Returning to a familiar theme for this blog, and probably for most surfers too, the old ‘you should have been here yesterday’ routine.

Over the last 20 years I’ve built my life next to the sea and the West Wight in particular, with the simple (and now not so secret) aim of leading a quiet life and surfing whenever possible,  as well as trying to avoid hearing that dreaded sentence ‘you should have been here yesterday’ as much as possible too.

But sometimes life has other plans for you, and after a few weeks of niggling broadband complications and lots of support calls and emails (involving a long boring story of telephone exchanges being upgraded to ADSL+, a ten year old router not being able to keep up with the change, and then a mystery line fault that pretty much seemed to me to have lots to do with a very windy and rainy night)  i couldn’t really be out when the engineer was finally scheduled to come and test the line and put me out of my misery.  I wanted to but couldn’t really hang a ‘gone surfing‘ note on the door and hope he would come back later (why don’t BT introduce that as an option when you sign up?)

Of course the only time-slot available on the morning of Friday 16th December, coincided with the biggest swell in weeks, and of course it was also the only day the wind blew offshore after endless days of howling onshores.

So, the day after triple overhead clean sets were reported as being ridden at my local break (from reliable local sources, who wouldn’t exaggerate the conditions) Saturday morning found me at Freshwater bay bright and early, full of hope and excitement for what i might find. Inevitably the classic conditions from the day before were long gone, and to be honest what was left looked pretty unappealing out there with the wind now blowing cross-shore and the swell not really doing it with the sets barely head high.

BUT… remembering my last blog and how i ended up kicking myself for passing up what turned out to be the last waves for a few weeks, this time i didn’t hang around in two minds and encouraged by a couple of hungover locals, pacey & sam, who turned up for a look too, decided to get in there and blow away a few cobwebs anyway.

The good news is that the swell picked up a bit and although it certainly wasn’t anything like the classic conditions of the day before, we had a few overhead sets, and a few bumpy but fun rides, and of course, its always better to have been in than sat around thinking about it.

After a quick surf and to make the most of the morning, i grabbed my camera and headed up onto the cliffs and got a few shots from a different point of view (away from my old favourites of the cabbage patch or right in front of the albion hotel) Whilst Andrew Court, Matt Harwood, Ian Pacey and James Ranson made the most of what was left before it really did get a bit windy. Even managed to get a few shots of some local birds and a random fishing boat in the line-up.

Sitting here today, on a miserable grey December day, looking out the window at howling on-shores blowing out any chance of getting any decent waves, and i’m looking back over a few pics from a surf session that i voluntarily missed out on a few weeks back. I wasn’t too busy, i didn’t have to be somewhere else, I wasn’t feeling poorly, or even lazy, and i didn’t even have a hangover as the title suggests… it’s just that I had recently had too much of a good thing, and for some reason (that seems insane now) I decided the little clean waves weren’t worth the effort and spent half an hour not making my mind up on the beach instead of just getting suited up and going in for a bit of fun. What a knob-head.

My reasons seemed sound enough at the time, I’d surfed some amazing waves the night before (so only about 12 hours previously) and for most of the previous week (November was an epic month for surf this year on the South Coast), and as the swell had dropped off so much, i didn’t want to erase and replace the great waves i still had in my mind, with the little tiddlers on offer in front of me.

In my defence, i didn’t completely waste my time, at least i took a few photos, managing to catch a few rare photos of Paul Blackley surfing, the even more rare sight of Pacey on a longboard, the quite common sight of chris court falling off a SUP and  few nice ones of a puppy playing fetch on the beach, but looking back at the pics now…. just stop thinking about it and get wet and have some fun, you never know when the winds gonna turn, and its been blowing onshore pretty much ever since.

Tidying up my old hard disks with tens of thousands of photos on them, and i found a few shots that got overlooked, neglected, or fell down the back of the sofa from a lovely swell that hit Freshwater Bay back in December 2009. I’ve cross-checked and i dont think any of these have been published before, and i think / hope they might be worth seeing the light of day!

Bodyboarding in Cornwall, originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

Another treasure found languishing in the archives, bringing back memories from a fun day at Porthcurno beach in Cornwall, without doubt one of my favourite places in the world.

Still no sign of the littlest soulsurfer yet, but we must be getting closer, if you don’t hear from me for a few days, i may just re-appear a little frazzled with a whole new subject for my shooting, although i’m not sure if baby shots are really my style, guess we might find out about that in the coming weeks.

