...somewhere north of Hossegor. Picture taken the other day after a 2h session:
Showing posts with label Hossegor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hossegor. Show all posts
Friday, 11 September 2009
Sunday, 19 July 2009
Last week’s highlights
Hossegor on Thursday morning. Courtesy of Jeff Ruiz.
-meeting Tyler & Jennifer and surfing with them at Guéthary and taking them out for tapas around Donosti. Glad to meet you guys.
-surfing for my very first time a wave I had heard quite a lot but never surfed before. It’s a reefbreak, not too far from home and it’s more of a winter wave (requires big swells), but it worked on Wednesday (on-shore) and now I know I’ll get there more often.
-trying my Bing Synchronizer as a quad. It works much better than as a bonzer in “not so fast and hollow” waves, and can provide for a good alternative until my new quad is ready as an everyday board.
-checking the forecast and seeing that we might be in for a whole week of waves and light winds.
Stoked.
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Where have I been?
Hi again.
Last Friday smwhere North of Hossegor. Courtesy of Surfing Biscarrosse.
Almost two months since my last post here; sorry about that if you -whoever you are- expected more. The thing is that I've been really busy lately: working on a daily post for my spanish blog, setting up the whole AMSTEL Surfilm Festibal7 - 2009 txiringuito (check out the DailyMotion channel and make sure you send your surf clips; the Surf Short Film Competition is closing in 3 weeks time), putting together some nice texts for the special issue of the next 3sesenta mag, and... not much else really. Money is getting tight and foreign surf mags don't seem to be interested in new contributors. I was a bit bummed when a widely-known english mag that had commisioned something from me some time ago, once got the text asked me to give it for free. I said NO and asked to be paid something (I don't even know their rates), anything... but not for free. And all that in spite of the fact that I got them the photos (from a top local amateur photographer) for free. Problem is I'm a long-time subscriber to this mag and I see, issue after issue, some of the stuff they are printing and - I suppose- paying for and... no comment. Anyway, the text has not been published and sits -bored- in a file somewhere in my laptop guts.
On the other side the good guys of Kurungabaa asked me to send some texts and they selected one. It's going to be printed for free, but in this case I don't care as Kurungabaa is the closest thing to an NGO. And being printed next to some great surf writers such as DC Green, Nick Carroll or Tim Baker is worth more than the couple hundred € that my text would get in another rag. Kudos to them!!
Last Friday smwhere North of Hossegor. Courtesy of Surfing Biscarrosse.
On the surf side it's been a wet and stormy winter, very unlike the last two ones. And spring is doing what's supposed to do: offering a couple of glimpses of what might summer be in between showers. Wrong winds and lots of weak swells. I can't say I've been very happy with my surfing lately but I hope the best is yet to come.
Over & out.
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
A new age
Well, where do I start? Ok, as you might have guessed we came back from Bali a couple of weeks ago but because of work, commitments and some changes in our lives (more on that later) I’ve been extra busy, hence my absence (my other blog hasn’t been so inactive). Bali was great: my wife, who had never been there, enjoyed herself lots surfing small Kuta Reef and learning first hand why surfing a reef is so much better than a beachbreak (looooooooooooong peeling rides). On my side I had more time than during my previous visits to see and experience Bali (the two previous times Bali had just been a launching platform to other nearby destinations) and, thanks to some friends I managed to score some semi-secret waves in places I had never thought they could get swell. On top of that we had a great time, we ate plenty of healthy food, we didn’t get too sunburnt and, apart from a bruised rib that kept me off the water the last few days, we managed to come back home in one piece.
And once back at home the big –bad- news: the company I’m working for is not doing that great and they decided to cut the mkt budget so much that they only need me half time. I’m not going to go here into whether this is the right decision to solve the company’s problems or not (it will help in the short term but will make things really worse in the mid/long term), but the fact is that for the last two and half weeks –and for the first time since I left Uni- I’m not a 9 to 5er.
The immediate consequence of this is that my salary has been cut in half and that we need to get another source of income. But also that –weather and waves permitting- I will be able to surf pretty much every day… even during the short winter days. Hooray!!
The extra time -and the need for some extra income- is giving me the opportunity to try out a few projects I had in my head but, due to laziness and/or lack of time, I had never managed to get myself into. And one of them is writing. So with this in mind I’m giving it a go at the chance to write and have some stuff published one day. In the short term I will increase my collaborations with the usual surf mags (mainly 3sesenta, the oldest Spanish surfing mag). Although my first post-Bali collaboration has come out today in the free surf journal Surf Time, where I’ve written a short piece on the current state of the WQS circuit.
On the other hand I will slightly change the focus of this blog. Until now It's mainly been about the waves of the Bay of Biscay as seen by other bloggers, most of them great amateur photographers. I think I’ve made my point and all you have seen that there’s much more than Hossegor and Mundaka; from now I’ll give this blog a more personal touch. Let’s see how it goes.
And once back at home the big –bad- news: the company I’m working for is not doing that great and they decided to cut the mkt budget so much that they only need me half time. I’m not going to go here into whether this is the right decision to solve the company’s problems or not (it will help in the short term but will make things really worse in the mid/long term), but the fact is that for the last two and half weeks –and for the first time since I left Uni- I’m not a 9 to 5er.
The immediate consequence of this is that my salary has been cut in half and that we need to get another source of income. But also that –weather and waves permitting- I will be able to surf pretty much every day… even during the short winter days. Hooray!!
The extra time -and the need for some extra income- is giving me the opportunity to try out a few projects I had in my head but, due to laziness and/or lack of time, I had never managed to get myself into. And one of them is writing. So with this in mind I’m giving it a go at the chance to write and have some stuff published one day. In the short term I will increase my collaborations with the usual surf mags (mainly 3sesenta, the oldest Spanish surfing mag). Although my first post-Bali collaboration has come out today in the free surf journal Surf Time, where I’ve written a short piece on the current state of the WQS circuit.
On the other hand I will slightly change the focus of this blog. Until now It's mainly been about the waves of the Bay of Biscay as seen by other bloggers, most of them great amateur photographers. I think I’ve made my point and all you have seen that there’s much more than Hossegor and Mundaka; from now I’ll give this blog a more personal touch. Let’s see how it goes.
I hope that the -very- few of you who have followed me until here will keep on bearing with me.
Sunday, 21 September 2008
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.
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:
Asturias by Cezonillo:
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…
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.
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Sunday – back home…
We got back home last night at 4am, after driving for ten hours across Portugal & Spain. I had some work to do down in Central Portugal on Thursday & Friday and I decided to take some days off and do some surfing on my way there. But we got the biggest swell of summer right then and we had to surf some winter waves instead of summer perfection.
All in all it has been a nice little trip in the van, stopping at places never visited before and following our instincts. Sometimes we scored and sometimes not, but we had fun and that is the most important thing.
I will be posting a couple of photos from this trip on my Spanish blog shortly, while I’m posting here a couple of photos to illustrate the kind of freak swell we scored early last week. A true winter swell in mid August… even bigger than the one we had the previous week.
Rodiles – Mundaka’s little sister – by Cezonillo
Orzán (Coruña’s city beach) by Dani
Ibon Amatriain SUPing at Playa Gris (big wave spot near Zarautz) by Pablo Azkue
Over & out.
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