Sunset Surfer, originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

little bit of texture fun with flypapers adds a bit of extra warmth to a summery surfing scene from Watergate Bay in Cornwall.

More Vertoramas to come this week as promised, but it is so cold and wet and grey and miserable outside today that i had to dish out a big dose of sunshine this morning with 4 summery images to brighten things up a bit.

———————————–
©2011 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.

Following on from yesterdays post, where the camera lied a bit and made it all look very good with beautiful backlit waves and no close-outs or drop-ins, here’s the other side of the coin and a few wipeouts / bailouts and even one in the pouring rain!

Finally had a chance to shoot some surfing at Freshwater Bay again and test out the Sigma 50-500mm. I got the lens with surfing in mind almost a year ago a now and have barely had a chance to catch any waves with it till the last few days! The bay looked pretty bumpy and back-washy as the high tide pushed in, but a talented bunch of locals made the best of the conditions and it actually looks pretty good now that you cant see the close-outs and drop-ins

Surfing at Freshwater Bay, 1/11/2011 – Images by jason swain

The day after a lovely head-high groundswell hit freshwater bay, there were still a few leftovers to be had at the beach break of Compton Bay.

But whereas on Monday at the bay we had big clean lines breaking nicely along the point for some pretty decent length rides, Tuesday 18th at Compton was mostly a story of close-outs as the sand-banks, or angle, or something, just couldn’t handle the long wavelengths of this particular swell (even though the waves themselves were only chest to shoulder high).

Still the takeoffs were fun, and every now and again I managed to grab a fast little section and escape the close-outs so no complaints about a surf session in the sun with only two other people out!

Thanks again to Paul Blackley for these pics, you can see all his other shots from the day, including a few of Dave Downer and Joe Truman here…. and read why we were both late to make the line up and paul was equipped with camera but no surf board.

http://wightsurfhistory.co.uk/compton-18th-jan-2011/

Managed to catch a few decent swells over the christmas and new year break, boxing day was probably the pick of the bunch with lovely clean uncrowded waves at Compton Bay. The set waves were consistently head high and there wasn’t a breath of wind which is always a bonus in winter.

We had another nice clean day (pictured here below) on Sunday 3rd Jan 2011, the swell was a bit smaller, mostly waist to chest high, but with the very occasional head-high wave if you had the patience to sit our back and could bear the cold long enough.

It was also the day of the latest frost bite surfing comp organised by the Isle of Wight surf club, and my good friend Paul Blackley was taking pics after having a surf earlier that morning. You can see a set of Paul’s contest shots and read more about the contest here http://wightsurfhistory.co.uk/iow-surf-club-frost-bite-event-no-3/

I wasn’t in the comp, but Paul also grabbed a few of me on my big red longboard, including one of those choice set waves that made the whole thing worthwhile.

I’m having a bit of enforced time out of the water this week with an extra hole in my head following some dental surgery, feel like crap and loaded with painkillers, but the surf gods are on my side and its coincided with a flat spell.

And after a pretty good run of waves at the end of September and early October, both here on the Isle of Wight and away in Cornwall, my boards are in need of a bit of attention, i’ve got a few dings to fix up, and both could do with a fresh coat of wax as the old stuff is half inch think and the colour of an old dog turd.

So, i’m finally getting round to trying out the ‘wax buddy’ sent to me to review earlier this year by the people at http://www.extremehorizon.com/

I’ve done this job a few million times before, and lets not pretend, its not rocket science, and its not the hardest work you’ll ever have to do, but with a couple of caked up longboards it can still be a bit of a pain in the arse using your normal wax comb, and i nearly always end up with old wax jammed under my fingernails from the inevitable slip-ups scraping it off the hard way.

So i was genuinely really surprised and pleased to find how easy it came off with the wax buddy. I left both boards out in the sun for 15 minutes (thats october sun in the UK, probably equates to about 30 seconds in Hawaii) to soften it up a bit first, and once i got going with the wax buddy, the old wax fell away like i was carving a cheap donner kebab. Both boards completely stripped in about 10 minutes! and it had gone from being an annoying chore to almost fun to do, there was something really pleasing about the way it cut through the dirty old stuff and revealed the shiny surfboards below.

I took a few pics along the way, was thinking i might create a ‘how to clean your surfboard’ guide, but its really not necessary as i’m pretty sure a chimp would work out how to use it without much prompting.

So with nothing to gain (except hopefully they might send me more stuff) I’m giving it a thumbs up, i think you can buy a wax buddy for around four quid and it would be money well spent if you’re a surfer or thinking of a little christmas gift for the surfer in your life.

Well, thats my first ‘equipment review’ done then, I look forward to the surfboard manufacturers of the world all rushing to sending me their latest secret shapes, and wetsuit companies queuing up to give me their heated winter wetsuits to try out next

Time for a bit of blatant self promotion and cheesy sentiment, so if you’re offended by either of those, look away now.

Thank you Flickr.com ….

I’d like to say thanks to all the people who follow my s0ulsurfing account on Flickr and who having seen my pictures from around the island over the last few years said that i should be working for the tourist board. People mostly say nice stuff to each other on Flickr (its like the opposite of magicseaweed), so i don’t like to get carried away with any praise, for many its a social network first and serious photographic appreciation second, but many of my contacts on there are awesome photographers, and i do value their judgment, and their words. So without getting carried away, i also know that sometimes i can produce decent work, and the feedback I get is genuine.

So encouraged by those words, I eventually wrote to all the various parties responsible for isle of wight tourism, mentioned the comments and suggested that they might like to use some of my photos to help promote the island. And to cut a long story short, the good people at the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce (who are now responsible for publishing the islands tourist guides) responded positively,  and a few meetings later, here it is, my photos are in this years official 2010 ISLE OF WIGHT accommodation guide.

60 of my images have been used in total, including the two on the front cover, and you can take a look yourself at the interactive brochure here http://www.gowight.com/brochure/

I’ve followed the debate about the merits of the brochure design over on the ventnorblog website (http://ventnorblog.com/2010/01/18/interest-in-tourism-guide-strong/), some islanders have liked it but its not been universally well received here, some dont like the colours and feel of the cover, but personally i think its a great piece of design by the talented local designer Aaron Rudd, and the IWCC report that its creating lots of interest and orders are strong (which is what really counts).

Not all of the images are mine, but i think there are 60 from me, 3 from my good friend Paul Blackley and the remaining 26 are from either Steve Thearle or Tom Stroud. I’m talking about the ‘editorial’ images here, the ones used to illustrate island locations, not those of the hotels etc.

So thanks again flickr, this wouldn’t have happened without you, and i’m writing about it here on soul-surfing because following on from the positive coverage that island surfing got during the ‘wight surf history‘ exhibition, its a surfing image that’s made the front cover, and some people reading might recognise Andrew Swinton posing on his longboard on a lovely summers evening at Compton Fields last year.

Summer longboarding