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.

The Prophecy

All the UKand Euro surfers ive talked to rave about France in September, the waiting is over and it's now time to go and find out for myself! I leave for France on Monday, this image is the predicted weather system for that time, looks pretty much perfect. Expect some surf photos soon...

Bristol

Managed to escape from the madness of London, and am now staying at Emlyn and Moniques pad in Bristol, 2hrs drive west from London. The stereotypical England weather hasnt appeared yet, ever day so far has been beatiful 20-25'c and blue skies. Plenty of parks and trees around too. The above pictures from bottom to top: - Emlyn and Moniques pad in Bristol - One of the many parks, this is about 10m from their house - Downtown Bristol - Foreign fauna - Bristol City from above - Castle in the middle of town

Old London Town

Made it London after passing through some extremely laxed customs at Heathrow, had a friend waiting for me then hit the trains. "Dossed" at Renee and Stringers pad in Shepherds Bush for a few days and partied hard. Had to visit the notorious Walkabout Pub, then went to an awesome all day dance music festival "SouthWest Four" which featured djs Carl Cox, Sasha, John Digweed, John Lawlor, and many more. This pic is of SouthWest Four crankning! More pics to come...

AmsterDAM!

After Bali I stopped in at Amsterdam for afew days on my way to London, heres afew pics that pretty much sums up the place. Pics from bottom to top: - Where I stayed - Stairs from hell (when traveling with surfboards) - Redlight district - Liberal nation

Nusa Lembongan - Take 2

In my last week here in Bali, I decided to go back to Lembongan Island to get some more waves and do some snorkeling, its world class. Got to do some spear fishing to which was heaps of fun, didnt hit many fish but managed to smash up some nice defenceless coral. Heres some pics of the local ecology and me with my speargun of mass destruction. The waves were fun too.

Canggu

Since the swell has remained kinda small, ive being going up the coast to a spot called Canggu (chun-goo), the surfs always bigger up there. Was fun as peaky 3ft, good to be surfing over sand again. Was playn with a puppy in between surfs while I had some breakfast, then this car came along and ran it over in front of me, some indo picked it up and put in the trash, typical indo.

Two Tribes

After a few days at Dreamland the swell dropped again so me and a crew of Dutch and English people ive been hangn with decided to go back to Kuta and go to the Two Tribes dance party being held in Seminyak at a club called Double6.Its a big international party, first time in Bali. Had dinner down the road first, the owners were bringing us out shot after shot on the house, unheard of in Bali! Was an awesome night, loads of international DJs and entertainment, I night to rememeber for sure!

Kelly Slater

Kelly Slater is also in town, heard from some others that he was at bar in Kuta, Embargo, on sat night. I walked past this bar after the All Blacks game and almost went in. He was also apparently also surfing at Dreamlandone afternoon when I was there, I wondered why all of a sudden there were so may cameras on the beach. He's so tanned and short he looks like an Indo though so he's kinda hard to spot.

Dreamland

..after surfing Balangan for a couple of days I treked over the hill to the next beach called Dreamland. Stayed here for a few more days and surfed the second half of the swell. Got some good surf while I was here and a stomach bug from a raw meat patie in a hamburger, bummer.

Balangan

Once the swell was on the rise again I went to a beach called Balangan on the South West coast of Bali that had a long left hand reef break. Stayed here for a couple of days, water so clear you could see he tropical fish (and reef) while sitting in between waves...

Masakan Padang

Once the swell droppped, I had to hang out in Kuta, Bali for a few days waitign for the next swell. At least it gave me a chance to endulge in the other reason for coming to Indo, the food. This is a Masakan Padang (Sumatran food) shop where ive been eating each day. Full meal for $3.

Nusa Lembongan - Straight off the plane and into the tube

First morning I awoke in Bali I jumped onto a boat at 9am to go to Nusa Lembongan Island which is a 1 1/2hrs boa trip from Bali, to get some right handers. There was a good swell running and all the reef breaks were goijg off. Had my first surf at a break called Lacerations, got a tube on my very first wave, then managed to get a couple more. Only hit the reef once and got a slightly lacerated finger. The next day the swell dropped a bit but there were still some good waves at Shipwrecks (pictured).