Yellow Wire Freddy For A Day.

Hi All,


longtime since the last blog, Anglet in fact. Well I guess that's down to working my annual summer season in Bilbo Surf Shop in Newquay .... anyhow that's all done until next year so here's the latest.


Local stand up paddlers Oli Beach and Rob Lucas just happen to be in a great band called Yellow Wire. When not gigging or recording you can be sure to see the guys hanging around the Sunset Beach Cafe and along with Rob's brother Ant and band manager sean catching a few waves.  They're a fun, free wheelin' crowd even in the midst of another shite Cornish summer.... oddly enough Yellow Wire's debut single is called 'Where Is The Summer ?' . Good song check it out.


Anyway, stop bolloxing on Small and get to the point. Oli is the driving force of the band and his family were great friends of Freddy Mercury, who of course needs no introduction. So it was a great honor for me to be invited to join the guys and Be Freddy For A Day down at Gwithian. I don't know what happened but I think Freddy invoked The Power Of Rock and blessed us with the best surf and weather possible. 


I got to wear the Freddy suit too. A great honor. And you know not one of the regular surfers (I feel weird saying that as later in the day I rode my 6'2" TVS like any normal person) even raised an eyebrow as I paddled around on a SUP in a garish Freddy suit (Wembley '86) followed by 4 others in Flash t-shirts. A bit surreal but loads of fun and for an important cause.


We spent the whole day down there. Rode some waves, had loads of fun and toasted the great man as the sun set over Cornwall at its best. No doubt there will be many more Yellow Wire SUP exploits to enjoy in the future..... stay tuned.


As for me I'm back off to Lanzarote next week to run Casa Penelope for the winter and get some warm quality waves. Got loads of surf and SUP stuff to do so we'll bog 'em as they happen. 


Rob


Yellow Wire SUP Freddie Vid.

Anglet forever.

Well we're still here in Anglet at the SUP World Tour Event. The rain is still falling and the surf is still shite, although there is actually surf, after a few days of utter poop.  However spirits are high as the reason for still being here is Starboard's John Hibbard making it all the way from the first round of the trials to the main event quarters, along the way taking down Hawaiian ripper (and personal friend!) Ekolu Kalama. We'll see tomorrow if he can continue the giant slaying in his loaded quarter final with Duane Desoto, Colin McPhilips and a french bloke... go the Brit !
For me the stay has been, at the very least, an education. I don't have any paddle boards with me and so took the chance to try some of the Starboard range before choosing a board to surf for the summer and something to race on. John rips on the smaller models and so had brought down boards all under 9'0"..... time to polish those paddle skills Small. Jumping on the 8'5" Pocket Rocket for a quick trial run before my heat I realized that the surfing bit would be OK quickly enough but paddling little SUP boards takes a great deal of concentration and effort compared with the higher volume boards.  Anyway, once more unto the breach ..... my first ever SUP heat was with a couple of Frenchies who acquitted themselves quite well in the small, fat waves and a ball of Polynesian energy with a paddle in the name of Ikaika (Long Hawaiian name I don't have at hand, sorry Ikaika!). We'll of course I came 4th but after viewing the video figured that while Ikaika dominated the heat I was one turn away from taking some French scalps..... ho hum, next year will be better.
Having got the contest out the way toute suit, it was down to getting to grips with these little boards (I actually really, really like the 7'11" Pro, f**k ! 7'11") and checking out all the paddlers' acts. Whilst what actually constitutes good stand up paddle surfing still seems to be open to various interpretations there are some surfers you just can't ignore. World longboard champions Duane Desoto, Colin McPhilips are just killing it. Local Basque heroes Xabi Lafitte and Peyo Lizarrazu are looking very dangerous as are Kainoa McGee and Mavericks Champ Chris Bertish.
Speaking of Bertish, it's great to see him again after a few years and find him in fine fettle. Along with Aussie Dave Muir, Possie (Pommie-Aussie) Gareth Grant , Hibbard, myself and Bertish have been trying to find some waves along the beautiful Cote de Basque. We had some success earlier in the week and a quiet little reefbreak  down the road (until a heavy local tried to seduce Gareth!) and today John, Chris and I surfed the famous right at Lafitenia. Choppy overhead waves gave Chris and I just enough of a beating to keep us honest before John paddled out giggling at our misfortune. Things settled down sufficiently for us all to get a few nice rights until John's leash snapped (teach you to laugh at other's misfortune Hibbard) and his prize 7'4" (yes that's right 7'4") wedged itself in the rock wall beneath the campsite and ended up perched on a ledge 20ft up from the smashing surf and 20ft down a shear wall. Bertish and John went into rescue mode. John descended to his trapped board and passed it up to Chris, avoiding possible death on the rocks and escaping intact. All in all a highly entertaining day !
So even though the weather is pants, the surf generally disgusting and France too expensive I've had a ball. I mean who can say he's dropped 2'6" of his board length, met Mr and Mrs Ekolu Kalama, shook hands with Buzzy Kerbox, hooked up with an old friend, seen 110K Dave Muir bash the fuck out of a knee high piece of slop, watched his team-mate move into the last 16 in the event and laughed his socks off every 5 mins ?

