GS

Meet North Devon's finest board shaper, and all round good guy.

Creative collective: Gulfstream from wavedreamer on Vimeo.

So the wind has continued to blow, and all the crew seemed to be out sailing over the weekend. I am pleased to say I was confined to family duties, and even as I write this, I notice the wind has picked up and blowing 25knts from the North West. Thats all well and good, but did I forget to mention its June tomorrow, and today was barely 11 degrees celcius ! So whilst the forecast looks set to change by the end of week, the great British unreliable weather seems to have become more of a reliable thing to predict - basically cold.

Moving Image

If you like quality moving image irrespective of the sport, then look no further.

Chris Bryan Films Phantom Reel from Chris Bryan on Vimeo.

Link courtesy of Kel.
Thanks

The 4.0

Ridiculously windy and no let up from the last 24hours. Feeling so tired from a full on session, and now totally disorientated from looking at all the GoPro footage from the top of the mast. Its far too tedious to post an edited video, so just pulled out some stills from todays action. Forecast is for more wind tomorrow - can't wait, although my body is sending me a different message.

POV

Can't seem to get enough of this little GoPro mini cam at the moment. Took the plunge and got a actual mount made on the top of my board. So far so good, although I have to figure out the correct angle etc. Small swell this am, but still worth the paddle.

Despite the cold west winds, the change in light has been amazing over the last couple of days. Still blowing a gale this morning when I set off for work at 6, but the the light was almost as bright as midday.

Instow

Apparently sailing a 'flat water location' like Instow is a 'no no' on a day like today. But by 9.30 the wind still hadn't settled and Steve and Paul lead the way with a trip across the bridge. Blue skies, a solid force 5-6 and some fun bump and jump off Crow point, made a nice change away from the continual battering of Westward Ho.

WSW

Really fun little session, and nice to sail with Matt just going move for move. Felt like a skatepark, with fun size swell to crank around on, and basically go for anything. Following the session bumped into someone telling me about trying the new Ezzy Wave Panther 3's. If anyone is interested I have some 2010 Ezzy Wave Panther 2's in a 5.2 /4.5/ and 4.0 - at £250 each. Forecast looks excellent for the week.

Tongue

I seem to have always had this habit of my tongue hanging out when I am concentrating. Clear blue skies and just enough swell to break out the Diplock 6'2 for some fun sliding.

Land of Plenty

Santa Cruz Classic - Day 3 from American Windsurfing Tour on Vimeo.

Have shed some pounds of late, and really enjoyed how springy and light my Ezzy Wave sails feel again. Scored a nice little 5m session on Monday, with a solid wind blowing in blue skies.

North West

Finally, just enough breeze to get out and play in the small swell. Snuck out on a 5.0 and it was more like an exercise work out than anything too exciting. Still nice to get out though and get planing !

Side shore for a little while then it switched to full on howling cross on. Didn't see a soul, but made it out for brief session.

Last comment I read made me chuckle, so I thought I would post this shot of Matt; probably wishing he was elsewhere before this set unloaded on him. Fair play for bobbing out through it though.

Ted scores

The decision

Knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Near perfect side shore windsurf conditions , albeit gusty and fairly solid looking on the sets, or a perfect fun size wave to slide around on, on the mini simmons and hang with my nephew as he continues to progress with his surfing. In the end, it was a no contest, and despite the waves being rather poor, it was a lot of fun. Meanwhile downwind, Ed was certainly getting the best of it, and his commitment shines through. However watching the other guys, left me feeling like I probably made the right decision.

Perry

Best drunk with friends, and rarely a better producer than the infamous Dennis Gwatkin. Have been enjoying the local produce at the Ludlow Food and Drink Festival. The perfect reason to head inland, and soak in the atmosphere at the very haunted Ludlow castle.

