Scottish Junior Team going to the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Rio, Brazil has been announced and a Crowdfunder launched to support travel costs.

It’s been a great year so for the Scottish Juniors and this weekend Sandend will play host to the fourth and final stop on a very successful SSF Junior Series supported by C-Skins. The Junior series has travelled all round Scotland with events being held in Pease Bay, Dunnet and Fraserburgh so far, with Sandend on the Moray Coast being the last chance for all the groms to secure the points and lift the Junior Series titles across all divisions.

Scottish Junior Team going to the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Rio, Brazil.

Boys U18 -
Craig McLachlan
Finn Clark
Charlie Pugh

Boys U16 -
Ansel Parkin
Fraser Brown
Sebastian Ballantyne

Girls U18 -
Olivia Mackay
Callie Cruickshank
Lola Mitchell

Girls U16 -
Olivia Mackay
Callie Cruickshank
Lola Mitchell

In the last few weeks I’ve been to Ocean Film Festival and the Blue Earth Summit. At both of these inspiring events Patagonia’s films were part of the conversation, focused on ocean protection and restoration. 

Patagonia are calling for European governments to end bottom trawling, starting with an immediate ban in marine protected areas and inshore zones.

It felt like it was a good time to revist these films, incase you missed them when the campaign was launched this summer. They’re worth watching so take a few minutes out of your day and get involved, it could make a world of difference. Small changes can be one step towards big changes which will leave the planet in a better place.

Louise Searle

Patagonia have launched an global environmental campaign, focused on ocean protection and restoration. Through a series of films, website, petition, and events across Europe, Patagonia will mobilise individuals and call on governments to end bottom trawling.

Connecting us through food, culture and sport, our shared ocean is the home of amazing, abundant life, and is also a powerful climate solution. Yet the practice of bottom trawling threatens to destroy this precious resource—bulldozing our ocean floor, undermining small-scale fisheries, and deepening the climate crisis.

Bottom trawling is one of the most damaging practices that humans inflict on our oceans, destroying seabed ecosystems, overfishing, and indiscriminately killing everything from turtles and rays to sharks.
It has an enormous climate impact too. Dragging nets along the seabed uses more fuel and produces four times more emissions than other types of fishing. It disturbs carbon-absorbing sediment and eradicates the marine plants and animals that take in carbon from the atmosphere. Oceans absorb a quarter of all the carbon dioxide that we produce, yet the practice of bottom trawling threatens to destroy this precious resource. We must protect our ocean so it can protect us.

In place of this destructive, industrial practice, Patagonia is using the campaign and films to promote regenerative alternatives such as 3D ocean seaweed farming and restoring seagrass. With small-scale, low impact fishers making up around half of Europe’s fishing workforce, often impacted by bottom trawling, it is also offering them a platform and calling for them to be supported in the necessary transition.

The campaign launches at a critical moment for Europe’s marine protection with an escalating biodiversity crisis and heated debate ensuing on Europe-wide initiatives such as the Nature Restoration Law and Ocean Action Plan.

The series of eight short documentary films will tell the stories of people around the world, from South Korea and Chilean Patagonia to Portugal and Wales, as they take matters into their own hands and show us how we can work with, not against, our ocean.

Films telling European restoration stories include:

• The Custodians follows the work of four locals from the West Coast of Scotland, who are reclaiming their natural coastlines, restoring wildlife and creating sustainable industries.

• For the Love of the Sea – the story of Nikki Spill of The Seaweed Farmers who is partnering with Câr y Môr, the first community-owned regenerative ocean farm in Wales.

• For the Love of the Sea – the story of Nikki Spill of The Seaweed Farmers who is partnering with Câr y Môr, the first community-owned regenerative ocean farm in Wales.

Beth Thoren, environmental action & initiatives director, EMEA, Patagonia, says: “Throughout my life, I have always felt connected to the ocean, from my early career as a ship engineer to, later, being a crew mate on a Sea Shepherd boat, fighting whale hunting in Antarctica. But I am not alone. Wherever we are, every second breath we take comes from the ocean. It is imperative that we protect this precious and fragile resource, so it can protect us.

“Our European leaders have the power in their hands to make lasting positive change by stopping bottom trawling and supporting a just transition to practices that restore the ocean. We’re asking ocean defenders everywhere, from surfers, swimmers and those who simply love to walk or paddle at the beach, to coastal communities and fishers, to link arms and send the message that we care.”

Campaign partners for Europe include NGOs Bloom, Blue Ventures, Client Earth, Environmental Justice Foundation, Oceana, and Seas At Risk.

Learn more, get involved and sign the petition below.

How much surfing can you fit into one day? or night...? Teiki and Liam from Ht's Resort gave us a last minute call saying that it could be worth coming over for this sneaky spike in swell. It was a perfect direction for HT's and we figured it might be our last chance before the Indo dry season officially starts and the hoards of frothing crew make the pilgrimage to the Mentawaii Islands. After a few quick calls we pulled the pin and went.

Filmed: @ryzphoto @tommyshoots4dastars @indo.eye

Edit: @ryzphoto

Surfers: @beaucram @oscar.langburne @saltedmemoirs @liamtheturner @charlie_stambo

Nic Von Rupp embarks on an exhilarating surf and island-hopping escapade in Peniche, a geological wonder of the Portuguese coast where there’s always a place blowing offshore. Peniche is one of those places that seem to be conceived by a surfer’s mind. It welcomes all kinds of swells and winds and provides waves and conditions for all levels of surfers, from inexperienced novices to high-skilled pros. But don’t be fooled into thinking Peniche is just about surfing. Joined by his girlfriend, Nic takes a romantic trip around the medieval town of Óbidos, one of Portugal’s must-go places, before jumping on a boat and paying a visit to the breathtaking Berlengas Islands natural reserve, a jewel of Portugal’s West Coast. From towering barrels to exploring hidden coves or walking around old castle walls, this is a journey of history searching, nature immersion and red-hot surfing action.

Liam Todd ventured down to South West France for a week, filming the incredible waves and soaking up the vibes at the Quiksilver Surf Festival, talk about score. Here's what 'One Week in Hossegor' looked like through the lens of Mr Todd.

@liamjtodd/

September was kind, with swells and sunshine lighting up the coasts of the UK and Ireland. Click into 'Farrago' - Filmed in the UK this September over a few sessions, a surf short featuring Reubyn Ash, Joss Ash & Stanley Norman.

Edited by Adam Norris of Offshores Photo.