Splash SurfBlog

Not Brilliant by any standards but at least yesterday showed a small surfable wave at Godrevy and everyone went out and enjoyed a few long awaited waves.
It was a glorious summers afternoon, I say that with intrepidation but its my belief that the season’s have swung round slightly and that we now see the best weather conditions from March to June so for all intents and purposes and an anticipation of another crappy summer come July and August, I’m taking this as summer.. SO it was a glorious summers afternoon, albeit the wind was as usual whipping the face with its serpents tongue.
One thing I’ve come to know over the last few years of shooting surf (and others have actually said this about ME!) is that if you arrive somewhere and you see Tom Harper getting ready to go in for a surf then you’ve found the best spot around.
And here he was at Godrevy with us this afternoon so we knew we weren’t missing anything better in our locality.
Tom hit the waves with his usual stylish manouvers making it a joy to shoot.. unfortunately the tides are never right with the surf these days so I was low down on the beach and having a struggle to get over the white water and reforms to get the shots I wanted.

Tom Harper snapping the top off the wave

Its always nice to see how some of our ex-young team riders have gone on to show massive improvements in their surfing, we don’t forget about them and still feel a sense of pride when we’re able to shoot them out there making a splash with the best, and Justin Lapskas is no exception. His surfing has improved so much over the winter that I found it hard to recognise him from his style at first.. Well done Justin!! Here he is making a  nice cutback and throwing up the spray.

Ex Team Rider Justin Lapskas Slicing the wave

It was nice to see an Old friend and fellow Photographer Mike Newman (Tup) out there enjoying the waves..Don’t often see my old locals from the Sennen days up here, more’s the pity cos we really get some class days of surf and it would be nice to see more of them.

Mike Newman on the other side of the Lens for a change

Always good to see familiar faces and there’s those faces that are familiar but names evade me so my apologies for that, especially when they surf like this chap making it a pleasure to follow him with the lens.. some amazing manouvers and I’m sure he must have got out feeling like he’d had a great surf.

Classy manouvers from a Local surfer

But from the very best to the absolute beginner, the main aspect of surfing is to enjoy the surf…
One of our new inclusions (always striving to make Splashography better) has been to capture a few sessions from the Surf schools this year and I managed to catch Tyson’s instructors out again yesterday with a new brood of upcoming surfers..
One thing that impressed me is how well they worked with the students.. I’d have been hard pushed to say that anyone actually got out of their 2 hour session without at least standing up on the board, and quite a few were actually surfing by the end of the Lesson so thats a damned good achivement for GAS (Gwithian Academy of Surfing) so well done Guys!!

On his Feet - the thrill of the first ride

and of course if it all gets too much then you can always just get out and watch for a while.. probably best if its not right in front of a photographer though otherwise you may just get snapped from this angle! but No!! your bums look perfectly fine in that

Nice view

Of course there are those for who’m the water is still just too damned cold!! this poor young chap was beaten and retired to the beach to watch Dad go out and catch a few more.. Have to say he has great taste in wetsuits though!! (please visit our sponsors GUL ) (By the way its almost getting to T Shirt/Hoody weather Jake )

Very Stylish Young Surfer who despite the BEST in Wetsuits felt it a bit cold

Well that about wraps up the Blog for today, but I couldn’t leave without at least throwing in one Boogieboarder just to prove we’re not biasséd, there was a distinct lack of the bodyboarder element out there yesterday.. but here’s one enjoying the high tide shorebreak..

Enjoying the Shorebreak

and so that finally does wrap up todays Blog and I’ll leave you with a final reminder of the guys and girls who do so much to keep our beaches safe, and don’t leave buckets out for us to fall over our very own Godrevy/Gwithian Lifeguards.. Thanks for all your good work Guys.. (Oh and Girls)

Give generously to the RNLI - and if there's any left you could donate it to Splashography

THats IT!! there’s no more… go to the site

BYEEE

M

I’m Soooooo far behind with the surf blog at the moment so my apologies for that, especially to those who’ve been out there entertaining us and I haven’t made the entry.. I will catch up hopefully this week but I’ll make this jump to yesterday when I hit Perranporth after a dental appointment early evening just in time to grab a few shots and some chips to finish..

