Killer Kirra
25 May, Kirra, a sick day surfing on the Gold Coast Australia as the groundswell hits the Superbank. Filmed for 30 minutes just before dark, how freaking sweet is that wave, mind surf your way into the weekend.
Weird Waves Lake Tahoe
Surfing in Lake Tahoe? Is that a thing? Dylan Graves and the WW crew explore if it is or isn’t. You always see the random iPhone clip of Lake Tahoe but what’s it really like? What does it take to actually SCORE Lake Tahoe and what does that even look like? Now we know.
Barnaby Cox
Some of the best waves from last winter with young Mr Barnaby Cox! Swell after swell lit up many of the spots during multiple lockdowns. With surf travel out the window, Barnaby was all over it, every cloud has a silver lining and all that malarky.
Uluwatu dreamin’
Uluwatu consistently produces more great rides in Bali than any other location. But for how amazing the waves can be, they’re not necessarily ‘perfect’ and certainly less predictable in shape compared to neighbouring breaks like Padang Padang and Bingin.
On top of being a difficult wave to read, there’s often a healthy crowd to navigate. So choosing a line requires not only predicting how the wave is going to break, but also where you’ll be able to fit a turn without taking someone’s head off – Corox’s wave at 2:17 is a great example of juggling these two elements without missing a beat.
Rather than the wave making a surfer look good because it’s so perfect, it’s the surfer having such a good read of the wave (and the crowd) that makes it such a great ride.
Learn how to save your friends lives
Above – Alfie England leads the charge to save Jonathan Davies (circled) who is face down and unconscious with a set incoming.
Today marks a year since Alfie England spotted fellow surfer Jonathan Davies laying face down in large surf. What followed was the heaviest rescue I have been involved in where the casualty lived in 44 years of surfing. Fortunately thanks to amazing team work by the Porthtowan and St Agnes surfing community and the back up of St Agnes lifeboat, the Coastguard helicopter and team at Treliske Jonathan was somewhat miraculously back in the water in a week or so.
You can watch the reconstruction here at Close Calls Caught on Camera EP 1 here
It wasn’t the first or last rescue in the last twelve months performed by surfers as a large number of legends saved lives with many multiple casualty rescues carried out right around the UK in 2020/21.
The surfing community often goes unrecognised as the first line of defence in the prevention of drowning. Most surfers just pull the victim out of the rip, get them to the beach and carry on surfing. It’s only if cameras are onshore that a small amount of incidents come to light. All in a day at the beach!
Incidents are on the increase though so as well as taking our hats off to all the heroes, I’d just like you to think about learning a few rescue techniques.
It wasn’t the first or last rescue in the last twelve months performed by surfers as a large number of legends saved lives with many multiple casualty rescues carried out right around the UK in 2020/21.
The surfing community often goes unrecognised as the first line of defence in the prevention of drowning. Most surfers just pull the victim out of the rip, get them to the beach and carry on surfing. It’s only if cameras are onshore that a small amount of incidents come to light. All in a day at the beach!
Incidents are on the increase though so as well as taking our hats off to all the heroes, I’d just like you to think about learning a few rescue techniques.
Very early on in Irish big wave surfing, some of pioneers realised that sooner or later they would be called on to save a friend’s life. So they drilled for it.
In my own surfing community, as in a lot of coastal towns and villages, many surfers went down the surf lifesaving and lifeguarding route; more as cool summer job that would earn you enough bucks to escape winter than anything else. But those skills learned have saved many lives on travels around the world.
As I contemplated a parting shot for this issue (on newsstands today), the date seemed a bit of a coincidence, so I thought I would use it to encourage everyone to learn a little about rescue and CPR. You may never need it, but if you are ever faced with a friend in need of help, or even a stranger that needs rescuing on a foreign beach, you will be glad of it.
The feeling of helplessness or wondering if you could have done more is a terrible thing. The experience of saving a life, well that’s pretty good.
For rescue techniques for surfers click here.
To find your lifesaving course click here
Many people in our surfing community have been outstanding in saving lives around the coast over the last challenging 12 months. There are a lot of heroes out there, so: “Cheers,” to you all.
Smoke on the water
Toes on the nose with some of the finest Cali stylers, Joel and Josh Tudor, Saxon Wilson, Ryan Conklin, Kevin Skvarna David Arganda, Trace Marshal and Devon Howard. Nicely done ya’ll…
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