It's 2-3ft glassy and nobody seems to know ! :0) - Putsborough Sat 12th March 2011

This was an odd one......! 11ft of clear groundswell on the K2 buoy over a 12 hr period, a clear "window" of v light offshore winds, favourable tide times, and even a "sunny" weather forecast ......... but hardly anyone seemed to have figured out that it would be niiiiiiiiiiiiice at Puts.
I got up early to get up there for the best tide but even at 9am everyone else seemed to be in bed thinking it would be "onshore crap like yesterday" ..... WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

This was v v nice indeed and from 9am - 11am there were less that 10 people out in the entire bay ...... mental. Av it ! :-)

I surfed until I was knackered and numb with cold ........... to make the most of it.

Saunton Blow Out !!!! : 26 February 2011

Mark and I met up in North Devon and had what must have been the worst surf ever !!! The wind was straight westerly onshore and HOWLING - and it was freeeeeeeeeeezing. Even at hight tide there was no shelter and nowhere to hide - so there was nothing for it other than to get in there and make the most of it !!! :-) It was just wall after wall of white water with about 5 seconds between each 'wave'. To be honest there was barely anything that you could describle as a 'wave' but it was one hell of a work out !

It's sessions like these that make the good days (see above) that much better !!

MARK NEVILLE R.I.P - 22 February 2011

I would like to pay tribute to the late Mark Neville (RIP).

I really didn’t know Mark very well at all but the guy literally changed my life! I started surfing in about 1989 and started out on a big, heavy 6’10” pop-out. It was sometime in the early 1990’s that I met Mark when he was working at Smile Surf Shop in Newquay, and shaping boards under his own brand ‘Natural Flight’ with the distinctive Dream Catcher logo. He shaped my very first custom board (a Natural Flight - 6’5” x 19 7/8 x 2 ¼) (left) which was so good compared to anything that I had surfed before that it literally locked me into the next 20 years (and hopefully many more) as a surfer. I was hooked. I am pretty sure that I did my first ever proper turn on that board – she was a beauty! (The dodgy spray design was mine – can’t blame Mark for that. Ha Ha). Mark shaped a number of boards for me since then, under his new ‘Neville’ brand, and all of them have provided me with lasting memories. Late 1990s (middle board) – closest I’ve ever got to a proper barrel on this one at Pacific Beach, San Diego – and I’ve got it on camera too! Mid 2000s (right) - I helped Mark shape this blue 6’5” from blank to finish at his shaping bay at Seabase. It was an amazing experience, one I will always remember. He was an amazingly talented craftsman and a great guy. I was genuinely shocked at the news of his death (announced 22nd Feb 2011) and would like to pay tribute to him and pass my condolences on to his friends and family.

RIP Mark – and thanks for making me a surfer.