Flotsam

Found this boat in a field pretty close to a little bay on the last day I was in Ireland, the old boys I was hanging out with are obsessed with walking the coast looking for ‘flotsam’  Which basically means they walk along the shore line looking for wood, fishing boys, nets, rope and any other random junk that gets washed up on the shoreline. They collect it all, drag it back to the van and just hoard it, occasionally spending 5 minutes to knock up an odd fishing boy/rope/wood piece of art before discarding it and leaving it to roll around in the back of the van. You can’t knock it too much as they occasionally find some pretty cool stuff which can be interesting; it’s just an acquired taste I suppose. I don’t mind tagging along just not really into collecting all the ‘flotsam’ and dragging the shit miles back to the van but it is a good way to check out the coast line and scope out waves. When I came across this boat though they got pretty excited and I can pretty much guarantee if they could of dragged it off and fitted it in the back of the van they would of, luckily it was in a field and miles away. I did have to mention that although the boat was in no way sea worthy and looked as it had been there rotting for years, i was positive someone actaually owned it and it would be missed. Instead we just tried to work out how old it was and how many lobster’s it had probably caught which filled a good 10 minutes before going back to looking for flotsam again.

Bad dreams

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you’re getting chased by something or someone horrible and scary and can’t get away, then you turn down a dead end and have no choice but to face them. Then you suddenly wake up in a cold sweat and panic screaming out in terror? Nah neither have I, but I was just curious.
This is just a little clip of me doing a pick up for Gmac at Nazare last week, like I said in a previous post this place is pretty gnarly with heaps of aerated foam on the inside which can be a nightmare when driving the ski, that combined with the fact that 6ft walls of white water wash up the steep beach so if you don’t find a gap pretty quick you’re up the beach high and dry. Luckily in this little clip I find one just meters from the sand.

Clean socks

I just have to have a clean pair of socks every day, if I don’t I just feel dirty. Odd really as I haven’t shaved in well over a month and since I’ve been on my little mission, with a brief visit to Nazare in Portugal and now in rural Ireland with the old boys and bear the dog my personal hygiene hasn’t been top notch so to speak, you could pretty much say my clothes could stand up and walk off by themselves. But who’ve I got to impress? haven’t really be socializing with any normal folk the past few days and we have been going in the sea every day which kind of counts as a shower, well apart from the bit of having to put my wetsuit on which coincidently stinks of cats piss as it to hasn’t been cleaned in some time.
Home next week as Barry the builder from Braunton keeps leaving messages on my phone, something about radiators need moving in the front room and I’m holding everyone up, again. God I hate plumbing.

Calculated Crazy

Plumbed my face off last week and hated every second of it, if you could have heard the involuntary groaning noises, agh. So the plan was to give myself a well earned holiday and take a little break with the old boys, Skelly, Stenno, Bro and Bear the dog in Ireland surfing fun waves on silly boards and generally just being old and odd.
The only odd thing that happened was 6 hours into it and half way across the Irish channel I got a call which lasted about 10 seconds and consisted of about only 10 words, ‘it’s on tomorrow’ ‘can you make it’ ‘that’s a green light then’ ‘go go go’ before I knew it I was dropped at a train station and making my way to Dublin airport for my flight to Portugal.
It wasn’t completely out of the blue as we had been speaking on email for a few weeks but I never thought it would actually happen as the Atlantic can be a pretty fickle place and everyone I spoke to about it said I’d be crazy to even consider going there on a big swell, the place is called Nazare and you can read their blog HERE about what Garrett’s been up to there over the past month.
An amazing couple days which is hard to put into words and you really have to see with your own eyes to believe. My take on it is calculated crazy and that is what I sort of took from Garrett who is absolutely frothing on this place, from surfing the waves to actually having to rescue someone on a ski there has to be 100% calculated. Just check Garrett even putting the ski’s in the water on the first day, I’d say he’s pretty calculated...............crazy.
Would like to thank everyone involved for inviting myself and Al down and making us feel so welcome, hopefully be seeing you down there again soon.

Braunton Man catches record breaking fish.

You seen the size of that fish on the back of the North Devon Journal? Everyone’s talking about it and its all I’ve heard from my mates this week, it’s a record breaker apparently and matey boy from Braunton caught it off Ilfracombe. Sort of puts things in perspective really, while I shoulder hopped on a wave in Ireland getting me a cover shot on the Irish Times, Wavelength Surf mag (which is out next wednesday/thursday) plus getting plastered all over the 2 biggest surfing websites in the world, you could say things were really kicking off with all the hype involved and I was more than happy to enjoy the ride and savour every second.
Although that wave was pretty big the reality is there’s just no comparison to that massive fish, brilliant isn’t it. Rob Tibbles gave me a great little write up in the surfing section though which I was stoked about and you can check it out here.

But check the size of that fecking fish on the back page, Christ!

first few waves in over 6 months.

Cotty's knee meets hurricane Igor from wavedreamer on Vimeo.

Remember when I was in the depths of despair, girlfriend leaving me, massive knee operation, got told I wouldn’t be able to surf for 9 months. Went slightly insane and only talked to a cuddly toy I called ‘Big bird’ for a solid 8 weeks, had huge internet binges and was generally slightly crazy.
All because I couldn’t surf, well 6 months later despite advice I got back in the sea. Here are my first few waves.

Prowlers Today

Agh involuntary groaning noises , I've been so good about this waiting to surf big waves thing but today I crumbled. Made a quick 24 hour dash to Ireland, with huge swell and rare winds forecasted there was no way I was gunna stay in Devon. With chart like that and talk of new spots on the cards I was pretty amped. All the boys got bombs Al, Richie, Paul, Barry and Jerome with Aaron Pierce, Joe Kennedy and Conn Osborne shooting from the boat. The spots named Prowlers and the guys have had there eye on it for some time, you can pretty much say we scored, this was my last wave of the day. May not tell my physio or mention it to Andy the knee surgeon from London at the end of the month but you could say i'm I'm pretty stoked.
Photo:Conn Osborne www.surfingphotography.com

Hot London

Been doing this Bikram yoga last weekend, it’s amazing. For those you have no idea what I’m banging on about or a clue what it is, basically it’s like doing Yoga in a sauna and this guy Bikram patented it along with a few moves and now charges people a shit load of money to copy him. Clever flexible hippy I say and also it’s a surprisingly hectic workout that absolutely roots you.
Personally I’m not much of a yoga fan and that sort of thing has never floated my boat but hanging out semi naked in a hot room mainly full of woman doing funny stretches and poses in front of a mirror can be pretty fun. There was one little scenario on the second session with the old woman in front, who happened to be wearing baggy shorts, when doing this particular pose was pretty much letting it all hang out so to speak. Believe me it wasn’t a pretty sight but it was one of those situations where even though you know you shouldn’t I just couldn’t help but look. I was going to say something like ‘excuse me I can see your fanny’ or maybe just have a quite word in her ear to save the next poor person who happens to be stood behind her from permanent mental scarring as she seemed to know what she was doing so she obviously was a regular. But I didn’t seem to find the appropriate time, not that that’s ever stopped me before. The only drawback to this hot Bikram yoga thing is that you have to drive all the way to hot London to do the bloody stuff which does seem quite excessive. But that’s just life sometimes.