Sunday – new mag & off to Bali

Very briefly:
The run of good waves is not stopping. Here are some photos, but there are plenty more in the usual blogs and webs where I normally source them from. September is truly prime time here in Europe. If I didn’t live here and I wanted to come on a surftrip, September is the month I would choose to travel.

Pantín by Dani:

Meñakoz by Surf 30:


Oléron by Tristan Mausse:

Salinas by Clau:

Asturias by Cezonillo:

Salinas by Clau:

Those of you who are interested is contest surfing probably know by now that the top surfers (WCT) are in France because of the Hossegor contest. But there has been plenty of other events up and down the coast these last few days/weeks. Maybe not as relevant from the surfindustry point of view, but with heaps more soul in them: Check this video here from the Royal Single Trophée (held last weekend in Anglet)…


Royal Single Trophée 2008 from moussrider on Vimeo.

and click here to watch some photos from the surf art expo up in Seignosse.

Also, and because of the Hossegor contest the English speaking surf media (basically American) can’t help writing about the most obvious topics re. French culture when reporting about the competition. Unfortunately, only those aspects of the French culture that seem to be more unacceptable in their narrow worlds are mentioned, such as the speedo wearing & nudity on the beach, or the snails & frog eating. It is quite shameful that surfers (and one still believes that the surf media is operated and owned by surfers), who have always prided on being quite open minded end up talking/reading about the same silly topics as anyone else would. Seriously, I still have to see a single European (UK non included… but again they never want to be Europeans) surf media using the same kind of antiques when reporting about the Lower Trestles (California) WCT event for example. Maybe it is about time that we Europeans start writing about the masses of overweight people and silicone breasted females that we see on Californian beaches & streets, where it seems to be cool to own a 4wd oil guzzling machine to drive to the mall some 100 yards away. Or again maybe not; maybe we should not loose hope and expect that one day those narrow minded writers/editors -and their publishers- will experience the unique feeling of being open minded and respectful.

But all is not lost. Last week I got to meet Mr. Erik Olson –the Californian surfer & shaper behind this blog- and his lovely wife, Ms. Oaks, with whom I got to spend a lovely afternoon in Donosti. They seemed to be genuinely interested in what happens in the old continent, besides the obvious topics about the French, the Spanish, the Basque, etc…. Erik, if you read these lines I hope you are safely back at home and I look forward to see you soon. It was a real pleasure to meet you guys.

The last 3sesenta (issue #130) has come out, and with it my last piece about the future of Spanish high performance surfing. I’ve added the cover on the right hand side.

And this is my last post before I’m off to Bali with my wife next weekend for 3 weeks of surfing and… surfing. My wife has never been to Bali before and although from a surfing point it’s not my favorite place, I’m looking forward to the idea of exploring what lays beyond the obvious Kuta-Nusa Dua (Bukhit included) area. I don’t know if I’ll will post from Bali, so I will probably write here again in late October. Until then…

Over & out.

Monday – updating

Well, we can’t really complain, can we? As I stated before, this is being one of the most consistent summers in years. People are surfing winter spots in the middle of August… in trunks!

And these last two weeks haven’t been that different. Sure, we haven’t had another big swell but look at these 3 shots:

Nice overhead waves in Sopelana two Wednesdays ago by Surf 30.

Nice, calm and settled in Galiza the next day (by Dani).

And another nice swell last Thursday, smack in the middle of the 5*WQS that was taking place in Pantin. It’s not often that WQS surfers get to surf these conditions, especially during the European summer leg (by KingMatt).

On a more personal level I can’t complain as I’ve managed to score a few nice waves since arriving from Portugal. We have just entered September, which is supposed to be one of the best months of the year, and after spending the whole weekend in bed (cold) it looks like it’s going to be very small but clean and off-shore today and tomorrow, building up on Wednesday and then big and on-shore for the rest of the week. All I need is to get rid of this cold and to resume my surfing training in order to be in shape by the end of the month, when we shall be bailing to Bali.

P.S.: Btw, this coming weekend the 7th Royal Single Trophée is taking place in Anglet (Friday to Sunday)… but I’m afraid that the waves and the weather will not be very cooperative. Shame.

Over & out.

Sunday - Comic Strip # 6

Any given day

Excuse my absence, but since we came back from Portugal that we are receiving people non stop at home... and the workload doesn't diminishes either. Later on I will upload the last photos and news, but meanwhile here is a little comic strip I finished yesterday after a couple of similar surfs I had this week.

In Zarautz for the early one (both on Thursday and Friday) with nice conditions I started both surfs with a great righhander that enabled me to carve a couple of times and make me look a better surfer than I actually am... only to spend the rest of the session looking for a similar wave hopelessly. As time passed by (and the unavoidable run to the office grew nearer) I made more and more mistakes and wrong choices. At the end of both surfs I had a bitter taste in my mouth: sure I had had a very good wave... but I had had one and one only.

Thank's Huey for Selective Memory: right now, while I'm stuck at home with a mild case of throat infection, the only thing I remember from my last two surfs are the couple of great rights I got..

Over & out