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)

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)

Will it mean more crowds at Freshwater bay and fields? as surely a certain % of surfers will stop and have a look at those breaks, if they are forced to detour via Freshwater Bay to get to Hanover car park. Or will everyone try and squeeze into Brook car park and walk along the cliffs or beach?

Of course, miracles might happen and either the erosion will stop where it is, and one lane of the military road will remain open (those traffic lights will be fun in the summer) or maybe someone will come up with the £10m figure thats being bandied about as the amount needed to sort it out.

*** UPDATE (24-03-2010) ***

Here’s an email i got this morning from Jill Wareham who’s running a facebook campaign to save the road, better act soon if you want it to stay open!

Subject: Military Road will close at Brook
The recommendation to the Cabinet (7 Councillors) of the Isle of Wight Council due to meet on 30th March is that when the road becomes unsafe, the council truncates the road both side of the breach at point (between Brook and Compton) and install turning heads and improve car parking as necessary.
This means that the Council don’t care – they’ve done no consultation with the public and the road could close at this point tomorrow.
Please write to Cllr Giles the Councillor in charge of roads at edward.giles@iow.gov.uk if you don’t want this to happen.
7 Councillors could let this road close – is this what you want?

*** UPDATE (31-03-2010) ***

So a week later, and Jill is reporting good news on the facebook group today, the Councillors have decided to defer the decision to close the road. People power works! They have decided that they are going to consult people – possibly because of the amount of emails Cllr Giles has had this week. They are also going to get round the table with Natural England and the Environment Agency, etc to see what can be done.

Here’s a few pics* i took there last week, and also a couple of bonus ones from Brook, proving that whilst it can be beautiful there, there’s also still a bit of beach cleaning to be done here to… (thats not a dig at the great job done with the recent SAS beach clean at Grange by the way, just a reminder that there’s always more to do, and always will be as long as people keep treating the sea like a garbage dump)

*please note that the image with the bus is deliberately trying to attract interest and spark debate by exaggerating reality. The wide angle lens and the low angle,  and a bit of extra editing are all designed to make that look more dramatic than it really is. Although with all the rain we had over the last few days, reality might now have imitated art and overtaken it.

Click here for part one of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part two of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part three of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part one of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

There were quite a few eye witness’s to Al Reed’s full on barrel ride, but sadly i dont think anyone manged to get a shot of it, there is one included here of him going into one another one, but he didnt make it out this time.

Read part one here

The 14 images shown here, are taken from a sequence of 32 shots that took place over a period of 16 seconds (which was co-incidentally the same time that what was quoted as the wave-period for the swell that day).

We’ve just come to the end of a great run of waves here on the Isle of Wight, winter is always best for surf here but i cant remember such a run of quality swell for quite a few years. Some big days, some small, some offshore, some glassy, some cross-shore (or even onshore) and bumpy, some low-tide at the reefs, some high-tide beach-break, and it was fun to surf in them all, for different reasons.

Perhaps it was the pure adrenaline of taking the drop on a bigger day and praying you made that bottom turn, or maybe it was trying to find a little space inside one of the hollow waves created by strong offshores, or maybe it was that smooth gliding feeling of that last glassy face just before the sun went down (i cant really think of a good reason to go with the on-shores yet, except that some days even that is better than not surfing!)

But this blog is about the day when it all felt ‘just right’ the goldilocks day, when the swell was a decent size but not intimidating (still strong enough to snap someones board out there though). When it was consistent  and reliable and there wasnt a 15 minute wait between decent sets. When the wind was light offshore, holding the waves up for that bit longer, but not so strong that you had to take off blinded by the spray. And when for some reason the break wasnt too crowded and for the most part there were plenty of waves to go around.

OK, it might have been nicer if it wasnt so cold, and maybe with a few less people you would have got more waves, but if you’re not happy on a day like thursday 21st January 2010, then i doubt you ever will be surfing here up the channel, and maybe you should look into those emigration plans a bit more seriously.

