Out and Aboat

I'm somewhere in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight, bobbing up and down on a big floating naff hotel that smells of school dinners. Obviously, I'm not on my way to any of the British counties, but instead I'm on a short little photo trip for Wavelength that isn't part of County Limits, crossing my fingers that I don't miss anything back home, (yes, I realize Cornwall and Devon have waves today, but I've done them, and I can see that Wales will have a small wave.)

Anyway, back on the County Limits next week but in the meantime, Essex and Suffolk are in the shops now wrapped up in the spanking new issue of Wavelength. Check it out!

New issue of Wavelength out later this week, meanwhile check out the trailer. This issue has the feature on Suffolk and Essex in (not the sunny looking barrel shots.)

From the archives

Been digging through the massive slide archive of John Conway, the guy who set up Wavelength almost 30 years ago. Amongst the treasures, I found this little beauty of the Severn Bore, my one hope of getting surf in Gloucestershire. I reckon it actually looks pretty fun, and I'm digging the guy sat in the way with a homemade '80s GoPro gaffered onto the nose of his board.

Caithness

Pretty sure Thurso East must have a wave on it today. Maybe not quite as good as it was when this shot of Stokesy was taken a couple of years ago, but probably clean and barreling none the less. Problem is, Thurso is a helluva drive for just one day, and Caithness is such a bounteous county of waves that I'd really want to save it for a better chart. So that's the gamble, miss a day of surf in the hope that something else comes up before the next deadline.

I should have been there tomorrow

New issue of Length has just gone to print with the feature on Essex and Suffolk in there. I was almost off to an early start on the next county when Oli saw a chart for this little sweet spot which looks like it's gonna be similar but bigger than in this vid tomorrow.

Anyway, in the end we didn't leave at the crack of dawn this morning for the mammoth mission up North, because of a few transport issues. Transport is definitely one of the hardest bits about this whole project, what with the cost of fuel and needing a vehicle that won't break down half way there. Anyone got a spare chopper they're not using for the next year or so? (as in the flying variety, not the 80's bike.)

Labour Intensive

Well that's two more counties ticked off the list... just. It was a hell of a gamble but at the start of this week we managed to find a half decent looking wave in Essex! Now I wouldn't necessarily recommend Essex as a surfing destination, it's cold, brown and very, very fickle, but there is definitely potential there.

Whilst we were waiting for this little left to start working, we hossed up to the more reliable, but still relatively surf-starved Suffolk. Considering the short lived swells and months of flatness, this county actually has a pretty big, hardcore community of surfers who are keen as fook all through the year... unlike Essex, where apparently no-one has ever heard of surfing.

Even Gordon didn't have a clue where to suggest looking for waves south of Lowestoft when I randomly bumped into him there and tried to pick his brain... but that's what happens when you don't get in the water enough and spend all your time trying to get re-elected.

Anyway check out the full story and shots in the next Wavelength out in a couple of weeks. That's two of the trickiest counties done, so surely it will get easier from now on?

Say No Go

Sooner or later with this project I was going to have to face some inconvenient truths. I figure out of the 50 ish coastal counties I've go on my hit list, at least 10 will be widely regarded as unsurfable. Today... I'm heading off to one of those 10.

I tried researching it on the net, but there are no matches for surfing and this county. Then I tried asking the only two people I knew who had some surfing knowledge of that area of the UK. Both laughed, both asked if I was serious, then both told me not to go.

So for now I've given up talking to people about this particular county trip... mainly because there's only so many 'I told you so's I can handle if and when we arrive in a flat county this afternoon. I've managed to talk two pro surfers into joining me on this road trip. For now, at least, our destination is a 'secret spot', but sometime later today I'm going to have to break it to them.

It doesn't have to be big, pretty or particularly good, just surfable...

...it's borderline stuff.