Springtime Fun.

Well hello there and welcome to the second instalment of our Lanzarote SUP blog.

With spring whipping on we’ve seen the swell get a little less consistent but without the normal strong springtime trades there’s been some fun little waves to be had around the island. Particularly good has been a quiet little lefthander near Casa Penelope. A cracking SUP wave (providing there’s not loads of local surfers out!) with a couple of racy sections, couple of cutback sections and a rock in the wall just to keep you on you toes ! Brilliant fun and with the warmer the normal water temperatures this year it already feels like summer.

When the trades have been blowing we’ve been escaping to the other coast. There’s plenty of scope down there with the sheltered corners great for lessons, some sneaky little waves to be had (sorry no clues!) and even some nice downwind runs. 

For me the classes have been great fun, just seeing people exceed there expectations, gain confidence and really start to get into their paddling. We had a fun visit from the guys at Brookbank Canoes, Mark and Lorna Burch, who came as kayak paddlers and left having found their feet .... or at least a bloody good use for them ! Mark particularly wanted to get some waves and by his last session was paddling in, making his turn and running down the line. Great effort from the man. Brookbank have hooked up with Starboard, so if you’re near one of the shops pop in and check out the new kit.

Our other clients have been getting stuck right in too, and not without success, check out Nige and Ali in the photos ....  first time in open water !

As for me I’ve been jumping between my SUP boards and my normal surfboards. The last really good surf I had was a good solid 12-15 ft day out at La Santa Point with local maestro Javi Polo. Since then there’s been waves but nothing really solid or heavy so it’s been good to paddle, get in the water and have fun. A couple of years ago I’d of probably been on the sofa instead of in the water !!

So with summer in the UK looming and a possible trip to the SUP World Tour event in France next month I’m keen to get in the water as much as possible here ... I think there’s a good west swell coming in a couple of days and hopefully we’ll get some strong trades soon so there’ll be some outside bumps too. Got a fantastic 20k downwinder planned through some of the most scenic coast I’ve ever seen..... we’ll keep you informed.

A Bit Of Blue

Jumping right in with my new Lanzarote stand up paddle blog I figured the best way to start would be with a blog about doing just that.... jumping right in.

As with most surfers who’ve picked up a paddle in recent years the transition to riding waves on stand up boards was relatively simple once I’d sussed out the basic paddle techniques and had a few tips from Tim Mellors on handling the bigger boards in surf (Thanks Tim you’re a gent!) . We get to ride prone paddle surfboards over 9 ft here in the Canaries quite regularly so I’m sure that being accustomed to a bit of volume under the feet helped out too. Pretty soon it became obvious that not only did my SUP work brilliantly at the normal surf spots here but also could get me easily to outer reefs or to breaks with no close road access. Bloody great fun and therapeutic in it’s own way as the journey to and from becomes part of the act as opposed to just moving from place A to place B. It was on these solo paddles that I started to think about the other side of this sport, downwind paddling and even inter island crossings. In my twenties I started to ride bigger waves, not with the motivation of turning myself into a ‘big wave surfer’ but to get away from the crowds and associated problems. I like the honesty of playing chicken with big lumps and the feeling of being surrounded by something on a scale almost unimaginable for a single human being. And this was exactly the vibe I was picking up on these trips out on Lanzarote’s north shore. Bitten by the bug I knew that unfolding in front of me was an entire new way to get in the water, something far removed from the narrow definition of a surfer that was me for many years. It was time to get geeky.

I’d been riding my wife’s Starboard 9’8” swallow tail and not being too versed on downwind paddleboard design decided that if Starboard had kept me excited in the surf then they’d do the same out in the deep blue. I checked out their web site, this being the first time I’d ever used this medium to get my new kit fix. There were a couple of possibilities but standing apart like some kind of weird aquatic missile was the 14’8” Point. When I first saw stand up paddle boards a few years ago they looked a little strange to my eye but at least they are recognisable as surfboards. This thing was plainly a very different piece of gear. I mean, shit, it’s even got a rudder that you control with a flexible rod arrangement on the deck. The blurb said it was built to do exactly what I was yearning for. That was it, a quick e-mail to Starboard confirmed there was one in stock and I sneaked it in with a order of less extreme models for the start up of my Lanzarote SUP school.

