QPR Monday Blues, originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

First day out with the camera in 2012 and a trip to my old home to catch some winter waves. Bit of a paddle out if you fancied a surf on this particular day at Freshwater Bay!

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.

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©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.

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.

It’s not very often i’ll post a video from one of the big brands, but this rip-curl video really is worth watching for the pioneering film techniques alone. It looks like a fairly standard lifestyle surf vid until about 30 seconds in when things start getting really funky.

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

Some great GoPro HD footage from Compton Bay on Sunday the 20th of February 2011. Thanks to Nigel Bulloch for his camera, editing patience and skills.

I missed this whole week of swell with the arrival of my son William, but its great to be able to experience it via this footage and some of the other great photos and videos that have been shared on wightsurfhistory.co.uk

Compton Sun 20-2-11 from Nigel Bulloch on Vimeo.

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!

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.

Dreaming of an Endless Summer, originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

i’m just about to head out into a freezing fog looking for surf this morning, and my mind wandered back to my last trip to Cornwall and surfing under these beautiful skies at Gwithian. The idea of an Endless Summer really is just a dream for most of us surfing here in the UK.

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©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.

Hipsta Holidays, originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

Finally remembered to upload some photos from my iphone, here’s a SOOC hipstamatic view of the lighthouse and beach at Godrevy with little fluffy clouds and surfers.
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©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.