News

The Level 1 ASI surf coach course that we ran this weekend has to go down as an unqualified success.  All seven of the candidates were successful and achieved their Level 1 qualification and will be released on an unsuspecting public this summer.

We had a great mix on the course – everyone from ageing hellmen like big wave surfer Dan Joel to local 16 year old ripper Paddy Daniel, lifeguards Richie Platt and Josh Daniel and resting Brazilian actor (he’s in between projects at the moment) Fabrizio Postiglione.
Dan Joel is starting up his own surf school over at Poldhu on the Lizard peninsula this summer and we wish him every success – well, maybe not every success but, y’know, a bit.
If you are coming for a surfing lesson this summer then no doubt you will be meeting one or more of them as they embark on what is hopefully a life of surf coaching.

Half term is over and the whole place has calmed down again. Its eerily quiet in the village at the moment, hardly any cars driving through and all is generally very restrained.
Still doing a few lessons but the surf isn’t really cooperating at present. It’s small and windy which is fine for beginner lessons but not so great if you want to venture beyond the whitewater. At least it’s a lot hotter now and if you can get out of the wind (the surf school is in a windless sun trap so its always boiling there) its toasty warm.

We are getting some mad weather too – June really is the best time to be in Cornwall I reckon. Peaceful, relaxed and empty.
And finally, I’ve just cobbled together a video of the flat that I was renovating this winter. Check it out.

Some absolutely colossal waves coming through at Godrevy today. It wasn’t a great day for surfing, just far too windy and way too much swell for Gwithian to be anything other than a mass of bubbling, foaming mayhem. A good day to catch up with paper work and sneak off to Praa Sands for a quick high tide surf though.

Its looking like there will be a fair bit of mayhem on land this weekend with the ‘We are One’ Festival taking place at the Sandsifter this weekend. The big marquees are up and it should be a busy one.
Meanwhile in Peru Paddy Daniel has been dealing with some hefty waves too. Sadly he has been knocked out of the comp now but he took a few scalps while making his way to the fourth round. By my reckoning this makes him about 40th in the world for Under 16 surfers and that ain’t bad. A few Brits are still left in the comp with Jobe Harris in action later this evening. Keep your fingers crossed for him and the rest of the British Team. A 10th place or higher finish, and therefore better seeding, would make things a lot easier for next years team.

Its taken a long time but the new website is finally online. What began with a trip to Jon (a really good St Ives surfer) at Fuse2 8 months ago for a cup of tea and a chat about a ‘few minor tweaks’ mushroomed into a full scale revamp that involved the designers at Dis-similar and a month hunched over a keyboard, eyeballs bleeding and a severe case of repetitive strain injury from date input.

I have to say I am pretty pleased with he results so far but its clear that I am going to have to devote a bit more time to keeping this baby up and running – more time out of the water but I reckon its worth it.
The plan was to make the site a little more interactive rather than just be an advert for our services and to have more interesting video content for our customers to look at. There will be loads more videos getting posted up there in the coming weeks.
It ain’t Facebook but it ain’t bad either. I hope you enjoy it and if you have any ideas on how it could be improved then send me a message.
In other news Paddy Daniel, our young aspiring surf coach, has been sent to Peru to compete in the World Junior Surfing Games and we wish him the best of luck.
Go Paddy!

The Godrevy Pro Junior was completed earlier today in obscenely poor conditions. Howling South winds smashing the rights to bits and making the lefts, to my mind, all but un-surfable – but the groms proved me wrong.

They took to it with gusto and I have to single out a young chap called Jobe Harris who tore what remained of the waves to shreds. He won both the Under 16’s and Under 18’s (no mean feat for a 16 year old) and impressed anyone who watched him – except the other competitors of course. He’s got a really mature and powerful style so I reckon he could be one to watch.
He’s off to Peru in mid May with local lad Paddy Daniel to compete for Britain in the World Junior Surfing Games so keep an eye out for them in the coming weeks.
Well done to the National Trust, Robyn Davies and Nick Holden for putting on such a great event. Can’t wait till next year.

Under 18 Girls
1st Tassy Swalow
2nd Emily Currie
3rd Peoni Knight
4th Flora Lawton

Under 16 Boys
1st Jobe Harris
2nd Miles Lee Hargreaves
3rd Paddy Daniel
4th Max Payne

Under 18 Boys
1st Jobe Harris
2nd Miles Lee Hargreaves
3rd Harry de Roth
4th Taz Knight