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..

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 ^

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..

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^

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^

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^

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^

Finally I’m Beach worthy again and out for the first shoot of this year as far as surf or wind is concerned.. missed the best this week but managed an hour down at Marazion today with the Kitesurfers..
First off a Big thanks to the Guys and girls down there for making it a great opportunity for a few shots, hopefully you’ll enjoy some of them in the Gallery

Its always nice to see the Ladies out there enjoying the surf and wind in such a male dominated sport as Surfing Windsurfing and no doubt Kiting, and all power to them they were doing a great job..

Well it was action from the start, although I have to admit I wasn’t thereat the start of the session, but certainly from the time I got down the beach it was action packed.. not the best shot in the world as this Surfer leapt into the air behind me directly in front of the sun but I liked it silhouette or not…I have to make an apology round about here as I’m useless at remembering names but I also have to get used to all the guys out there who surf Marazion Regularly with the kites because I have no idea of most of them.. so if ya want to help out by putting names to images I’d greatly appreciate a note or email.

On with the show and here’s a spectacular Sequence of one of the High Flyers.. and yes he did land it and carry on..

The shots don’t really do justice to the Heights gained by some of these guys on their leaps but believe me when I say this Guy was pretty damned High.. High as a kite

Here’s another guy who was putting on some spectacular moves, though again I have to admit I don’t know the names of the manouvers or jumps, and its something I really should get to understand as with the surf and windsurf I understand the timing and the moves set ups etc so it makes for better shots.. as I don’t believe you can get the best out of a session if you’ve never surfed, I should practice what I preach and study the manouvers of the kiters to understand more about the sport and give them better results of  a  session than I can  just picture taking..

All in all I’ve a lot to learn about this sport so if anyone wants to help with a chat I’m always open.. I’m certainly going to be doing more this year hopefully now I’m on the Chemo anti TNF treatment making it more possible for me to get out there.

Enough of that and on with the session..

Like all Photographers I like a pretty face in the picture so sorry Guys you’re gonna lose out every time when there’s smiles to be had from the ladies

Even though most of the times the smiles are an embarrassment at having a big Lens poked in their direction lol … Don’t get me wrong though, I take nothing away from these Ladies, they were doing what they were out there to do and doing it well as you can see from the shots…

Its just a bonus that they’re a whole lot prettier than most of you (well in my eyes anyhow ) lol

And they SMILE!! sometimes you lot can look rather menacing lol..  J/K

Well I’d decided to limit myself today to ease myself back into shooting, and I also wanted to try out the new setup on the website which is an awful lot more work behind the scenes setting up the pick of the day and the highlights etc, so I’ll just finish off with a few of my favourites from the session and make apologies to those I missed..

A nicely executed manouver … I liked this..  (Gotta stop sounding like bloody facebook)

Not sure if this was strapless surfing but I have a feeling it was.. always nice to see different manouvers made from different boards..

Here’s another spectacular leap perfectly executed and landed…

and finally more of those nervous/ embarrassed  smiles I was talking about which I feel (if I can get names and email addresses from these 2 ladies ) definitely warrant going into the Splash Pose Free Monthly Prize Draw (see Pick of the day Page for details)

Thanks again to everyone out there for making it a great first session of 2010 for me..

Mel^