ONEDAY - Woolacombe

Spent the day in Woolacombe with Wavedreamer film-maker Richard Gregory shooting footage for his latest project "ONEDAY Woolacombe".

New Surf Galleries

New surf photo galleries uploaded...sun surf and another dawn till dusk mission on the North Devon coast. Not the epic conditions we'd all hoped for but a good day in the water none the less. Surf photo action from Saunton and Croyde, enjoy..........

Well we've had surf, wind, lots of rain and even some sun...sounds like summer in Devon to me. First an apology for neglecting the blog recently. With surf , contests, articles, family it seems there is never enough time. I started several new posts but they never made it to completion and time kept marching on. Enough of the excuses, on with stuff whats happened.

Waxer sprays the crowd as Croyde A lift the North Devon Cup.

My first lineup article for the Journal passed off OK, all pretty accurate and even spelled right, this weeks not quite so good. I'd managed to string a pretty good piece together about the North Devon Cup only to find that someone had inserted text about the King of the Groms right in the middle....aaahhhh!

The North Devon Cup all shiny and new

The North Devon Cup at Woolacombe was great, although I did have to turn down the evening of free beer(a first for me), lots of surfers from across North Devon coming together to enjoy a day of competitive surfing and social drinking(big thanks to Dan Newsome for sorting out a cracking day). Sounds like Saunton want to host the next one and we all know how good their BBQ's are!

Saunton show that they are the champs when it comes to sand fights

I've scored a couple of great surf sessions, getting new angles, and ace lookin waves. Unfortunately for me that meant foregoing the fun of swimming around with my housing and instead scrabbling across rocks and gully's trying to avoid being cut to ribbons on the barnacles or dropping a fairly expensive bit of kit in the sea. Pleased with the results.

where every surfer wants to be.......low tide perfection at Croyde

I went to Subway, next to Barnstaple's Tesco store, the other day for the launch of their Summer Surf Lifesaving promotion. All good fun with Bideford's top pro surfer Sophie Hellyer in attendance as ambassador for Surf Life Saving GB, Check out the subway scratch cards for surf prizes. Good fun and I got and ace sausage and bacon sub, well tastyMore stuff coming soon both here and in LINEUP over the next few weeks
Stand Up Paddle boarding, more contests, profiles, longboarding, and I promise to keep it more regular....honest

Where has the last 3 weeks gone?

Croyde at the Weekend

The easy way to answer this question is to go back through my archive and look at the photographic evidence and work it out from there. Not the easiest thing at the mo as the office in a state of flux, caused by me getting a new laptop and now having photos strewn across 3 systems and numerous hard drives. One of these days I will get organised, I might even solve the problems of were to stash my kit so the kids can't get to it and I don't have to move half the furniture to gain acsess(maybe).

Croyde last week

We've been blessed with some great swell and I've scored some good water sessions, swiming round snapping unwary riders as well as trying to produce some new wave imagery. The summer sun is starting to warm the waters, but its still a cold place to be if you're immersed for a couple of hours although I've finally ditched the gloves!!

Paddle4relief memorial circle, Croyde 13th June

Spent most of Saturday over a Saunton covering the Paddle4relief charity paddle to croyde and back. Luckily I didn't have swim the whole way, thanks to James and the crew of the Saunton IRB who motored me about and managed to not run me down when I was swiming about.



I'm currently getting everything ready for my weekend at Goldcoast oceanfest in Croyde this weekend. Must remember all the batteries, chargers, leads, bags, lenses etc, nearly forgot them last week on the Bungee weekend - won't be making that mistake!!!
Looks like the weather is going to be perfect and we may even have a little tickle of surf. I'll be the lunatic trying to snap everything alongside this years photo team of Gordon, Dan, Matt, Pete & Dave. We've even got snapper Tshirts this year and hopefully I'll be sponsored by Tuborg(or my hangover will).

See you there

Busy Bank Holiday

The run up to the bank holiday saw me overwhelmed with swine flu, spending my only free day in a few weeks lying in bed shivering! Managed to drag myself from my death bed to do a shoot in South Devon, really nice day although I'd forgotten about the bank holiday traffic on the M5 and the Devon Show in Exeter.