———————————–
©2008 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved
This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

My photo (Offshore, Empty wave @ Logan’s Rock, Porthcurno, Cornwall) is featured in this months (December 2010) edition of Digital Photography Enthusiast Magazine.

I know pride comes before a fall, and i do try to keep a good sense of perspective on any ‘success’ i might have with my photos, but i will admit to being a bit ‘chuffed’ (thats english for happy for my global friends) when this popped through my letterbox at the weekend.

I’d been asked to be in the magazine quite a few weeks back, but had no idea what sort of size the image would be, so it was a really nice surprise to find a double page spread inside.

The mag itself is billed as a “digital lifestyle magazine” and looks like a pretty good mix of product review, how-to articles and interviews with photographers (i’m not on the payroll

Digital Photography Enthusiast Magazine

Empty wave at Porthcurno

===========================================================

OK, this is not my story, but its a pretty good day for isle of wight surfing so i wanted to cover it here, and the first thing to do is to get the right people credited for the words and images.

Thanks to Paul Blackley (my partner over at wight surf history) for putting this story together, and thanks to ‘the Newquay Surfer’ (http://www.newquaysurfer.org/) for allowing use of the video, and thanks to Annemarie Hughes (http://www.annemariehughes.com/) for allowing use of the images.

===========================================================

Lights, Surfboard, Action (take #2 split tone), originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

Surfing backlit waves at Compton Bay on a late summers evening.

———————————–

©2010 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved

This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

———————————–

Shadow Puppet Surfing in the Green Room., originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

Looked to me like joe was making shadow puppets with the backlighting, any ideas what creature he was making? could be a crocodile?

Last weekends swell seems a lifetime away already, there’s been no decent waves since then, and there’s none on the horizon, we’re definitely having a boom-bust cycle with surf this year!

The Sixth and final part of the ‘you should have been here yesterday’ surf photo blog from February 6th at Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight.

That’s it now, the last batch of surfing photographs from the last big day, maybe we’ll get another good swell now that they are all gone.

You can also see the five previous photo blogs here

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-shouldve-been-here-yesterday/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/yshbhy-part-two/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/hands-up-if-youre-having-fun-yet-yshbhy3/ (9 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/the-swell-that-just-kept-on-coming-yshbhy-4/ (12 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-should-have-been-here-in-february/ (14 photos)

Part Five of the ‘you should have been here yesterday’ photo blog from February 6th at Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight.

Been so long since we’ve had a decent swell to ride here (and photograph), and with summer almost here, its probably not going to pick up anytime soon, so i returned to archives for ‘that day’ back in February, and had a look at the shots that were overlooked at the time, I took over 700 pictures that day, so there’s plenty to choose from! I’ve also tried to keep the processing to a minimum, just the occasional bit of ‘punch’ and horizon straightening in Lightroom!

You can also see the four previous photo blogs here

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-shouldve-been-here-yesterday/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/yshbhy-part-two/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/hands-up-if-youre-having-fun-yet-yshbhy3/ (9 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/the-swell-that-just-kept-on-coming-yshbhy-4/ (12 photos)

I’m not even pretending there’s a link to surfing anymore

Just a photo blog today cos i had fun shooting them, and as much fun as the iphone hipstamatic was for the Walk the Wight blog, i definitely needed the 7D for these next shots!

Taken at the Owl Centre in Muncaster, in the Lake district. A fabulous place to visit, run by the ‘World Owl Trust’, another group of people working really hard to help endangered creatures.

All the shots here are watermarked lo-res web versions, if you are interested in using hi-res images for any reason please visit the wildlife gallery on my website, I will make a donation to the world owl trust for any sales made.

©2010 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved
These images are not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

Lake District Photo Blog part two – The Keswick area and the road to Muncaster.

I talked about being in the right place at the right time (photographically speaking) in the first part of the blog, and for many of the classic lake shots, early morning or late evening light shows them at their best, with the peaks lit up and reflected beautifully in the calm waters of the lakes.

But for the stone circle at Castlerigg i think the bright sunshine and cumulus skies were just what i imagined, and exactly what i would have wanted. I called the first shot ‘Sun Worship’ because that’s what it felt like to me (i’ve no idea what they were really worshiping).

And heavy brooding skies seemed perfectly apt for the menacing presence of Scafell Pike and the desolate windswept landscape surrounding the Hardknott Roman Fort.

Not too much more to say about the photos really, hopefully you’ll enjoy looking at them, simple as that. One more set of Lake Landscapes to come, and them maybe an Owl blog, and hopefully one day in the not too distant future, i’ll get to see some waves again.