outere th mickey smith
Over in County Clare, the number of quality waves being ridden is increasing every session, according to photographer Mickey Smith. “The crew here at the minute is definitely evolving with lads like Pete Conroy, Ollie O’Flaherty and Hugh Galloway getting more and more confident. Hugh, Stef Skajarowski and George Franklin now have a ski of their own and they’ve been practising every session they can, doing their time and starting to reap the rewards in heavy pits. Pete broke his back a year ago, but he’s returned this winter with a vengeance. Local shaper Tom Doidge-Harrison has been quietly cruising the lineup at Aileen’s, picking off a few the choice waves, then slipping back into his workshop to refine another board for the next session. St Ives boy Patch Wilson came over for his annual visit last month, and impressed everyone with his full pelt attack at Riley’s.”
stu norton
2 Up in the Northeast, 15-yearold Ross Hargreaves has been one of the standouts at South Shields 2 in recent months. King of Watersports and Xcel have been helping him out with gear, and he’s hoping to head off to Indo in June with some of the local crew...if he can get a job as a paperboy to raise some cash. Residents of the St Merryn area were recently made aware of a worrying planning application to put in a drainage (including treated sewage) pipe flowing onto the beach at Booby’s Bay in North Cornwall. Read the application at http://old.ncdc.gov.uk/media/ adobe/l/8/2009-01754.pdf. The lowering of the water table would affect a large area of both Special Scientific Interest and Outstanding Natural Beauty; also, all sewage would be treated on the premises and the resulting liquids to be disposed of through a soakaway and hence into the groundwater. (Comment or object to the proposal on the Cornwall County Council website: http://onlineplanning.ncdc.gov.uk/eaccess/planning/ Application-summary-Information/SubmitComments. asp?AppNo=DCFCFC6C0DFCEC8CACBC) Andy Haworth has launched a website to help promote Devon Lanes, a film he is making for charity: http:// born2surf.info/born2surf/Devon_Lanes_Surf_Film.html
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The Red Bull Illume is the largest action and adventure photography competition in the world. Illume have teamed up with the Red Bull Wings For Life charity, which raises funds for research into and support of athletes seriously injured and or paralysed while taking part in adventure sports, and have produced a stunning calendar: http://www.wingsforlife.com/ If you want to find a job in the surf industry then you need look no further than the innovative Cross Step project, which is now recruiting surf hungry individuals for its new wave starting in March 2010. The four-week scheme gives young people from across Cornwall the opportunity to gain new qualifications in surf coaching and lifeguarding, as well as growing marketing and presentation skills, developing their CVs and building industry contacts at no cost to themselves. The Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) has been working with Chris Thomson, Managing Director of Errant Surf and Cornwall Business Awards' Young Business Person of the Year 2009, to set up Cross Step. Surfer Mitch Corbett has been through the programme and is now an ambassador for RIO. For more information about Cross Step please visit www.realideas.org/real/work/cross-step. 3 Eric and Annie Davies, Steve and Amanda Daniel (who took these shots), Simon Eaton and Kate Johnson visited Playa Guiones in Costa Rica this autumn, and scored perfect head to overhead waves for two weeks.” Late November sees the start of the dry season, so most of the bugs were dead and the rivers were shallow enough to cross in 4x4s,” says Eric. “The local Tico surfers were cool, yet still pushing hard and landing some amazing and inventive airs yet they never dropped in on us. Respect!”
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On 30 November 2009, Newquay surfer Tom Clinton tragically lost his life aged 26 in a bike accident on the island of Bali. Tom was born in Swindon, moved to Rhosneigr and then to Newquay at the age of 17. He went on to travel the world, surfing some of the best spots on the planet due to his passion for big waves. He was a top class surfer by anyone’s standards who will be dearly missed by all who knew him. The Catch A Wave fund has been set up in his memory and aims to provide surfing equipment for poor youngsters in Java. Donations can be made to J Clinton at Santander Bank (Abbey): a/c 44623294 s/c 090127. Further information on catchawavefortom.blogspot.com.