France is home of some of the best beach breaks in the world, but it's also one of most unpredictable. Changing tides & moving sandbanks makes it extremely fickle and multiple surf checks are a daily routine. So, when you are lucky enough to be home when all the conditions are gathered, it just feels like pure perfection, there's just nothing sweeter than home at her best !! - Tristan Guilbaud
Mike Lay logs around the Highlands in the early autumn… from the lens of Seth Hughes.
Words and lifestyle photos: Sharpy action photo: WSL/Masurel
My routine for the day started super early because I was actually staying in Woolacombe! Which is like two hours away from Newquay. I was staying with my good friend Alex Baudain, who’s also from the Canaries, and our friend Hannah who lives in Woolacombe - that’s why we stayed there really. Every day I’d get up and drive the two and half hours down to Newquay. Go for a morning free surf and then spend the day at the site. As soon as I finished a heat, I tried to get away from the beach and chill.
The contest so was much better than other events. The set up is bigger than other QS 1000 events around the world. I guess it’s because of the festival. There are so many people around, it was crazy busy. But it was really cool because there were so many people watching us surf and asking for autographs and stuff on the beach.
Apart from surf, I didn’t do much. I was actually super focussed on the event. I didn’t go to the festival or party at all. I was sticking to my goals in the event which was to do really well. I felt really good in the contest. I ended up in fifth place. The waves were pretty tricky with a couple of small days and then some bigger days with some wind. I ended up losing in the quarterfinals. I had one really good wave, but I just didn’t get the opportunity to get that second solid score. I still felt I could have gone further and won the contest. But a fifth place is ok, it’s good to have some good heats and build some confidence and take that on to the next one. Food wise I pretty much just tried to eat simple stuff around the contest. Nothing too crazy, a few pizzas and things but I just don’t like fish and chips like you English folks…
Video blogs are all the rage and Brett Barley’s honest, insightful series is a good look at the ups and downs of the pro surfer life…
I’ve always desired to go to Tahiti, and surf Teahupoo. It’s pretty expensive from the East Coast of the U.S., and never having been invited before, I just never have gone. Well that all changed, and I finally got a taste of the heaviest wave at the end of the road. I learned that the crowd factor is much more difficult than I imagined from seeing videos online. I also learned I should never go back without my own filmer, haha. BUT, I had a blast with some friends, and it was an incredible learning experience that’ll have me trekking back to the South Pacific sometime in 2019.
Words and photos: Sharpy
A normal day I get up at 5:30am and go check all the veggies to see what’s going on. I do a little bit of work, I don’t do too much in the mornings as I find it hard to properly get going. That and I’m always stressed I’m going to be late for work.
So once I’ve checked the crops and done a bit of graft then I go home and have some porridge. Fuel up for the day. Proper porridge; I’ve given up on the overnight stuff. Then I get to work, lifeguarding at Sandy Mouth, an hour early so I can go for a shred. Sometimes I get a chance during the day as well, but not that often.
I finish at six, head back to the farm, do another hour to make sure everything is ticking over fine. Then go home and go to sleep. That’s a work day. Farm days are different…
Literally get up at 5:30am stay there until one. Go home for lunch, maybe go for a surf, then back to the field until the end of the day. Friday is hell day. The day I die. Every week. Half five in the am to eight in the pm. It’s delivery day. Pretty savage. That’s when I harvest all my leafy greens and sort out the orders for the six restaurants I supply and do the veg boxes for folks. The restaurants take loads; about 20 kilos all told a week. I’m Mr Fresh Local Produce so they take what’s ready when it’s season.
Ella, my girlfriend, helps occasionally when it’s super busy but she’s mega busy with her work most of the time.
This year I had big plans but the weather has murdered us. Two and a half months of no rain has screwed me over real bad. But the plan is in the next two years this will be my main income.
The next step is more poly tunnels, more space, so more produce. Build them and then double production at the field. Assuming it’s not as dry again, the weather has proper f@cked me so hard this season, only the tomatoes love this dry weather. It’s murdered my broccoli. When it’s dry they don’t produce a good head. Irregular broccoli ain’t pleasant.
Given the water there’s nothing that is that hard to grow. It’s all just time and care and making sure the beetles and bugs don’t chomp everything. I don’t use any pesticides so it’s all just management. I’ve learnt so much about bugs in the last few years!
So if everything goes to plan in the future a day in my life will be all fruit, veg and some waves when it’s pumping...
Alessa Quizon, Laura Enever, and Flick Palmateer sampling the delightful sand-bottomed points of Mexico…
