29 Jan 2011: "Comfortably Numb" - Black Rock

AFTER A PERIOD WITH NO LAPTOP! (total hard-drive meltdown on my old one!) AND A RECENT LARGE MONEY TRANSFER TO SONY VAIO TO ACQUIRE THIS BEAUTY !!! - THE BLOG UPDATES (and catch-up) ARE BACK ........

After almost 22 years in the water (not continuously!) I finally sercumed to the cold and bought a 'twat cap' ;0) It was standing at the lookout at Black Rock, Bude early on the morning of 29th Jan 2011 (waiting for me good ol'e surf buddy Mark) that I realised that my ears and eyeballs were pretty much turning to ice and hurting like hell. I'd faced 22 winters in the water taking ice-cream-headache after ice-cream-headache and I frankly feel like ive earned the pleasure of a cap for a bit.

Walking into the Surf Shop in Bude to purchase my cap I felt dirty and ashamed - like I was looking to buy a butt-plug ! ha ha. I half expected them to be kept "under the counter".

This beauty really did take the edge off tho....
This surf with Mark was BRILLIANT ......... we had great fun - despite the cold - and stayed in for 2hrs trading waves. Cheers Mark - and "happy first-surf-of-the-year" together. Here's to many more.....

We went into Bude after this surf to thaw out and have a "massive" full English breakfast ........ A great day.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR": News Flash: REAL waves at local spot ...... solid !

This was an epic local swell - only took this one photo (with my mobile) unfortunately as I forgot to take my SLR in the mad rush to txt Gary M to meet up, get in there and "Av it" :0)

The sets were a solid 4ft and clean - big drops and powerful waves. The waves at S-Bay on a decent (rare) swell are pretty thick so if you mess up your bottom turn you tend to get a good pounding. Get on !!! :0)

Really enjoyed this 2hr session - good atmosphere in the water and (despite this pic) it was blue sky and sunny! HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Local coldwater fun ........Brrrbrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Yet another session in howling, freezing offshore winds - this time in early December at local spot S-Bay. This was actually a pretty decent swell from a local perspective..... the reef was working - tricky getting into waves with the 10-15ft spray off the back of each wave though.

This was the main peak straight out in front of the car park - fun drops and initial turns but quite a short ride....

Cold but mellow fun ..............

This was a fun December 2010 session at Saunton - really cold wind-chill but a good mellow, 2ft plus groundswell.

Stayed in until my head was completely frozen solid and my toes were border-line frost bitten - all in the name of the 'sport' (more "life" than sport to be honest) that I love :0)

Surfing....? "You having a laugh !!!!!?" ;-)

Jesus H-Christ ....... what a terrible time to be a surfer!

It's been absolutely 'brass monkeys' for ages and now we essentially live in Arctic conditions. There was actually a local wave (all be it small) on this day but with the roads completely impassable and the car totally stuck (despite hours of digging snow!) there was no way to get anywhere. For 3 days it was CRAZY ....... on the Tuesday I couldn't even get back home and had to sleep in Exmouth - after a nightmare journey, and 40 min walk in freezing fog and ice-rink conditions back to the safety of my folks' house in Exmouth. It was all a bit of an adventure I guess but after a few days of snowballs and sledging the novelty kinda wore off.

"Show me the Money !" :0)

My new role as a Professional Surf Photographer is really starting to pay dividends now ! ha ha.

Well you know what they say "From acorns mighty oaks grow" :0)