Last years winning shot by Laurie McCall.

The dryrobe® Advance is one of the most useful products to protect cold water surf photographers. So we're stoked that dryrobe® have come on board to sponsor the 2024 Carve Photo of the Year Comp, celebrating the unsung heroes who battle the weather to record everyone's sessions.

Surf photographers are the unseen backbone of the cold water surf scene, enduring everything the Atlantic has to throw at them in order to capture moments of magic around our coastline for the magazine, surfers and now influencers. In the past there were only a few surf photographers and their work was revered. Now the digital age has opened up surf photography to more people but somehow most photographers remain faceless and unrecognised for their endeavours. The dryrobe x Carve 2024 Photo of the Year Competition celebrates their dedication and skills and presents their shots in all their glory on quality paper in the magazine - the best way to see it!

Back in the day, dryrobe® inventor and owner Gideon Bright and Carve Editor Steve England were part of a hardcore St Ives / St Agnes (Badlands) crew charging Porthleven and the heavier breaks of west Cornwall as well as travelling the world to place like remote Indo, Hawaii and through Europe before full time work beckoned! Steve then began at Carve Surfing Magazine and after some time in the film industry Gideon ended up inventing dryrobe® and a whole new category of changing robe. Steve still uses one of the very first dryrobes that Gideon gave him back in 2010!

“We are stoked to be able to run a comp that showcases British and Irish cold water surfing photographers because we know the dedication needed to get up on a cold winters day and head out into the teeth of an Atlantic storm,” said Steve,

"Thanks to Gideon these days days after a surf, I pull on a long-sleeve dryrobe® Advance instead of flimsy, non waterproof, half-length puffer jacket and life is much easier. I can’t wait to hand a photographer the full dryrobe® kit and make their life easier too!”

The winner will get an ultimate 'All Seasons dryrobe® Bundle for Photographers’. Plus: Thanks to Red Bull, the winning photographer will get the chance to travel and capture a Red Bull UK surf athlete in action!

The bundle will include;
dryrobe® Advance Long Sleeve £165, dryrobe® Mid-Layer Jacket £110, dryrobe® Waterproof Poncho £120, dryrobe® Water-repellent Car Seat Covers £50, dryrobe® Thermal Boots £80, dryrobe® Thermal Gloves £40, dryrobe® Compression Backpack £95

Read Gideon’s story here.

dryrobe®, how it started vs. How it's going.

dryrobe® also support numbers surfers and organisations including

Supporting the England junior surf team as well as team riders like Andrew Cotton, Lukas and Ben Skinner, Cal Major, Siyanda Hewitt and Sophie Hellyer.

• dryrobe® annually donate £100,000 to the RNLI
• Collaboration – a Wave Project dryrobe® is available online, 100% of the profits from each sale of this Limited Edition dryrobe go to the charity.
• Produce a custom dryrobe® Advance for Surfers Not Street Children where 100% of the profits go to the charity.
• Based in Malibu, California, A Walk On Water provides surf therapy programmes to children and their families.
• Royal Lifesaving Society.

Enter the dryrobe x Carve 2024 Photo of the Year

The prize bundle, hell yes.

T+C’s
Got to run these because law. - No cash alternatives to the prize. By entering you agree to allow Carve (Orca Publications) using your photo in the mag and online (You will be credited or tagged when we do). No one else will use your photo. We will contact those in the final selection directly. We can't answer all messages or emails so bear with us.

Last years winning shot by Laure McCall.

THE 2024 CARVE SURF PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

The prize bundle to come...

Above: Secret reef, South West Photo: Lee Griffin 

T+C’s
Got to run these because law. - No cash alternatives to the prize. By entering you agree to allow Carve (Orca Publications) using your photo in the mag and online (You will be credited or tagged when we do). No one else will use your photo. We will contact those in the final selection directly. We can't answer all messages or emails so bear with us.

Today's news marks further action from Boardmasters in its pledge to #leaveonlyfootprints, and Oceana's first major partnership in the UK.

Oceana recently launched in the uk with Hugo Tagholm at the helm and is making waves exposing the industrial threats to our seas from destructive fishing & big oil.

Boardmasters and Oceana announce big wave surf legends and passionate environmentalists Greg Long and Laura Crane will be at Fistral Beach this August for a one-off event to celebrate the new partnership.

