[granticus]

Was down your favourite bouldering spot a month or two ago (it was actually working this time!) and met one of the friendliest locals I've ever come across. More or less bullied us into the water with his enthusiasm and was whoopin at all and sundry. A bit of an uplift after some of the neoprene clad stoneface warriors at Croyde.

This could only be one person ... and he is normally very high spirited as you met him...  However, once upon a time he was having a bad time of it in his personal life and getting repeatedly snaked on the rights.. Let's just say the otherside of his personality came out, quite a shock for us all but looks like normal service has resumed.  Glad to hear it.
As for Croyde, it is and probably will always be a VERY 'competative' break, on good days there will be a sense of aggression in the air.  Frowning faces and people paddling around you to get into position on a wave are common place.  It can be like surfing in a competition without the judges on the beach!  For the timid or inexperienced this is not a good place to surf, particularly around low-tide.  I cut my teeth at Croyde and made all the mistakes you could possibly make to upset the locals. From fading (pulling out of wave I had priority for), to dropping in, to being in the way on the inside.  Words were had, I felt daft and nervous.  But as FD says this shouldn't be mistaken for localism.  Generally, if you get shouted at in Croyde you have probably made a boo boo.  I've never seen anyone called out the water for being a non-local.  However, if you're a regular face at the beach and the other regulars know you are competent, friendlyness and respect will begin to come your way.  Which is probably the case at many a beach in the UK.  A smile and a hello goes a long way, whether it be at a surf break or a crag.  Have to agree that anyone stating a claim to a particular break because they surf there a lot or live near it is absolutely ludicrous and the domain of a small minority of numb cowardly minds.
I'm sure Oldfella's all fluffy and cuddles in reality.  Now get off MY peak! 

[SA Chris]

As an aside, this guy is fucking hilarious and should have a column in one of the mags. Some great writing.

http://asl-insidethegoldmine.blogspot.com/

[clm]

Yeah! Who'd have thought it surf in Sssssssss   .......... Scarborough..  and Whitby Bay  Thanks a bunch FD...
If I needed that kind of knowledge I'd have looked at Magicseaweed or my Surf UK guide...which I just did.. These aren't secrets they're normal slack beachies, exactly NOT what I'm looking for  
Suppose you think you're  funny:lol:

well done Falling Down, there's too many tourists popping up to the North east to surf those places he seeks.


 

what happened to initative, grab some fuel and a map and find your waves. the north east isn't like the the west coast of OZ...........

Philo, i don't care whether you're a 'surfer as well', good for you.
what i find annoying is that you  are telling people to look at areas where perhaps they wouldn't.

why is it that people need to be told where to surf nowdays????
if people like you want to tell people where the waves are, before you know it, all surf spots will be like the frantic self centred breaks in the south west and south wales.


give people who have the iniatitive & patience in learning to read charts, the reward of enjoying their efforts.

Oldfella you're being a bit daft - this island of ours that we all live on is so pissy little that a quick look at a surf guide and a chart can get you to most parts (bar the far north) for a weekend or long weekend (and even there if you a psycho).  Philo was hardly letting the cat out of the bag there....charts show a fuck off big swell coming from the north east followed by a suggestion to surf on the north east.  Not rocket science....and people who live away from the coast are bound to travel to breaks.

[Aussiegav]

As a relative newcomer to surfing I have to admit that I really don't get localism. The only sensible reason I can think of for it is that spots only work at certain times and under certain conditions and that good waves at these places are therefore limited. Kinda like people crowding to try Brad Pitt on a freezing day in the winter. To claim you have some greater right to surf a beach than anyone else, to me, seems ludicrous.

you kind of the the nail on the head there Baron,
the way i can explain it is;
Imagine  you had been training like  madman and waiting for perfect conditions to try and red point a project at Malham.
then after after 3 weeks of rain and endless endless training, a perfect cool dry couple of days come. you get in your car, do your warm up routes then head over to your line, only to see a whole heap of people abseiling down the wall with their big grubby boots!! And they are set to do it all day.

now for some spots, especially in the UK, they are very very fickle and only work once in a while.
Imagine if that wave was really challenging for you  or just the only decent wave nearby and those magic conditions arrived. When you get to the break, it is full of surfers from 'out of town'. you paddle out, can't get a wave for the crowd.
you're going to be mighty diasspointed...

that is why people are passionate about keeping breaks secret.
i'm no surf nazi or some heavy handed local, but i wish people would stop hand feeding information to those who can't be bothered to learn and seek the breaks themselves.
waves are a limited source, and they are not all the same. you may only get 3 decent waves per hour, now if you add a heap of people out, it reduces the odds of surfing even more.

[granticus]

well done Falling Down, there's too many tourists popping up to the North east to surf those places he seeks.