And a real bonus for me is that a good friend and great photographer Paul Blackley turned up with his camera and got some nice shots of me surfing on this day, so for once i dont just have to rely on memories to bring it all back.

He also shot a pretty good sequence which you can see here in part two of the blog

* The Goldilocks Principle states that something must fall within certain margins, as opposed to reaching extremes. It is used, for example, in the Rare Earth hypothesis to state that a planet must neither be too far away from, nor too close to, the sun to support life. Either extreme would result in a planet incapable of supporting life.[1] Such a planet is colloquially called a “Goldilocks planet”. The Goldilocks Principle comes from a children’s story Goldilocks and the Three Bears in which a little girl found a house owned by three bears. Each bear owned a separate copy of many things, such as food, beds, etc. After testing each of the three, Goldilocks determined that one was always too much in one extreme (too hot, too large, etc.), one was too much in the opposite extreme (too cold, too small, etc.), and one was “just right.”

Whatever it was, we’ve had a great run of swell to coincide with the opening of the ‘Wight Surf History’ exhibition, and its been great to be at the beaches sharing good waves with everyone and seeing just how many people had heard about it and were going to see the show.

We only got the go ahead to hold the exhibition on the tuesday and the swell arrived on the wednesday morning! Freshwater Bay at first light with the snow still on the hills from the week before. Solid swell on the at times too, some 4-5ft on the best sets and a decent bit of power too (nothing like the power of some of the recent bigger days though)

Sadly the sea wall produced a lot of backwash on the first morning and it was by no means a classic day at the bay, seemed to me that the long-boarders Will Rome and Alan Reed probably had the best of the bumpy conditions, although there was plenty of rides to be shared in the smaller crowd than recent days.

Thursday saw a dramatic increase in quality as Compton bay delivered some lovely long rides on the occasionally overhead set waves in the fresh offshore winds which also kept the temperature and probably the crowds down, no pics at all from thursday as i surfed so much it was all i could do to drag myself back to the car and home for a long hot shower.

Bit windy on the Friday so no surfing out west, and just as well really as it was the first day of the exhibition, and we were still framing and hanging the show after the official start time (but not because we were lazy, the frames had only arrives at 4pm thursday afternoon and paul worked into the small hours!)

Sunday brought another good pulse of swell on the day for the private view, and conditions cleaned up nicely into the afternoon at Compton as the sun came out and the onshore wind dropped off, it almost felt warm and spring-like being out there as i grabbed a cheeky hour on the way home from indoor cricket and before the party guests started arriving.

Monday after the show party, and more good waves to wash away a few hangovers (pacey & paul) although paul to his shame made some excuses and missed out on some really nice head high glassy waves late morning at Compton again

All three good days at Compton the swell size (nothing more than a proper 4ft really) period and direction somehow combined to give long rides with hardly any of the normal Compton close-outs you can get with solid winter swells

Photography was a challenge for most of the time though, shooting at high ISO and slow shutter speeds to get enough light in meant the results aren’t stunning, most of the shots here only really work at low-res and in B&W and needed a bit of exposure adjustment, curves and levels in photoshop, but some times it’s about the waves and not the pictures, and there really was some nice waves out there in the last week so no complaints here.

If you haven’t had a chance to see the exhibition yet, its on till the 31st of January, and as well as the new stuff from me and paul, there is a ‘history board’ with a few shots from the old days, and things are looking promising for the project as a whole with lots of people coming up with stories, photos and hopefully videos of surfing over the years, check out the wight surf history website for details and developments

Links to the previous three uploads…

Big Wednesday Part One
Big Wednesday Part Two
Big Wednesday Part Three

Finally had some time to look through more of the pictures from last weeks big swell, nothing more to say about it all now, will just let the pictures do the talking and hope we get some more soon, probably do have enough to make a part four, if i get the time and motivation.