The mood was relaxed as I hit the beach, a lovely evening with hardly any wind and the tide far enough in to make it an easy walk to the surf which is a nice change for Perranporth..
In fact the mood was so relaxed this guy had time to talk to his friend on waterproof mobile phone to tell him how big the fish was that he’d just seen

The waves were far from spectacular but everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun and realistically speaking thats what counts..

Its always nice when an early evening scene presents itself to you and I just liked this shot which seemed to have everything to make a nice surf scene for the wall, except mayb a bit more surf  a brigter sun etc, other than that its okay lol

pleasant scene of a Perranporth Sunset surf

more to come so please call backlater..

Late as usual but just arrived in time for my shift as The Hog was approaching the car park canera in hand having shot a few from the earlier session..IF HE POSTS THEM lol

I wandered down the beach and set up the tripod on my usual corner ( you all know where) and the sun Kindly dissapeared behind a cloud and stayed there.. Freddie was still out catching a few choice waves..

Tucking in under the lip

and Plain Lazy Lumoxs was also out there thrashing about..

Off the lip Lumoxs Style

There was also a lot of shortboard action going on out there with Jonty on his  Bright green multi finned pleasure machine..

Jonty's pleasure machine

and a nice sneaky five over

and after all these years the man from the Mouse Trap game turned up on his longboard..

this may be too subtle for most

 Notice how his hands are behind his back for surfing   but it was a great wave for the longboards and there were plenty of those tubey things for everyone to play in..

Nicely tucked in

well that was how it was but of course the tide was creeping in and it wasn’t long before the backwash started being a problem to most… Always nice to see Keith (Flapper) Prowse out there enjoying the waves come rain or shine.. for thos who don’t know Keith was probably one of the first to ever surf Sennen all those decades ago.. in days when surfboards were a bit like black shoes are today in St Just.. rare as rocking horse shite..

Keith Prowse..

But then Keith is a rare kind of surfer.. a real Gentleman Jim of Surf and a really decent bloke to know.. hats off to ya Keith..

Well lunch beckoned so it was bacon sarnies from the cabin and then a move over to Praa sands as the tide was getting a little high here at Perranuthnoe..

Noe as in PerranuthNoe that is cos there was Fun.. all day long for those who got a parking space.. as I’ve said many times before though the South coast is a pig to shoot at this time of year but Lesson Learned last time I went up on the top looking down the line up so I should re-name the post Bum in the Sun owing to the amount of backsides I got as everyone took the right handers..

Still there were waves and there was Sun so who am I to complain.. I enjoyed the day and I sincerely hope you did, or will from the post .. If ya missed it well …. HA! you missed a sesh.

First off it was nice to see a few old faces like the original Chunky Bruvva Darren & the lovely Jacs, tho I have to say Dal what happened to your hair?? I Dread to think no seriously Missed those dreads Bro

And Tony was all over it having a Ball as usual

The other problem from shooting up above the waves on the cliffs is that it makes it difficult to see the size of the waves but these were a good chessy High on the set waves..

This next guy I apologise I don’t know his name, but for obvious Reasons, well to me at least, I’ll nickname him JT and this second shaot was to become my pick of the day cos it left me singing BeeGees all afternoon I just love that Saturday Night Fever Pose

Ever onwards and this guy (if anyone knows who he is please let me know) was all over the waves styling and bringing some great traditional manouvers mixed with radical progressive longboard surfing to the afternoons fun.. there were roudhouses and drop knees all over the place and in this second image which is difficult to see from the angle I’m shooting but I swear to you he is doing a Dane Peterson style hanging heels off the front of the board.. Excellent Surfing and a treat to watch.. so thanks for that..

Nice to see Minnow Green made it after missing yesterdays session at Marazion..

Also Nice to see Freddie and dave again, here’s Freddie and demonstarting that you can actually surf a longboard on its end if you’re a Granite Basher at least

and all afternoon the waves kept rolling in, the sun kept shining and the fun kept on going… as many got out many got in to replace them and redress the balance.. and for those who’d got out, especially in the case of Mr Barnwell the Surfhog himself, there was time to sit in the Sun drink tea and Cake and remarkable cakes sandwiches etc from ‘The Cabin‘ recover and get back in for another surf…

I love this sequence of dave its a kind of realisation moment as I watched him through the camera.. he takes off spots me on the cliffs.. squints for a better look and realises its me and the Hog Smile returns and he carries on with the wave.. Love it!.. see the insets on the bottom..

