Live From The Moon- Ireland

The Ireland section from Body Glove’s film Live From the Moon featuring Cheyne Magnusson, Alex Gray, Anthony Walsh, and Fergal Smith.

Get the full movie on iTunes.

Basque Gold

It’s not just the UK that had the best winter for surf in a very long time. It was pumping down in the Basque Country as well. Here’s the proof from Aritz.

XXL!

The nominees in three of the most popular categories of the 2014 Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards have just been revealed. The top finalists for the Wipeout of the Year, the Surfline Best Overall Performance and Billabong’s Women’s Performance  awards can be viewed on the event website at www.BillabongXXL.com and ballots are about to go out to the surfing world’s top athletes, photographers and journalists this week to determine the winners. The nominees have already been unveiled for the Ride of the Year, XXL Biggest Wave, Biggest Paddle and Best Tube divisions, representing over $120,000 in prizes for the surfer and photographer winners.

In contention for the famed XXL Wipeout of the Year honours are five surfers at three notorious big wave breaks scattered around the world. Among this year’s candidates are Shawn Dollar and Alex Martins who suffered spectacular malfunctions at their home break of Maverick’s in Northern California, along with French Polynesian Alain Riou and Hawaiian Koa Rothman, who both went end-over-end at Teahupoo Tahiti. Rounding out the top five is Australian Jamie Mitchell – who parted ways with his surfboard during a try at what was probably the biggest paddle-in wave ever attempted in the history of the sport at Belharra Reef, France.

Once again, the surfing public will be able to have their opinion count in the selection of the winning wipeout by voting on Surfline.com. One third of the tally to determine the most spectacularly unsuccessful ride of the year will be derived from the Surfline poll over the next three weeks, with the balance of scoring coming from the elite academy of surfing experts ala the Oscar-style voting process. To review the nominees and cast your vote on Surfline, click HERE. The nominees are also available by visiting the Wipeouts page of the XXL event website.

Also announced today are the nominees for both of the overall performance categories. According to the rules of the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards, these divisions will be won by the “surfer who puts on the greatest number of outstanding performances at the most diverse number of venues over the course of the entire year.” Generally regarded as the international benchmark for year-round excellence, the nominees for the Surfline Best Overall Performance Award are South African Grant “Twiggy” Baker, Hawaiian Shane Dorian, Australian Jamie Mitchell, along with Californians Greg Long and Shawn Dollar. To view a video clip featuring representative moments of each surfer’s fantastic year, click to visit the web page for the Surfline Best Overall Performance Award.

On the female side, the Billabong Girls Performance Award nominees include perennial Hawaiian standouts Paige Alms and Keala Kennelly, Brazilian stars Maya Gabeira and Andrea Moller, plus underground Californian Bianca Valenti. The web page featuring all the best women’s big wave surfing action of the last year can be examined with a simple CLICK HERE.

The winners of all the categories of this year’s event will be announced at the invitation-only Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards party at the Grove Theatre in Anaheim, California on May 2, 2014. The show will be webcast that night on BillabongXXL.com and will be available on-demand on YouTube the following day. This year’s event marks the 14th-annual edition of the Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards, an event open to every qualified surfer at every break on every day of the year — so long as the action is captured by a video or still camera and submitted for judging by the XXL’s voting academy of expert surfers and lensmen. Over 1,000 images were entered into the event before being filtered down to the definitive images of each nominated ride.

The final nominees for 2014, in alphabetical order:

FIVE XXL WIPEOUT OF THE YEAR AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $2,000 – Video prize $1,000)
Shawn Dollar (Santa Cruz, California, USA) at Maverick’s, California.
(Video by Paul Topp.)
Alex Martins (San Francisco, California, USA) at Maverick’s, California.
(Video by Erik W. Nelson.)
Jamie Mitchell (Gold Coast, Australia) at Belharra Reef, France.
(Video by Vincent Kardasik.)
Alain Riou (Tahiti, French Polynesia) at Teahupoo, Tahiti.
(Video by Tim Pruvost.)
Koa Rothman (Sunset Beach, Hawaii) at Teahupoo, Tahiti.
(Video by Tim Pruvost.)

