shaky windows

It’s kind of hard to sleep when all the doors and windows in the house are shaking; it took me a few minutes to work it out, as outside there wasn’t a breath of wind. The strange thing was it was incessant, not just a one off rattle or shake. A continuous noise, a constant reminder that in the morning I would possibly see the biggest waves I’ve ever seen. Bizarrely though I slept really well.
With a small window of opportunity everything was pretty much prepped days in advance, what boards were working, safety, flotation, all we had to do was put the skis in the water and head out. We’ve surfed here so many times now it was just another day. As we left the harbour at first light and my first glimpse of the waves the reality hit, it was huge. At first I wasn’t even sure about surfing; my mission was to put Garrett on the biggest wave possible.
Some opportunities only come once and when I had a chance to grab the rope I wasn’t going to let it pass, I’ve been wanting this so much for years and I feel truly lucky to be in this situation. The waves were dangerous, giant, fast and incredibly hard to read, I didn’t want to make any mistakes or take any silly risks but I also wanted to try and get to the bottom of one of these waves and try and actually surf it (which is surprisingly hard to do believe it or not,) rather than just hop down the shoulder.
I got a couple fun ones like this shot from Jose Pinto above. Thanks to Garrett for the tow and inspiration, Hugo Vau who drove safety and all the crew I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with and made me feel so welcome.
Thank you Nazare, you have the biggest, scariest most beautiful waves I’ve ever seen.

Beach break barrels

How much fun are head high beach break barrels, it’s been so long I’d pretty much forgotten. It’s not like we don’t have good beach break waves at home because we do its just never that good for that long and its usually really really busy.
So after a couple weeks of being in Nazare, going over the falls, snapping boards and falling off a lot I managed to get my shit together and hook up a few times with water photographer Helio. We didn’t get any gold so to speak but just had a lot of fun.

Does anyone even read blogs anymore....

Does anyone even read these old school blogs anymore or is it just me and the fact that I haven’t written anything for months. It’s not that I haven’t been surfing or though to be honest I haven’t surfed anything to write about over summer apart from the obvious, it’s just trying to find the time.
The good news is over the next 6 months I intend on having a lot more time, not just to write blogs that no one reads on the internet. But time to travel and surf some of the biggest, heaviest waves I can possibly find across Europe. I’m currently warming up in Portugal and have already scared myself senseless in the shore break at Nazare yesterday, I seem to forget how heavy and deadly that place is every year or maybe it’s just my brain trying to block it out.
So here’s to the North Atlantic winter, let's hope she’s a good one.

Winter Retrospective

Atlantic Winter Retrospective from Mikey @ Show 'n Tell Media on Vimeo.

‘There will always be another big swell’ is what I tell myself when I miss big waves the same as I tell myself ‘you can’t be everywhere at once’ when I make a bad call concluding in me missing the best or biggest waves. I find myself getting so wrapped up and focused on the Atlantic winter swells I can’t see the wood for the trees so to speak, I need and want to make the most of every swell as I won’t have the luxury of jetting half way across the world in the summer to get my fix. It doesn’t help living in Devon either, because there’s definitely no big waves here so it’s great to leave but always greater to come home to my family.
So this is my Atlantic winter retrospective and a few of the waves I surfed from a few key sessions. It was a pretty epic winter for me and the first real time I’ve spent chasing big swells out of Ireland with a lot of time put in at Nazare, a session at Belharra as well as the old faithful Mullaghmore and a big wave paddle comp at Punta Galea in the Basque Country. Hope you like it.

Postcard from Nazare

Dear Katie,
As you can see Al and myself are having a lovely time on the beach watching the waves and looking for the jet ski even though the sun isn’t shining. Things haven’t gone quite to plan since I left home but we seem to be dealing with whatever comes our way, as you do.
However it was quite stress full getting here due to a small scenario of getting the dates wrong when I booked my plane tickets but after a small panic attack at the Easy Jet desk at Gatwick as they insisted the flight to Lisbon was full, I managed to buy a last minute ticket online. Isn’t the internet just brilliant sometimes.
Being really well looked after by the Nazare Qualifica crew here as usual and Celeste has been cooking us up some treats and the Policia Maritima have even requested to see us tomorrow morning, which is something to look forward too. Maybe they want an autograph of some kind?
Forgot to mention earlier but I can’t seem to find a flight home tomorrow as they are all fully booked back to London so will possibly have to fly back via Dublin but I promise to try and make it back for Monday and the meeting with the bank manager. Hopefully on the way back we’ll crack the windscreen on the hire car and have to pay the excess, get robbed at the Aer Lingus check in desk because our board bags are over 15kg then when I’m teetering on the edge of completely losing it, as I’m going through security I’ll get loads of hassle about the diving weight in my hand luggage and they’ll insist even though it’s not a sharp or a liquid and I’ve travelled with it in my hand luggage for the past 4 years it’s not allowed on the plane so I have to throw it away.
Can’t wait to see you all.
Love
Andrew xxxxxx

Mission on.

