Splash SurfBlog

It seems like its almost game over for this swell at least, dropping off this afternoon to an almost makeable log wave..
The sun continues to blast the retina when trying to shoot at Perranuthnoe but still when you get the shot its just right as it filters through the wave making a jade wall to slide down..

Good to see the doods, Keith Rob Taz & Freddie etc making the best of the last.. have to say though its atill bitter when the wind bites.

Rob Driving down the line

Taz tucking in for that Backlit wave

Well enough Nostalgia or I’ll be in the Grage waxing my board again just for the smell

A nice little stretch 5

My old Buddy Keith ‘Flapper’ Prowse was out again snapping some beauty little lefts, its always nice to catch up with Keith and strangely enough we live less than 500 yards away from each other

Keith on a nice little left

aother one of those nice little tuck ins

And another

 though they were tiny they were obviously great fun as everyone seemd to be having a good timeout there.. just a shame that it was probably the last of it for a while, which means I’m back off into the woods bogs and marshes in search of the elusive wildlife for my other passion of  Nature Photography

For now I’ll leave you with a couple more shots from todays sweet little session at perranuthnoe..

A nice little Turn from Taz into a left

and a Thumbs up from Rob..

A big thumbs up from Rob

And of course a post wouldn’t be a post without our regular Granite basher steaming in..

Rock Steady Freddie going for a tuck in!

Freddie again.. different Board Different wave

Well thats it for me from today folks.. hope ya enjoyed the blog.. always nice to hear some positive feedback like I did today so thanks guys..  you can always share your thoughts with us by leaving a reply in the box below.. but as always keep it clean remember the kids read it too

so from me its 10-10 till we do it again…

down and out

Mel ^

A great day of  Good surf, Good Light and Good surfers at Gwithian today.. have it on good authority that it was equally as good (but maybe a little smaller) on the South coast (Perranuthnoe)
Unfortunately the light isn’t as kind at Perranuthnoe and it gets very difficult to shoot later in the day..so Here I was at Gwithian.. High tide with double overheads still breaking right out..

I started off shooting on the cliff tops  just past the lifeguard hut… it was a long way off  Godrevy but I knew I wouldn’t see anything from the beach as the reform was too big so this seemed my best option..

Paddy daniels on a screamer

Paddy again cropped on the cut back

Lots of the waves  unfortunately caught many surfers on the inside and the frantic scramble to get up and over the face was on so many times..

A classic example of the days waves

Tyson Greenaway desperately paddling for the takeoff

Then I realised I’d left the radio in the van and Leanne was going to shout me when Team Rider Ash Lawton arrived, so I figured I’d best head back up to the van and see what was happening…

I went down onto the cliffs in front of the car park once I’d picked up the radio as it was looking pretty good straight out and I’d get some closer shots than shooting right over to godrevy.. Chris Ryan was getting a few nice rides while i was setting up, but got out before i could catch him..
Ash had arrived and was heading out and I’d promised to do a shoot with him so it was good to see a few nice waves rolling in..

Mind you he nearly had a disastrous start off…

Surfer takes off into what looks like a closeout

Ash Duckdives his log to save his ass

Thankfully all incidents were avoided and I’m not even sure if Ash knew how close he was to an extra Bum Crack…

Well the next set was his, a smooth take off on head and a half at least off the bottom and whack the lip cutback up to the lip and floater so nicely executed..

Take off	cut back
Off the lip	Back to the lip

and safely floated down

Classic bit of styling…

Well the afternoon was stacked with some amazing surfing and big sets.. I eventually moved down onto the rocks in front of the lifeguard hut where I had a vantage point of shooting in both directions so I was able to catch the Gwithian and the Godrevy surfers..

Off the lip longboard action

From the Off the lip action and nose rides of the Longboarders on well overhead to double overhead set waves.. to the epic Barrels down the line at Godrevy

Barreled at Godrevy

All in all it was a great sesh albeit cold.. One Lady did impress me very much.. I watched her struggling to get out against relentless overhead waves and thundering whitewater and remember saying to myself  ’she hasn’t got a hope’  Well she did.. she persevered and pushed on and eventually reach the back to score an epic wave and ride it with true skill and mastery.. wel done you!!! makes me proud to support Girls in surf..

a perfectly executed take off	A great ride
One well pleased Lady Surfer..

A Brilliant afternoon

Hope you enjoyed the blog.. check out tons more images at the website here

Later all

Mel^

Not the best combination for Photography at the moment but in these Glary conditions we get what we can and just enjoy the rest

When we arrived the South Coast looked as though it was going to be epic, and no doubt further along the coast it was, but we ended up with a bit of wind which made it a bit harder for the surfers to catch the waves and took the edge off the glassy waves we saw at first..

And then the crew arrived:

THE MOTLEY CREW

I got my stuff together and walked down on to the beach to try find a position where the sun wasn’t directly in my face making everything very difficult to see beyond a few silhouettes.. to add to the Glare the waves were breaking quite far out so in order to get a shot at all I had to go to the far right of the break and shoot on my maximum length of 750mm

The only good thing from a creative point of view is the way the sunlight backlights the wave bringing some fabulous colours into the shots..

But as I said, we get what we can and enjoy the rest and here we were in the middle of January when the rest of the country still has snow and Ice on a beach with nice waves and glorius sunshine.. IN FACT!! My face got sunburnt hows that for January lol..

This young lady was putting on the style and getting some nice rewarding waves to boot..

The sun was slowly moving across making it a little easier to shoot those who were surfing out on my Left closer to the mount.. I’m afraid those directly in front and just to my right were out of luck there was nothing but Glare making it even difficult to look forward let alone magnify it in a telephoto lens lol

Over the road on the Marsh the Bitterns were being harrassed again with hoards of people waiting for one to show.. I always feel a bit sorry for the birds when that happens.. go in 2’s or 3’s but 15 -20 people all standing in close proximity must be unnerving for them… ah well back to the surf.

The other problem of course as well as the glare was the overspray from the waves in front of the surfers.. the wind was catching it and blowing it about so much it was also difficult to get through it..

The Motley Crew finally made their way into the water and it was Freddie who was the first to use the new ‘Stomp’ method of getting to the front of the board… he soon got the hang of it and was back in the middle cruising the wave

The waves just kept rolling in all afternoon past the Mount

All in all there was fun to be had everywhere along the south coast so those who’d tried the north and given up ‘You Missed it’   There were lost Boards floating in on the waves and those who didn’t surf ended up not speaking to each other for reasons best known to themselves..

All in all it was a great afternoon which went on well into the soft light of the evening for those who’d been working to be able to grab a wave too..

Of course the sun can do funny things to you like for instance making you think you’re inside a barrel..

When you actually had been watching Ray inside his..

and then there’s always the new stances coming through when the waves are consistent..

This ones the belly laugh stance..

and this one’ s the imagine you’re milking a cow stance

and then there’s always that distraction when I’m shooting as the birds catch my eye…. like these 3 who were fighting over a crab that one had caught..

Or this one…. well enough said..   The debate here is (and the ladies could help here) is the bit thats glistening in the sunlight actually sequined hotpants or a sussy fastener on lace top stockings (See inset) I favour the stockings.. but then I would lol

Ah well the daydreams continue..

and that was the theme for the whole day over here on the south coast.. whether you were a bird watcher or a surfer there was plenty of everything for everyone… and it carried on right through to dusk..

There comes a time when you realise that as arty as it may be to some, there’s actually not enough light to shoot surf at 1/40th sec on high ISo and its time to give up.. so I’ll leave you with the sun going down over my village of Paul, until next time….

Mahalo

Mel^