Really enjoyed my latest experiment with the Mini simmons, it really flew and definitely was an awful lot of fun in remarkably poor conditions. It proved to pick up swell as quickly as the long boards, but was so much quicker, and more fun to slide. However, sadly Its already in for repair, as I may have over sanded where the stringer was. So it gave me a great opportunity to get back on the Seedhouse Fish today. The forecast was 2-3 ft, but it seemed a bit weak, and despite this the fish still picked up really well and I enjoyed the session. The board is just so stunning, so its nice to actually get it going and surfing as well as it looks.

The Curse

Despite cancelling my Birthday celebrations, it was great to catch up with my old windsurfing friend Rob and his family. Nothing quite like seeing old friends, and just catching up on whats been happening. One thing that I always remember Rob for, was his seeming ability to scare off the best conditions. Even if the forecast was perfect, we often used to think the curse of Rob, would kill off any wind, and even swell would flatten. Superstitious, and ridiculous really, but no apologies. True to form, despite a strong wind forecast, we really saw little wind during his visit, but literally within 12 hours of his departure, the wind notched up and we scored a perfect fun session in some micro swell and strong off shores.

Beastly

All-in-one; fleece romper suits, and lyrics that will always make you chuckle. Glad to finally find this track after so long.

Beastie Boys - Alive (Moby Remix) from tokimoric on Vimeo.

Cetacean

Its been a busy few days with a relatively consistent fun wave, depending on where you were looking. As long as you had the right board, chances are you would be scoring a rather premature, perfect summer session. However, after too much excess over Easter, events have finally caught up with me. The last two days, I have been flat on my back, with a brutal virus (man flu). Hoping I am through the worst of it, I couldn't wait to share the completion of my latest project. I would rather call it an homage to the mini simmons, than an attempt at one, but I wanted to take some of the elements from my 8'0 hull and incorporate it into this board. The main aim with this board is just to be fun, I had a Fisher Price 'Adventure People' vibe going through my head, when I designed it, and the graphics were meant to have a raw feel to reflect a lack of maturity. Its still been designed on the computer to ensure some integrity in the hull dynamic, and Badger kindly did the glassing, leaving me with the sanding and graphics. I really enjoyed doing this, but won't consider it complete until someone unbiased rides it : )

Snapped with my latest find, an app for the Iphone called Pano. Cooked up to 24 (76 fahrenheit) degrees today, and nice to have a little cloud around.

A wave still seems to be lingering and the swell building again for the weekend. Looking back through my old blog posts, it seems to be a recurring theme for warm springs, good swell with consistantly sunny weather. No real rain for 5 weeks now, I guess our weather patterns have definitely changed.

Caught the early train with my nephew, and we scored some perfect rides in the first light. Super fun glass and a clean peeling left, somewhere between waist to the occasional shoulder. Have been so excited to get home, and so glad to score it before the swell that everyone has been talking up, disappears.

Away from the surf, but no less inspired. Its been an amazing few days hunting through galleries and museums,
but was most impressed by the story of Ai Weiwei, a chinese artist producing over 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds (with the help of 1600 villagers) for the Tate modern's latest exhibition.

It didn't look or feel anything like this, when we surfed this morning. Skies seemed more blue, waves higher, and only a handful of guys; just friends.

A beautiful thing..

Justin with his latest label 'Seedhouse' dropped off his inaugural board; a raspberry red resin tint 6'2 quad/keel fish. The board looks amazing and right now I can't imagine even waxing it. It is quite possibly the most exciting thing that has happened to me in months. Thank you, thank you, thank you...it really looks unreal. This is something I plan to never let go of !

Man's best friend ?

I still claim to 'not be a dog person', but he is growing on me. Bear models the cliff scene with precision !

Mini Simmons

Had the great pleasure of testing out a clever little hybrid today. Mike Peat of Atlantic has been testing a mould, designed and built by the talented hands of Randall . Ulitmately the board is a popout complete with moulded fins, which is a little bit of a turnoff. That is, until you get in the water. The float, and speed of the board is just fantastic, and I had so much fun sliding the little board around. It seemed to have so much pop, and felt like the 'surfing on a bar of soap' feeling a lot of people expect from a mini simmons. In short I loved it, but it might have been the fact it was around head high and offshore.