘logic’ thing going on here ‘well that’s how they’re supposed to go in the sea, so obviously that’s how they go on the roof rack’ This sort of thing goes in the same category as the Wetsuit Shopping situation that I mentioned a few weeks back, actually in fact the driver does look familiar, doesn’t he?
Hells bells this is summer and surfing in the UK and I freaking love it.
The surf is absolutely pumping today; anyway check my new leather jacket from Analog. I just got it in the post today, which helped take my mind off life and the simple fact that the surf is actually quite good. Thinking about starting the ‘Hell for leather’ gang back up, which was a gang I used to be in way back in 2004. I was the only member with a scooter but it didn’t seem to matter as it was more about boozing and leather jackets than bikes and engine oil. We used to meet on Sundays, all sporting leather jackets, no tops of course. We hung out in our local haunt and man fest that is Billy Budds and The Thatch, drank beer and just generally looked freaking cool in our leather jackets. Actually thinking back we must have all looked pretty gay but that didn’t seem to matter after a few beers, as day turned into night and our behaviour slowly descended.
Hmmmm, maybe i won’t start up the gang again......