You’re a real star Dave.. and special thanks as for a lot of these posts wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the info that comes from Dave and the fantastic Surf reports on Surfhog

Well on that Note, I decided it was time for me to make a move as I’m not supposed to be in the sun at all on this damned Chemotherapy but thats not gonna happen is it lol, so I figured I’d give up my space for someone else to get in and surf before the sun dropped away so I’ll leave you with a couple more styling shots on a nice hang 5 and a hope for a wave tomorrow..

Catch ya at the beach

Mel^

Yes you read it right, it does say Glare ious owing to the fact that the sun on the south coast is still so low in the sky that it makes shooting somewhere small like Perranuthnoe almost impossible as you can’t get out of the glare.. well that is unless you go up top alonmg the cliffs and shoot from the right hand side of the waves.. BUT I didn’t realise that until it was almost too low light anyhow to shoot.. and so again I make my apology for the messy images at the start of the galleries due to glare and distance..

I got the call from SD to say it was on so we headed down mazza at Lunch time and i shot a few pics of them cropping the reeds on the marsh and the Bittern took a long flight over the back.. then we wandered up to Perran around 2pm and as soon as I got there and down on the beach I knew it was going to be a pain..

Nice Little Barrel

Was surprised this wasn't just a silhouette with the glare in front

Nice unridden wave

I broke for a cuppa and to checvk out if anyone was going to be turning up, at which point the Great Lord Hog arrived which meant all would follow

Dave ( Surf Hog ) Barnwell

And so the guys turned up got changed and went in and here’s a few of the results where I managed to get through the glare…

Team Shore Surf

Lawrence making a coupleof Nice right handers

Leesie Punching round the white water section

and so another phase to the surfing world with Inflatable Boogie Boards.. whatever next flat wood with no fins?  Alaeia bet on it full circle lol

Inflatable fun

and here’s the hog dodging head high whitewater close outs in between surfing stand up barrels (thats the £5 earned)

The Artful Dodger

And while the sun was setting Low with a nice Golden Hue, the Hog made his way in while Jessica arrived to get in .. ah well no glamour today I’m afraid..

A stoke filled SurfHog heads for home

and Our Glamour Girl Jessica Ferrin heads in for a sunset surf

Meanwhile Fearless  Freddie keeps on ripping the waves apart  ….

BuhBye now

Mel^

Desperation! I think it must have been the frustration that drove Most of the surfers into the water today as the conditions were pretty dire to say the least in fact the only good thing to say was the sun was shining and they were rideable..

Mind you when you can throw a board around like Ben its not difficult to make it look good ..

Tony and Mandy and Crew were out there too having lots of fun cruising around, though I was a bit too late getting down there as mandy was just heading to shore when I got set up on the beach.

Nice to see Bea out there again, haven’t seen her around for a while, then again I missed biggest part of last years surfing with this bloody Illness.. Not so this year thanks to Gul’s sponsorship too I’ll be warm when its cold and who knows.. maybe even in the water

Grom working the inside waves	These two Groms were having lots of fun in the sun

Sennen nust have been crap as its not often you see Sennen folks out anywhere but for Mick Stallworthy and Allie Scott and co  Marazion must have looked a whole lot more inviting.. Mind you my memories of Sennen at this time of year are dark cold damp and pretty damn depressing until the sun finally makes it into the car park or even the beach in most cases.

The Kites were struggling today though with not enough wind, however it always makes a nice contrast to see the bright colours and different kind of styling from the Kitesurfers..

and rounding things up before I decided to head off and do a bit of wildlife photography here’s the last few images from my selection for today..

and Finally my Image choice of the day has to be Ben from Mousehole

Hope you enjoyed some of the shots.. don’t forget.. there’s many more in the gallery

Byeee
Mel^

Well as always I’m late getting the blog up to date so I’ll stick in the post from yesterday.. Another grey miserable rainy misty day so no change there then.. got a phone call from Ash (Lumox’s) to say he’d tried everywhere and the meor was the only place working..

We eventually decided to take a flying trip over and see what was happening even though we knew the tide was dropping out to low and with the rain and wind I wouldn’t be able to shoot much closer than the top by the van.. well it was worse than I thought.. the light was so low that it was pretty much certain we were just going to get Shite or worse lol.

I set up the big brolly on the wall and lashed it to the public bench behind me to keep it down in the wind and set up the tripod underneath it to see what (if anything) we could get.

