A taste of home!

Here's a pic of my old home'lo, Raglan. Thanks for the pic Davo, keep 'em coming! Pic 1: Boneyards, Raglan goin' off:

Coffee in the land of Tea

For anyone who has yet to have the priviledge, "The Bean" cafe and roastery in Whakatne, NZ makes the worlds best coffee. Simon's coffee's have turned the biggest coffee skeptics into full-blown addicts, including myself. Since leaving the shores of Whakatane, I have searched in vain for a coffee that can satisfy my addiction, nothing has come close. I had black mud in Bali, watery brown milk in Amsterdam, crap in a cup in France/Spain, and in England, the land of Tea drinkers, its been even harder. I have finally found a little stall operating in the centre of Bristol which knows what milk frother is though and can make something that resembles a latte. Thank god! Pic 1. Andrea getting a fix, Bristol Coffee stall:

UK waves take 2

One of the best weather sytems of the year for swell for the British coast passed by a few days ago so I headed to the coast again to see what it would deliver. Pic 1. This is the swell map, darkewr the colour bigger the waves. (Thats the UK in the top right hand corner)

Pic 2. Swell lines stacked and the winds offshore, Saunton Pt, Devon. Pic 3. Country Lane traffic jam. Pics 4 & 5. Putsborough on the Devon Coast, where we surfed with about 100 others, 3-5ft and howling offshore.

Pic 5. A beer in a country pub, perfect reward for a thousand duckdives and having to avoid kooky longboarders all day.

England puts out

The following pics are from a trip down the coast a few days ago, really good surf for anywhere let alone England! Water temp wasnt bad either, got 2 surfs in at 2 great spots. Pic 1. First look at the new swell at sunrise. Pic 2 & 3. Surf goin' off at Croyde Pic. 4 - Croyde again, this picture was taken while we surfing.

Pics 4 & 5. After having an awesome surf at Croyde, we went and checked out a Raglan like point break called Lynmouth on the way home and scored it by ourselves.

Leg 4 - Quiksilver Pro

The Quicksilver Pro 2005 was held from the 22 Sept - 2 Oct and is planned to conincide with the best time of the year for surf conditions. Once again the pro's scored perfect conditions and me and Emlyn were there to reap the rewards also. The follwoing are all pic's I took (except the 2nd to last one) while at the event (between surfing myself). For more pro pics and videos clips click on the "Quicksilver Pro 2005" link on the right hand column of this page Pic 1. Walking down to the contest site Pic's 2 & 3. The stage "La Graviere", Hossegor. Pic 4. The Crowd Pic 5. The Man, Kelly Slater. Slats only had to finish higher than Andy Irons to secure the title for the year but was knocked out in the quarters, Andy went on to win the event. Pic 6. NZ'er Maz Quinn got 2nd in the trials event allowing him to enter ther main event. He got through a few heats then came up against Andy Irons in round three. Maz got the wave of the heat, a huge left hand tube but got robbed by the scorers while AI got over scored and won in the last few seconds. Maz got blatantly robbed. Pic 7. Maz charged the huge, hollow surf and done NZ proud. Pic 8. The left, the pro's free-surfed this amazing bank all event

Pic's 9 & 10. Two angles on Mick Fanning's huge barrel in his against Jeremy Flores. This wave closed out on him after he rode it for about 50 metres. And he lost.

Leg 3 - Nothern Spain

After surfing around the south west coast of France for a few days, we continued south and across the Spainish border. We drove most of the beautiful nothern coast checking all the spots on the way. A lot more interesting than the French coast, the roads follow the coast and there and are huge mountains everywhere. Wasnt very much swell around but we scored a place called "Rodiles" by ourselves at 2-3ft, very similar in every way to the Whangamata Bar back in good 'ol NZ. Water temp is lot cloder in Spain than France as well.

Pic 1. On the road, Spainish motorway.

Pic 2 & 3. Rodiles, you can see the break in the background. Pic 4. Camping at La Esenada camp ground, Rodlies. Pic 5. One of the worlds best waves, Mundaka at 1ft. Pic 6. Los Locos beach Pic 7. Another mint spainish beachie we found, we had a freezing night free camping here, there was a dusting of snow on the hills in the background the next morning. Still got fun clean 2ft waves. Pic 8. San Sebastian, Spain (Basque). Had a big night out here in this beatiful historic town right on the beach on the French/Spainish border. Woke up with killer hangovers and of course the surf had picked up and was goin' off. We hit the road and made our way back to Hossegor for the Quiksilver Pro France 2005...

Leg 2 - South West France

After enjoying a taste of real France up in the rural north, we drove down the coast to the main attraction for surfers, Hossegor, on the south west coast where the worlds best beach breaks are found. Water was warmer down here and the days hot, it still chilled off at night, especially when camping and doing dawnies in wet wetties each morning! 1. Bourdaines, Hossegor. Had just come in from surfing this break, was pretty big and pretty epic. This was day 4 of the Quicksilver Pro. 2& 3 . St Jean. Checked out some reefs in an area called St Jean du Luz which is 30 minutes south of Hossegor. Found this uncrowded bay with awesome lefts and rights breaking over reef, great surf. 5 & 6. Tom Curren! On the huge day, we went searching and checked Lafatenia again as its sheltered from the swell a little. 4 times world champ and legend of surfing Tom Curren pulled up in the car park next to us and paddled out.

7 & 8. La Piste, Capbreton. Capbreton is a little town next to Hossegor and has some awesome beach breaks. This break is called La Piste and has old bunkers from the WW2 in the shore break.

Leg 1 - North France (Brittany Coast)

Left the white cliffs off Dover, England at 2am on the ferry bound for Calais, France. After 7 hours of driving we arrived at the North Coast of France, Brittany, thankfully there were waves. 1. First look at French waves, Brittany Coast. Pic 2. Baie de Trespase, Brittany. Translates to "Bay of Death", thought it sounded like a good place to free camp for the night. This is the most North West point of France. Pic 3. Free camping on the hills above the Bay of Death. Pic 4. Baie de Trespasse plage (beach). Got some average 3-4ft waves here.