down not out

Lots of change going on… I am now unemployed, so it's bye bye Cornwall soon and hello Wales…and the world. Hopefully I'll get to see some of it again! It's mad to think I've not been on an actual holiday for nearly five years (yes, magazine surf trips count, if you like stress, hassle, looking after teenagers and standing on the beach with a camera and dictaphone) so I reckon it's time to hit warm waves. What else is redundancy money for?!

Surfed today and it was no quieter than a weekend cos of half term. 2-3ft quite peaky, couldn't catch fuck all. This time of year is so bloody hard for intermediates, especially if your fitness isn't quite all it should be. I kinda give up for a bit. Unless it's sunny clean and nice I won't bother. I know it'll be okay when it's warmer again, always is. Right now, I question the hours and hours I've spent surfing when I can't catch a decent wave in an hour! Grr!

Got a contract to write a how-to surfing book, so I'm stoked on that, and I'm so happy to be going home. Hope the swells continue up there…

walking, surfing, thinking

I'm lucky to walk the beach path every day. On this morning last week, the Headland Hotel floated in the mist. Headless.


I just like this. The footing for some sort of pole, I guess. It's so weathered, it makes lovely reflections, it disappears and reappears as the sand levels change. It has a collection of very differently coloured pebbles held in the hole at the top. It's kind of like a little castle, surrounded by a moat, guarding its treasure.


A few days ago on the morning dog walk, a little brown hawk began to hover over me, looking to snaffle an early morning breakfast of the rodent kind from the bank above the Windswept Cafe. It was supremely confident in flight, feathers flipping here and there, body totally still. It turned to look at me, standing there updating the MSW eyeball surf report, dismissed me (despite some goon hollering "Wow! What a good photo you're going to get!" and carried on). It got really, really close, and caught something furry.

On Saturday I was surfing Gwithian, out from from the Jam Pot (yummy egg butties), and a dolphin/porpoise surfed a wave in front of me as I paddled out. It was a split-second view of a perfect arc. S/he had more fun out there than me - it was Baltic!


I've had a mad week this week, and I'm so looking forward to more of the above - quality time wtih good friends on lovely beaches! This is Rach, Abs, Laurz and Furtle in Marazion.

Back to business

Went for a surf on Saturday with friend and colleague Jane at Tolcarne. It was so sunny and quiet at 9am, most of the town still abed. Nice to surf the Bay without hordes of people in. No girls other than the two of us. We made it out deceptively easily, but a big wipeout and relentless closeouts did for Jane with her bigger board – no duck-diving that beast.

It was two foot-ish and clean, perfect to get into it again, but I couldn't get up! Popping fine but tripping over myself. Got one closeout — hm — and five where I tripped. But it was sunny and I wasn't toooo cold (hands were, gloves are thick as but not great still). Stayed out a couple of hours though so not bad. Don't feel too unfit. Duck-diving was hideous, pure tortre after one or two. But the air was clean and the water smooth, and the last wave was a funny wipeout…so I'll take that.

Monday saw a quiet day so I took the chance to head to Fistral which had perfect three-foot peaks in sunshine and the doleys/hospitality workers/self-employed were making the most of it. Here I fared a little better and paddled as hard as I could to grab a couple of okay ones. It was more the chance to sit and unravel a few things in my mind that sticks it as a good surf. And the beach so empty, the time just mine.

Everything unfrozen, there seems more life about the beach now. The fogs have been crazy recently; always make you look at the land anew. And I've seen a huge dead jellyfish (rare that size, rarer still in winter) and a very much alive hawk, hunting the bank above the Windswept Cafe. Plus snowdrops are poking up by the front door. Nature, waves and yoga are prising my conciousness up from a recent slump, and I remember tajitu and the interconnectedness of everything.

disconnected

Today I spent my lunch hour in Aldi carpark, watching the waves. I should have got in there. Three feet, clean, calm and sunny, and actually peeling for once. A handful out down beyond the baby waves of Towan. It was beautiful.

My initial reaction? Not to belt it back to my van, fight into my suitbootshoodrashyglovesplugs combo and race in, but just to stand and watch. How often do I do that? Rhetorical question. Never. Neverever. I live here, surf here and work here, so there's always something to be doing other than gawping like a tourist (best way to insult a local, tell them they look like a visitor).

What I did do, in fact, was drag out the iPhone and tweet. I had the urge to update my Facebook status as well, but then another set rolled in and I just watched it. I am always updating endless accounts wherever I go, mostly for work, but sometimes I don't want to. I just want to keep it to myself (and the crusty hanging off the railing next to me). This view and these 20 minutes of peace, chin resting on hands resting on fencepost, eyes resting on horizon, are mine, just mine.

Half-asleep in the sunshine, I idly thought about SUPpers (why, no really, why do they do it?), where bomb sets come from, and other questions that only occur to me when my fingers (cut-paste-tap-tap-slide) are forced to cease fidgeting, lulled by rare sunshine on rare unglovedness.

Then NatWest texted me to tell me my balance. Why do they call it balance when it's always sliding hellishly towards a Mines of Moria darkness? I was jacked back in. So I bought the Super Six in Aldi (RedLasering a few things as I went) and came back here to write a randomness. Now my cut-paste reflex is revving up, so I must get back to work.

…I should have got in there.

snow time

Snow yesterday, and it was beautiful for a little while, but the salty air did for it by this morning. A snowy picture of mine appeared on the Stranger website (I love Stranger). Cornwall (and especially Newquay) definitely retains more of a sense of wonder about the snow, as we see so little of it.

snowy newquay

One of my photos of snowy Fistral made it onto a BBC report about all the snow in Cornwall.

Pretty chuffed with that, especially as it was taken with the iPhone (the one above wasn't!). I am loving everything I can do with it, especially the Pano application. Got the best panorama of the snowy golf course and surroundings this morning. I also love Gorillacam, and I'm now searching for the best filters app I can find. Love a bit of sepia.

Atlantic Hotel sunrise and Great Western Beach.

There's no surf though, and I'm missing Wales like mad (there's loads there…).

happy surfers

This is Gus, who bought my old T&C board about six weeks ago. It was rather hard to tell whether the board would suit him or not, as he lives on the south coast and I live in Cornwall, but it looks like he's pretty happy with it! Makes me rather sad as I bought that board in Fuerte and it really ramped my surfing level up when I came back from Oz. Good memories, but hey, I outgrew it and I'm glad someone else loves it too.

I've had one really good surf at Fistral recently, but work and dark nights has precluded the amount of waves I'd like to have grabbed… Yesterday was nice, 2-3ft clean peaks but the crowd was pretty bad and the new bright pink-armed wetsuit makes me feel like a right prat. Still, it was a bargain…


Nothing like a proud mama for taking surf photos on a cold crappy day!