Boardmasters festival announces that it has forged a new partnership with leading ocean conservation organisation, Oceana. From 2024 and beyond, Oceana is now the official environmental partner of Boardmasters, Cornwall's own surf and music festival which, since its inception, has proudly called the Cornish coast home. The partnership will see the two organisations join forces to raise awareness and take action with a collective goal of protecting the ocean and coastlines.

What's more, to celebrate the partnership, Boardmasters and Oceana will be teaming up to host a special event at this year's festival. It is announced today that the event at Fistral Beach Bar will feature an appearance from big wave surfing legends Greg Long and Laura Crane, for an exclusive Q&A. More details are set to be revealed soon!

Sustainability and environmental awareness has been a part of Boardmasters' ethos since the beginning. Over the years, Boardmasters has taken industry-leading steps to reduce its impact on the local environment, working with leading consultants and innovative organisations, as well as introducing tangible initiatives to drive real results, including the festival's Green Pledge and #LeaveOnlyFootprints campaign. Each year, Boardmasters conducts an impact report to monitor, learn and improve. In 2023 alone, Boardmasters' beach cleans covered 550 miles of Cornish coastline through 24 beach cleans, and a team of 164 volunteers gathered 92 bags of litter! That same year, festival goers embraced the single-use plastic ban. The festival and its partner Big Green Coach transported over 4,000 festival goers to the site via coach, saving a huge 1,891,693 miles - that's 76 times around the earth!

Now, through collaboration with organisations like Oceana, continuing this work to make Boardmasters one of the most environmentally conscious and low-impact festivals out there.

Andrew Topham, CEO and Founder of Boardmasters said, "Boardmasters is proudly a festival which places great value on sustainability. Each year, we strive to become better and do more to preserve and protect our beautiful location and surrounding areas, reducing our environmental impact along the way. We have a long-standing relationship with Hugo Tagholm, so it's a real pleasure to be able to announce this new and exciting partnership with Oceana which I hope will serve the oceans and the beautiful Cornish coast through positive action and awareness."

Hugo Tagholm, Executive Director of Oceana in the UK said, "We're delighted that Oceana has been selected as the official environmental partner for Boardmasters festival. I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to platform Oceana's industry-leading campaigns to protect and restore Planet Ocean at this crucial time for our seas. We all depend on a healthy ocean, whether we live in city centres or on the stunning Cornish coastline. The festival fuses art, music, ocean culture, elite surfing, and now global ocean conservation. I'm stoked to see the Boardmasters longstanding commitment to our seas evolve to include Oceana. Thank you."

Greg Long, Environmental Activist and Californian Big Wave Surfer said, "I'm stoked to be joining Oceana at Boardmasters festival to talk about big wave surfing, environmental activism, and the urgent need to protect and restore our global ocean at pace. Surfing has helped expose me to the issues and challenges our seas face, from plastic pollution to oil pollution, from climate change to industrial fishing. The time has come to safeguard our waves, ocean, and beaches, for all life on our beautiful planet. We can all play an important role in this mission. I'm looking forward to sharing more about my journey as an ocean activist, and supporting Oceana's campaigns, and being part of the festival on the wild and beautiful Cornish coastline."

Laura Crane, Environmental Activist and British Big Wave Surfer, said: "The Boardmasters festival is a brilliant opportunity to celebrate our ocean and take action to protect it. Being a surfer, the ocean is my safe haven, so the idea that oil, plastic, or sewage pollution make it unsafe - for people and wildlife - is heartbreaking. But I am hopeful that we can turn that around, and great organisations like Oceana are helping to make that happen. I'm looking forward to discussing how we can all make a difference and protect this extraordinary world that is Planet Ocean."

With more than 300 victories to stop overfishing, habitat destruction, oil and plastic pollution, and more, Oceana's work is delivering results around the world. Based out of Cornwall and London, Oceana UK's campaigns to safeguard UK seas are backed by the latest science, razor-sharp advocacy, and creative storytelling. They focus on ending new licences for oil and gas, ending overfishing, and banning destructive bottom-trawl fishing in marine protected areas. This month, Oceana is preparing to take the government to court over the severe threat to marine life caused by the latest licences for oil and gas exploration in UK waters.

Boardmasters takes place from 7 - 11 August 2024. Visit boardmasters.com for more information.

More on oceana.org here.