FIVE SURFLINE BEST PERFORMANCE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $5,000)
Grant Baker (Durban, South Africa)
Shawn Dollar (Santa Cruz, California, USA)
Shane Dorian (Kona, Hawaii, USA)
Greg Long (San Clemente, California, USA)
Jamie Mitchell (Gold Coast, Australia)

THREE BILLABONG GIRLS BEST PERFORMANCE AWARD NOMINEES
(Surfer prize $5,000)
Paige Alms (Haiku, Hawaii, USA)
Maya Gabeira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Keala Kennelly (Haleiwa, Hawaii, USA)
Andrea Moller (Ilhabela, Brazil)
Bianca Valenti (Mill Valley, California, USA)

Surfline.com is the exclusive surf forecast of the Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards. Surfing Magazine is the official magazine partner of the XXL event.

http://youtu.be/ete3SRqSFEY

http://youtu.be/CC1IHjPNXjY

http://youtu.be/FCpdOpHHhCw

Play

Cracking clip from young Noah Beschen…

Our Search 4 – The Basques and Spain

Basque region / Spain
By Jayce

When embarking on #oursearch, Lyndon and I thought the Basque Country and Spain would probably be one of the most challenging areas for us with our minimal experience and knowledge of the coastline.

We didn’t know anything about the place. We’d both been to the common areas of the region in our junior careers for contests at San Sebastian and Sopelana. Somehow we felt just by dipping our toes across the border of France it meant we knew everything about the region but we were quickly corrected on this fact.

This leg of the journey widened our narrow minds and the two countries kept continuing to amaze us both with its beauty and diversity of waves.
On the hunt for perfect uncrowded waves we found ourselves driving west to east and back again several times, with so many cool places to check out. With the abundance of surf spots your driving time cannot be under estimated in the challenge to score.
Much to our surprise it wasn’t anywhere near as difficult as we first thought to find good waves. As well as good waves and scenic views the northern coast boasts a beautiful highway which goes through the mountains and the extraordinary shaped coastline. Being able to see the coast as you drive the country meant whenever we spotted a little cove that had some potential we simply pulled up and checked it out.

Although not difficult to find the waves being there at the right spot at the right time was a challenge. But with direction from the locals we found what we were looking for… from picturesque hidden coves that offered the most unpredictable wedgy waves, to 10-15ft hollow point breaks it seemed that the place had everything a surfer could want.

While we were in the Basque Country we hung out with Asier Munian. Hanging with Asier was such a memorable experience. An experience we will both never forget and took a lot from in terms of how to host guests, his legendary status will remain high in our books for a very long time.
Lyndon met Asier a few years back in Ireland when their paths crossed on yet another swell hunt in the emerald isle. As we found our way to Asier’s place Lyndon shared some stories of how crazy Asier is and after a delightful home cooked meal at his girlfriends house and a few Keller beers we had a good idea what type of character he is.

We got to know each other and shared stories from the past. It turned out the next day was set to pump at a wave called Roka Puta (Translates to Fucking Rock) and he told us all about it and the do’s and don’ts of the place.
Unfortunately he couldn’t surf with us due to a rib injury he sustained on the previous swell, none the less he was still amped to get up at 6am to show us the wave and make sure we knew exactly where to go and give some in valuable tips on how to surf the place. Whenever you surf a wave for the first time, big or small, its always nice to have a bit of local knowledge about the rips, tides and how to get in etc. He told us all and after watching several 12-15ft bombs huffing their way down the point we made our way to the harbour.
We will never forget that day. As a team it was without a doubt one of the best days of surfing we’ve had. The vibe in the water, the waves and the pure excitement from the local people made it such a special day. The surf literally pumped all day and after 6 hours we were exhausted. Much to our delight and Eli’s dismay (Asier’s girlfriend) Asier snuck out at the end of the day and snagged a few evening bombs. Watching the man himself carving up 10ft walls was the perfect way to finish off the day. Despite being injured he still schooled us.

As you can imagine a session like Roka Puta can steal the show of a trip but in this rare occasion it didn’t. Spain and the Basque Country had so much to offer that high and low points all merged into one experience which was one of the best.

I don’t think writing an article about our journey could express our thanks and gratitude for the numerous people who made it what it was.

To abbreviate hugely we would like to thank The Asier Muniun clan, Pablo, Palots, Danni pablos, Pablo Guiterrez and everyone else who showed us where to go whether we were looking for waves, a party or your finest local cuisine.

Over and out

Adios
Muchas Gracias
Eskerrik Asko