The Weekend saw the start of the 2009 UK Pro Surf Tour, with the Saltrock Open held in Croyde. Saturdays postponement due to lack of swell should have given me an extra days rest, but a failing car exhaust put a stop to that idea. Sunny Sunday was a treat for everyone, even those still dying of FLU. Swell built gradually over the day as the sun beat down, the contest was on. Great shooting conditions, with some excellent performances in the water, we even had Justin Lee Collins from Channel 4's Friday Nigh Project complete with film crew for his heat( and No JLC can't surf!!)

JLC lists sharks, paparazzi, jellyfish and giant tentacles for his in ability to paddle out.

Monday saw a busy day on Press, all outdoor events in the rain....yeha!! With timings tight and the usual chaotic bank holiday traffic, it was a hectic dash from Bratton Flemming Family Funday to Barnstaple's giant picnic in the park(thanks to the Baddeley's for the prawns) then off to Braunton's fair followed by an cross country jaunt to Paracombe for Maypole dancing. The last leg of the day was back off to Croyde for the finals of the SaltrockOpen. Well done to Glen Hall and Sarah Beardmore.
After all that its back to base for hours of editing and captioning...oh well, least I'm starting to get my tan back.

Catching up on real life

Well it's still flat out there this morning. Eyeing the charts and hoping for a little tickle tomorrow evening if not Friday. I the mean time I have a chance to sort through a 2 week backlog of shoots and sessions.

Nice to see Gulfstream Surfboards brightening up Caen St in Braunton with a sweet new paint job.

Well done to the boys.

Either end of the street however sees a sadder sight with the closing of Surf Station and the Spider store, a sign of harsher times? Lets hope not.

"Conor Spears"

I hear the new skate park claimed another scalp in the form of Croyde's Conor Spears......seems he lost it in the bowl and was knocked unconscious!! Heres a pic to cheer him up, taken a couple of weeks back.

First post - April 27th

Last week saw a run of swell hitting the North coast with surf in the 2-3ft range on many of the beaches most of the week, everyone got the chance to get in a blow away the cobwebs. The weekend was all change and brought challenging conditions for the many contests being held on North Devon Beaches.We had the BILLABONG/ HUNTER/ VW BRITISH SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIP held on Saturday and Sunday in Woolcombe. It was good to see how much talent we have coming through the ranks, so well done to all the groms who took part. I'm still waiting for full results at the mo, but good on yer to Karma Worthington 1st in the girls and 3rd in the Longboard, also Stuart Campbell, Maisy Lawton and Beau Bromham...I know there are other winners deserving of mentions and I'll try and update in the week.Croyde Surf Club held the 2009 AL RANNOCHAN Memorial which saw a good turn out battle the conditions and each other. Honours go Lyndon Wake who outshone Jinks, Charlie and Ossian in thrilling final. Also a mention for Adam Thornton who won the repechage (or special losers final as it's now known). We won't dwell on the alcohol fuelled mayhem that followed, you'll probably be able to read about it in "around the courts".We also had Woolacombe boardriders hosting Bristol surf club in a "friendly" invitational challenge, which was sensibly relocated to the shelter of Putsborough. With both longboard and shortboard categories this was a chance for the locals to shine, which luckily they did (I'd hate to be reporting defeat to the hands of the Bristol massive). That one man publicty machine and all round bald bloke, Nick"GoPro"Lloyd won the shortboard event with Greg Reynolds in premier place for the loggers.Finally Police are still on the hunt for the thieving scumbags who stole 6 surfboards from Masher at Spider Surf in Braunton last week. keep your eyes peeled for these boards:
1. “DANO FISH”, 5’10” long, it has a Blue bottom and a Yellow top with a distinctive Buddha design. It has a fish tail, it would have three fins although none were attached.
2. “DANO FISH”, 6’ long, orange top and bottom with a marble effect, this also has a Buddha design and a fish tail and fittings for three fins but none attached.
3. “DANO FISH”, 6’1” long, yellow bottom and a red streaky deck. It also has a Buddha design on it, fish tail and fittings for three fins but none attached.
4. “PHIL JAY”, 6’10” long, it is a single fin board, although none attached, it is white in colour, with PHIL JAY written on the deck in bold black letters.
5. “DANO”, 6’1” long, round tail with three black fins fitted to it. White in colour with a distinctive F16 fighter plane drawn on it and the words “bloody fast surfboards” written underneath.
6. “DANO”, 6’10” long, round tail with three black fins fitted to it. The fins will have “FCSG5” stamped on them. White in colour and the same design and words as the one above.Any info please contact:Chris Tucker
Braunton police station.
01271 818220
15001@devonandcornwall.pnn.police.uk