The mist was a bit thick making things even more difficult but Tom Harper was out there having a few nice waves along with team Rider Bertie Basset himself on the licorice allsorts board Ash Lawton

Tom Harper

Well it didn’t, for the whole afternoon it rained and blew and rained some more.. in the end the light got so bad that I had to give up as everything was blurring with low light and grainy images don’t make good images.. Just hung around long enough for Ashley to get dressed and collect some new stickers from the van for his new board and catch a few more waves from Tom Harper..

Speaking of  Tom’s was that Joe I saw out there just before packing in and if so is that a new portrait of Tom on your board?.. great to see the loyalty and remembrance in Joe taking Tom out surfing with him all the time..

Hope you enjoyed the blog.. I got wet writing it lol…

catch ya soon.. when the rain stops

Mel

Phone call from Justin to say they were heading out at Longrock and he was guaranteed to do a reverse today the wind and waves were perfect… were being the operative word as they were before they went in but apparently not after they went in lol.. seriously though the wind di drop tremendously making it really difficult for any decent jumping.. still there were one or two straight jumps worth a mention.. Here’s the first.

1st jump of the afternoon for Martin and another one

A couple of Jackdaws were watching Leanne making lunch sure of the fact that some crumbs were gonna come their way but doing their best to hide from the wind…strategic rock wind dodging

Strategic wind dodging Jackdaws

Meantime Justin was seeking out any waves he could for a bit of wave riding… of course he made his best jump while I was standing cup of tea in one hand and sandwich in the other.. aint it always the way

a little wave riding from Justin

Sandwich over and back to shooting just in time to catch martin making some sweet manouvers..

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet

Nicely Executed

simon - I think

Nice bump n jump from Justinstill going

The wind was already falling away quite rapidly and the action soon slowed down.. with not enough speed to make the jumps it was time for a little wave riding.. but there were some nice waves at least.. like this one.

nice wave riding to be had

Meantime back on the beach a mediterranean Gull was busily foraging for food in the waters edge whilst dodging the waves..

Mediterranean Gull

The boys were enjoying the waves as the wind had slowed right down..

The waves made up for the lack of wind

Justin

Simon grabs a wave too

Justin Lands a cracker and gets the final ride.. while Martin and Simon head for the beach

Justin rides the last wave of the day

Martin hits the beach

Closely followed by simon

and finally Justin heads in

end of the days sailing

Well thats the surf blog for today folks.. remember there’s more images in the gallery so check em out..

Till the next time

Chiao Mahalo

Mel

Down the Bluff this arvo in glorious sunshine whilst the rest of the north coast seemed to be getting poor light and weather.. strange this land of ours isn’t it.

Justin & Dale called us up to go over the bluff but realistically the wind wasn’t strong enough though we grabbed a few shots of them and the kiters in the river mouth.

The tide was fast coming in and before I’d realised I had to make a hasty retreat and arrived at the low point with the tide only 2 foot from the rocks.

and a little bump n jump for Harvey.

 And that about wraps up the blog for today.. hopefully we’ll see some surf arrive in the week so call back and we’ll see what we can get for ya

M

Yep thats where I was for a few hours this afternoon after starting out at Mazza and grabbing a few shots of the windsurfers and kiters that had straggled from the main bunch..

A phone call from Dan Hills took us way up to sandy acres by Mexico and one look over the top left me shaking my head.. with my Arthritis flaring from having to withold my injections due to bl&*dy flu there was no way I was going down there.

A little snoop about and I found the sandpit.. sheltered from the wind and an excellent vantage viewing point of the action albeit miles away it would put a different slant on the normal shots of the windsurfers, so I set up and enjoyed the shelter and show.

Its probably one of the best viewing points of the whole of St Ives bay up there and there were many sights of cracking waves to see and shoot while the low light lasted, which wasn’t long and it was too dark to shoot any more without increasing the ISO settings to noise or more noise.

Here’s a few of the shots for ya to taste and the rest are in the Galleries for members or free thumbs at www.Splashography.com

Justin at Mazza

Nice arial

and again

Whack and up again

Sets roll in

Horizontalism

Well thats it for today folks.. get along to the galleries and check em out.. we get a little fed up of all the low light days we’re having but at least there’s a small record of the days hapopenings there for all to see even if they are a little grainy