South Devon's Creamiest Longboarder

I have just returned from an action packed trip to Lisbon, Portugal where i was competing in the final round of the ETL professional longboard tour.  The sunshine and warm water was very much needed!  The competition was the last round of 4 events with the best three results counting towards final positions on the tour. I had already a 4th from France and a semi final result from Watergate bay (Newquay). I couldnt go to Morocco due to work and no money!, so i had to get a good result to finish within the top ten. The contest was moved on the first day from San Pedro, Estoril to a beachie break called Guincho as the points were not working. Guincho is not know for its good surfing waves, but it was a last option to run the event, so the move was made.  The first rounds were run on the saturday which all ran smoothly, winning my heat. The next day started well apart from snapping my board and having to swim in during the quarter finals, but luckily i had some good scores under my belt and nobody could find the score so i went through to the semi finals. I came up against Ben Skinner, who had already secured the European title already from previous results and nobody being able to overtake him in the runnings.  The conditions were pretty horrible and it was all about picking the ones that didnt close out!  Unfortunetly i couldnt really find any!  I finished 3rd in the semi finals, so not going through to the finals, leaving me in 5th place.  This 5th gave me enough points to finish 6th overall on the tour.  As you can imagine - pretty stoked!  My aim for next year is to qualify for the world tour and find as many warm waves as possible!!  Big shout out to Xcel, Alpine stars, Skindog surfboards, Triocean surfshop and Plymouth Uni for supporting me.  The headhigh productions vid is ready to rock and roll aswell, just waiting for a few possible deals to be done and then all shall be revealed!

Happy Christmas!

I had a bit of a shocker last week and snapped my only two boards with a couple of days of each other, so i grabbed my transformer instead of competing at the Jesus competition in Polzeath.....

Watergate Bay ETL has all wrapped up with Adam Griffiths taking the win over Ben Skinner in an epic final.  The waves were fun with head high onshore sets filling in with the high tide.  I managed to get through to the semi finals moving from 4th to second place in the dying minutes of teh quarter finals against Skindog, Haworth and Nico.  I couldnt find a wave that linked through the whole heat then got the score i needed from one last wave.  This leaves me in 6th place on the 2011 tour.  Heres some pics from the trip to France.  Off to Portugal for round 3 next month!FROTH ON!!

Legendary F1 driver Damon Hill had his eye on the charts and decided that it was going to be good, so drove down to Bantham for a quick surf and gave me some good competing advice to tackle the nerves!

Wel its been a bloody long old drag off a summer with a serious wave drought on the south coast.  Lots of trips up north were needed!  I landed back from France last night, back to dismal rainy Bristol.  Waves were as good as ever, although one massive swell hit leaving only a few places to surf without a jetski! The trip started as it meant to continue with Skinner being late for the ferry from Plmouth port, where he met myself, Ben Haworth and Angus Murray in Haworths pimped Totally T4 van.  Then we were faced with the 9 hour drive down through France, which is never nice, so we had a few stops to pick up magazines and supplies to keep us alert!  When  we finally reached Hossegor we surfed every day, with many drive around checking every spot at 6.30AM before surfing the first place we checked!  The first round of the European Longboard Tour was held on the following weekend, with fun waves, ranging from shoulder high and difficult waves at high tide, to fun over head heavy waves at low.  The low tide bank claimed a few boards, but non of mine lukily!  I surfed through my heats with a close call in an early round where i hadn't had a wave 12 minutes into the heat, but just finding one in the last minute and getting the score.  I came up in a tought semi final against Eduarde Delpero (world no 9), Alexi Daniel and Nico Kerruzac.  I managed to find two ok waves in amongst the close out and beatings and secured my place in the final.  The final was fun with Ben Skinner taking the title, Remi second, Alexi third and myself in fourth.  I couldn't seem to find waves that linked up in the final, but was stoked to be there seeing as there were six world tour surfers in the event!  Big Congratulations to Skindog who also snaped his best baord in the final!

Next stop of the ETL is at Watergate Bay, then Portugal in December, so im super keen for it and this first evernt has left me in good running for a solid placing on the European tour.

Have been working on footage for the HeadHigh Productions Vid, which has been made difficult with the summers waves, but we are nearly there!keep checking back!  Its lookin pretty good so far I recon!

Back from Indo and back into the swing of things!!

The month of shortboarding didn't help me much in the third round of the BLU!  There were fun head high waves by the evening on the saturday, but unfortunately it dropped for the semi finals on the sunday.  Ben Haworth smashed it and won his third event earning himself the british title, so big congrats to him.  

Since being home I have been training hard on the longboard and am now frothing on it again!  Bring on the Boardmasters in August and fingers crossed for waves.

I have a board for sale.  It is exactly the same as what i am riding now apart from a slightly rounder nose.  Its in good condition and teh perfect board for anyone wanting a progressive board.  Dims are 

9'0 x 2 3/8 x 21

£200

Comes with wax on!!!!

Phone or email me to come and have a looook!

Also keep your eyes open for Surf Plus mag for some pics and a write up of my Indo trip!  This is a new mag that will be going out to all the surf shops in the UK, so head over to Triocean and take a browse through and find out some of the mischief I got up to!!

I've made it out to indo for a month for some training and chilling time, although bali is not as chilled out as i expected! crazy roads, crazy traffic, crazy crowds, but crazy waves mean a good time!!  The waves have been fun since i have arrived.  One standout session at a lesser known spot on the East coast will stay in my mind for a long time!  It was exactly as i imagine thementawaiis to be like.  Six foot perfect barrels with only about 8 of us in the water.  The reefs super shallow, and pretty intimidating as you pull in and see teh water drain from benieth you.  Heres a couple of pics from various places around bali.

Hopefullly off to Sumbawa to score some more barrels and hopefully get some shots this time!

Quick vid for ya!  COuple of the boys from the beach went to a gig in London recently and they got the crowed chanting!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cB4cYNkNTCE#t=1515s

Epic job boys!!

The first round of the British Longboard Tour kicked off to a flying start with head high offshore waves at Perranporth last weekend.  After travelling down on the friday and having a rather shakey free surf, with a near board snappage I was hoping the waves would improve for the saturday, and sure enough they did.  The first rounds were run in head high clean waves with a strong offshore on them.  The sun was shining, the water was warmish - well enough to use an infinity comp 3/2 in so getting there!  Team Skindog all made it through the first day winning their respective heats.  The sunday saw shoulder high waves with the same strong offshore on them, but on the low tide bank a few good waves to be had.  The quarter finals were all stacked!  In quarter 1 myself and Ben Haworth chose to sit on the right, while Lumux and Greg Norman opted for the normally consistent lefts.  It paid off for Haworth and I, duelling it for first and second.  Haworth had first from one judge, I had first from another, so it came down to the last judges scores.  Howey 15 - Haworth 15.2! Close but no cigar!  The finals were run on the high tide bank off the island in rather muschi conditions.  Haworth picked off the waves of the heat, clinching the win.

Photo thanks to Sugar Photography

Final Results

Ben Haworth

Ben Skinner

Joe Davies

Me

Although the final didn't go to plan for me its a good start.  For the contest write up with pictures check out the link below:

http://www.surftalk.co.uk/forums/images/presentations/bluperran2011/index.html

Bring on round two at Saunton on the cave - fingers crossed for waves!!  Then its off to Bali for me to hopefully score some waves, so keep checking!

The video from Headhigh Productions is still a working progress, just waiting for some waves of consequence!

yewwww