While waiting for delivery I upped the geek stakes, checking out forums, brand sites and even checking out downwind tips from Guys like Todd Bradley and Ekolu Kalama. I even found myself standing on my bed checking dry running through paddle techniques, the 40 year old’s equivalent of teenage guitar practice ! What I needed was to get in the water and surf instead of surfing the virtual wave.

Finally 3 big boxes arrived. The guy from the freight company happily informed me he’d had to bend the biggest box at the end to get in in the van. No need to worry though, all the boards including the Point had survived transit without any damage. Unwrapping my new toy and seeing her in the flesh for the first time I started to see just how different this type of equipment is. I also started to suspect that this downwind lark might be a good bit different from anything else I experienced on a board...

After setting up the rudder I headed off to the La Santa lagoon for a bit of orientation. Paddling the beast wasn’t a problem and it was apparent from the start that this thing would go fast...it cut through the calm waters of the enclosed lagoon with amazing ease and yet turned in a much smaller arc than I expected. Feeling a bit cocky now it was the moment to try the steering system. By pushing the deck mounted bar I could turn the rudder (or is it still a fin?) and either turn on in theory keep going in a straight line against crosswind, currents etc. Things didn’t seem to be going well though as I kept yawing to one side even after I released the bar.... the rudder wasn’t settling back into a neutral position. This seemed to be caused by unequal tension on the two steel cables and a bit of tinkering got things sorted. I certainly a happy fella and actually hoped the wind would pick up and come onshore so I could get into some real lumps... quite a departure from 30 years of wishing for light offshores !

The following day was windless so Julie and I cruised up the coast from Playa Honda to Arrecife. I was getting more comfortable on my new baby, changing my paddle stroke to a longer one and happy with the now functioning steering system. Nice easy conditions but my head was on the following day... the was wind and swell on the way.

Sure enough the next day was a stunning Canarian day with azure skies, 2 metre swells and the palms bending in the fresh westerly wind. With the high tide around midday I decided Caleta Caballo was the spot for my maiden downwind session. Pretty soon I was standing on the boat ramp with my still unfamiliar vessel, a new carbon paddle cut a little longer than my surfing one and a good solid Rhino Chaser leash.... ready for battle but without a real plan of action. Coming of the ramp was a doozy but I’d have to paddle against the wind to get enough distance to run with the wind back into the bay. I came out of the shelter of the low volcanic coast and the wind hit me harder than I’d expected. Funny but it hadn’t felt this strong on the beach. I kept at it and got level with the unsurfed slab left that marks the mouth of the bay. The swell outside was bigger, tossed about with white caps from the west wind. The Point went through it all without problems but it was hard work and my legs were already feeling it. I turned carefully and started my first ever downwind run back into the bay. Expecting to pick up the bumps with ease I was shocked at how different it all felt, this wasn’t a just a discipline of surfing, it was an entirely different sport! Trying to feel what was happening underneath me I started to see the holes in front but just couldn’t get gliding. Managing to stay on my feet I hadn’t been sure footed enough to use the steering system and with the difference in wind and swell directions I’d been pushed to the far side of the bay and had a long upwind slog back. Head down and determined I got down to it. Nothing was going to stop me getting onto one of those outside rollers. The second run was better, at least at the beginning. The steering worked well and I was getting some short glides. And it was starting to to feel very very fun. Coming over the part of the reef that breaks as the second peak in bigger swells a sweet bump stood up and suddenly things started going much faster, caught by surprise I neglected to switch into surfing stance and was in the water in a flash. I guess it had to happen at some point ! Paddling upwind again the burn started in my thighs, shit I’d only been in the water 20 minutes and I was feeling it! Digging deep and making my way a outside into the wilder water, determined to feel what I’d wanted to for months I stared my third run. Almost losing it a couple of times before getting inside the headland , ignoring the straining thighs it suddenly came together. Picking up on a swell the board started planing and just gliding through the blue... what a feeling! Sheer enjoyment, blasting effortlessly along in amongst the rolling swells. An absolutely brilliant moment but alas, far to brief. I wanted more but was too blasted to continue so it was back to the ramp.

In just half an hour of paddling I was shattered and I’d learnt a great deal, mostly about what I don’t know. What was glaringly obvious was that I’d just had a first taste of a something that’s going to be lots and lots of fun. Being out in the deep water is so addictive, so free, so wild.. Can’t remember being this stoked on a new way to surf since I first rode a tow board.

Keep tuned in as we hit the island’s coasts for and discover what’s out there.... hopefully there’ll be less paddling and more gliding !!