I’m on a bit of a personal mission at the moment so when a low the size of North America filled the Atlantic all I really wanted to do was surf the biggest waves there was on offer.
As ever it turned into a bit of a scenario, loads of travelling and more driving than once thought humanly possible but a last minute decision left me driving through Portugal and Spain with Eric Ribiere to get to France where the plan was to paddle Belharra, which is a spot 2km out to sea and a world famous big wave spot.
I didn’t really know what to expect although of course I’ve seen videos and photos of the place but it’s usually known as a tow spot, so paddling around out to sea and trying to get yourself in the spot was definitely going to be testing.
The long and short of it I ended up getting a few on the head but I also managed to get myself under this, that’s me on the left and Nathan Fletcher on the right, it’s a pretty bumpy fat wave but a really good experience and I hope to be down there next time it breaks. Thanks to Eric for lending me a board big enough and Alex Laurel for the ski ride out there. I got the photo from Timo Jarvinens facebook page.

Romance.

Got married the other week, what an amazing day of emotions and joy shared with our nearest and dearest and now we’re on our honeymoon. As a proper romantic and all that I took my lovely wife and 2 gorgeous children to Portugal to watch me surfing, you know team Cotton. They’re like my travelling fan club. I’ve made them up banners, flags and even a cardboard cut out of my face so when I go surfing they all stand on the beach and cheer me on, this can be a little embarrassing at times but that’s life plus it makes me feel great and isn’t that what life’s all about.
Although some of the above is in jest surfing really does make me happy and it feels so good to be back surfing some good waves again and to have team Cotton joining me and cheering me on.
So at this point you’d probably think I’d put in a great photo of the 4 of us having a lovely romantic time in sunny Portugal enjoying our Honeymoon/family holiday. Nah, check out this sick little left I surfed the other day near Nazare. Loving life.

Everyone loves a shark story

Everyone loves a good shark story, especially here in the UK, which is why there’s no surprise every summer there always ends up being a couple in the UK press. My favourite this summer came from the UK’s best and most experienced lifeguards Jack and Jim who managed to clear the swimming area at the local beach after spotting what they suspected to be a shark. I can’t confirm or deny these claims as unfortunately I wasn’t there. Which is a shame as I would have loved to jump on the old summer time shark band wagon, could have got my name in the paper or maybe even made the telly again.
My personal experience with sharks has been limited really although I did have a shocker one time when was feeling rather frivolous and surfing a remote reef in indo, at my point of euphoria I spotted a pretty dam big fin heading straight for me at speed. Needless to say I reacted quickly and paddled so hard in the direction of the shore managing to catch the first wave, standing up and surfing it to dry reef. I was a little shaken and also a little gutted as I was having a pretty epic solo session, maybe it was just too good.
Anyway, summers pretty much done, which is a relief. The weather was the main talking point as it always is and I can’t say much for the surf although I did have some great little surf’s on my 5’2” Fugly which I borrowed from Tiki.
Looking forward to winter now, flights already booked for Portugal but I’m not sure on what the shark chat is down there though. Might have to ask Jack and Jim at work tomorrow. I’m sure they’ll know.

North Canyon Tow in Trials

It’s amazing what happens when you win a potty and a massive oversized comedy cheque, take this photo here for example. This is me signing autographs for my Portuguese fans after coming 2^nd in the North Canyon tow in trials in Nazare, normally no one gives a shit about 2^nd place but here I am signing autographs. Didn’t see 1^st place signing anything for that matter but you know, like I’ve said before I’m a pretty big deal down in Portugal right now, even more so since I’ve had a shave and smartened up my appearance up a little.
So now I’ve finally won an oversized cheque it’s my new favourite thing to carry around with me where ever I go, it’s a definite conversation starter as everyone really wants to know why you’re carrying around a massive oversized cheque, what you’ve done to deserve it, how much you’ve won and how freaking brilliant you must be. I was swinging mine around all the way home from Lisbon to Devon and even took it down Tesco’s at the weekend and tried to pay for a 4 pack and some pork scratching with it, unfortunately Tesco’s don’t except oversized comedy cheques as they won’t fit in the tills or that’s what they told me.
The potty’s going to come in pretty handy too, my girlfriends stoked.