CLM.........The Granticus ain't no tourist 

For the record FD didn't spill the beans on anything that isn't in a UK surf guidebook and good on him for not doing so..  A lot of the breaks in the NE are mentioned in the guides, add to this various features in various surfing magazines and the fact that I know a lot of people who surf and who have surfed all over this fair isle..... I have a pretty good idea of where to go to find the delectable left hand barrelling slab or point or beachie in whatever part of the country I'm in.  Quick look at a swell chart, a chat with some friends and hey presto I've found a wave!  As it goes I went West because the charts were looking better that way last weekend and scored some good waves.

I reckon that if you're are maintaining the attitude that folks shouldn't travel and surf 'your' favourite spots that you should immediately give up the idea of surfing anywhere else.  A bit like the idea that ...if you join the BNP, you should immediately destroy your passport.

Now if I were to come to the NE to surf the places I seek, I can promise, with confidence in my abiliity, that .. I will show the appropriate level of regard and respect, I won't come with a crowd, I will be catching waves, I won't be snaking and I won't be dropping in.  I would also argue that those with the ability will manage to catch waves regardless of the crowd factor by taking off deeper, being fitter, being faster and getting instant respect for shredding up the first wave they catch.

[Aussiegav]

I reckon that if you're are maintaining the attitude that folks shouldn't travel and surf 'your' favourite spots that you should immediately give up the idea of surfing anywhere else.  A bit like the idea that ...if you join the BNP, you should immediately destroy your passport.

i am not taking that attitude,
The big rush and joy of surfing is the travel and surfing new waves.
It is just the manner in which you go about it is what I wanted to highlight.

what started off as a bit of tongue in cheek stuff has soon escalated into 

[Falling Down]

You started it   

[granticus]

FD I'm just getting shirty because you puntered me and I was almost at a perfect 10 

FD someone did say you're a wind up merchant, how do you plead?


Anyhoooo..........I'm off to Kernow for a week, charts aren't looking to promising at the mo mind...

[Falling Down]

I don't think I puntered anyone did I?   

[underground]

I don't think I puntered anyone did I?   

No it was the aussie what done it. granticus just seems to have 'FD' 'pon him mind.

[SA Chris]

Cool, looks the biz.

Just had mellow logging session before work. Mostly weak windswell, but was offshore for a while and worked on an OK sandbar for a bit before it dropped off and wind changed. Weather too nice to stress too much about wave quality though; gorgeous morning after torrential rain last night. And not much chance of any localism, being the only person in the water.

[SA Chris]

http://www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk/news/MINISTRY-SAYS-SURF-BOARDS-SHIPS/article-1184410-detail/article.html

Plain daft.

[clm]

Jet skis yes, windsurfers - possibly.  anyhthing man powered - cant be - where would you stop?  Armbands?

[SA Chris]

Bodyboards? Kiteboards?

[philo]

swimming? 

[SA Chris]

only if you have armbands on, or a swimming tube.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Surfwise doc repeated tonight on More4 at 10pm. Well worth a watch/record if you haven't seen it.

[SA Chris]

The Doc doc. Missed it last time, will catch tonight. Cheers.

[granticus]

I don't think I puntered anyone did I?

FD I didn't punter you, my mind was in a muddle....  Twas the Aussie wind up merchant I was referring to...

Back thoroughly chilled from a lurvely week in rainy and surfless Kernow, returned to ND Sunday arvo to coincide with some pumping swell, which looks set to stick with us for a while at least.  Who knows it might quit raining sometime soon as well...

Surfwise doc repeated tonight on More4 at 10pm. Well worth a watch/record if you haven't seen it.

Was Doc Paskowitz the guy that was taking surfboards over the border into Palestine from Isreal to give to the young people there?  Seem to remember reading about it somewhere (Surfer's Path?), was pretty cool gesture/action anyway because there was no way these kids were ever gonna get their hands on a board anyother way and they were stoked to use them.

[Fultonius]

http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/surf-from-above_29065/1/

WOW 

[Adam Lincoln]

Bit off topic, but am going to put my board on ebay. Was after a rough price off what its worth.
6'11 Spider Murphy thruster, very good nick. I have lost touch with surf board prices now!

[clm]

http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/surf-from-above_29065/1/

WOW  

Those rips are terrifying - at least they dont go too far out.

Adam...£50?

[Falling Down]

http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/surf-from-above_29065/1/

WOW  

Great Wedge pics....

[Falling Down]

Reminds me of a great little story after surfing Huntington Pier and Newport a few years ago. I got out of the water as it got dark all psyched having surfed the Pier, the iconic South Californian break after years of seeing photo's in the mags and was changing by the car when my phone beeped.  It was a text from Gav Ellis who'd just surfed Hossegor for the first time, at 5:30am the following morning with the time difference and he didn't know I was in California.  So I texted him back saying 'Cool... I've just got out of the water too at Huntington Pier, California...". Felt great swapping stories from the across the ocean.

[Adam Lincoln]

Adam...£50?

Really, wow!