£70 to not go to work

I missed 2 appointments with the Vicar the last month due to surf but 3^rd time lucky and I sat through the meeting which was a general gist of I’m going to be charged a whole heap of money to get married and also have to pay an organist 70 quid whether I want him to play or not, which I don’t so to cut to the chase I’m paying some bloke to NOT turn up and make a load of noise on his organ at my wedding, oh and not to forget the deposit. Not that I could as she mentioned it about 30 times like it was most important thing, what was she actually implying by that. Anyway never mind the freaking deposit wish I could get paid not to turn up to work, that sounds like the best job ever.
We had a little break from the swell but now I’m about to move house and it looks like we’re in for a run of all runs of surf, Portugal, Ireland, Portugal, Ireland. Just can’t stop looking at the charts and planning where to go and what to do about this moving house scenario. I missed the last time we moved house due to an unfortunate Analog team trip to Indo for a month which I organised, it was perfect for me but a nightmare for my Wife to be and I’m not quite sure how to approach this one. ’Just popping out to the shops darling’, ‘see you later’ ‘oh and I’ll send a postcard’. X
Oh but she’ll love my tan when I get back, well maybe!

© Polvo/ Jorge Leal and Wilson Ribeiro - 2011

Worlds Deadliest Catch

The SEVEN SKIRTS of NAZARE from wavedreamer on Vimeo.

You might recognise me off the telly, I looked like a Wurzel or one of them fisherman from the World’s Deadliest Catch you know the one that’s crossed eyed and has a speech impediment and very possibly makes love to some of the fish he catches when no one’s watching, I don’t know that I’m just speculating as it’s got to be lonely on those boats and sometimes scary enough to make you think you might not make it back alive. I know what I’d do. I don’t want to keep banging on about this place Nazare as I’m sure it’s all boring you but check out my little clip of a few waves from last year, the old dears wear seven skirts at once in this place as some sort of fishing tradition about counting set waves on their skirts and signalling to their husbands to return to shore, might have those facts wrong so don’t quote me on that. Imagine how long it must take them to get dressed in the morning. Hope you like the clip.

History made

I can tell you one thing about this photo that not many other people could, just a few minutes before this wave was surfed Garrett was doing an aqua poo, in fact as he was laying cable I could see the set approaching but as he said at the time, he wouldn’t be rushed which is fair enough as the whole morning was pretty magical so why rush it, breath it in and feel the energy. So I’ve established this isn’t me in the photo its Garrett McNamara although it almost could have been but the simple fact is its not, I am slightly disappointed it’s not me but I did however help him get this wave as I was driving the jet that towed him in and also picked him up which sometimes can be as good of a feeling than actually surfing the wave but then again sometimes not. It is however a freaking big wave and I’m just super stoked to of had the opportunity of being out there on this morning, thanks to everyone involved in The North Canyon project and the town of Nazare and congratulations Garrett for an epic ride. 

£5.50 Hot sandwich combo meal

I learnt from my last trip to Nazare, never sit in the middle on those sit anywhere flights because last time all I wanted was the hot sandwich combo meal for £5.50 and although I could see the air hostesses coming from either end they took over 2 hours to get to me and by the time I got my hot sandwich combo meal I might as well of waited cause I was practically already there, then to top it off I was pretty much last off the plane and had to wait ages standing around at passport control. I could of sat anywhere on that freaking plane, why did I choose the middle? So this time I sat right at the front, I got served first with the food trolley, was first off the plane and through passport control within minutes, getting experienced in this travel stuff.
Not sure why I even came home really, well apart from seeing my girls. I knew this swell was going to be a big one down there and when I got conformation and told to bring any extra flotation I had on my return I did begin to worry that It had all got a bit out of control and wasn’t 100% sure what to expect but just knew I had to be there.
On swells like these I do this thing where I imagine the worst possible scenarios, waves so big I don’t want to surf, nightmare ski situations and the heaviest wipe outs and then when I get there its always smaller, safer and fun than I planned out in my brain, simple mind games and it works every time. The surf pumped for 3 straight days and was still smoking when I left, Nazare truly is an amazing wave but don’t let any photos you see fool you, it’s not to be taken lightly.

Photo:http://brunoaleixophoto.com/

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.