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.

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!

This Saturday sees the start of the IOW Surf Club Frost Bite Series!

• Essentially it is a winter league.
• 1 Comp a Month.
• Oct-March
• 6 events
• Your best three results to count.

How will it work? First Saturday of the month that has contestable waves means the contest is on. i.e it is a rolling waiting period.

• Open Division (shortboards and longboards)
• Womens Division
• Groms (U18 Boys & Girls)

This sat is the first event. 8am meet at Hanover with hopefully 8.30 start. £10 to join club and then £2.50 for every comp after or £5 entry for non members.
See you all there!

Frost Bite surf comp!

****Update****
****Results and report from the first comp!*****

Report courtesy of Oliver Harvey & The Isle of Wight Surf Club

The first ‘Frost bite’ competition of six being held this winter, sponsored kindly by the boys at Rapanui was a great success.

Greeted with pretty grim onshore head-high waves at Compton, first up we saw the groms test the water. Both Robin & Dylan snagged plenty of waves each but Robin gradually took control with a couple of good waves to take the first event. The waves continue to prove challenging for the mens Open, as the pool of 16 riders entered the water in 4 man, 20 min heats.
Julie Tortajada, in the first quarter final, took the Ladies title getting several fun waves. From the first round the following progressed into the semis:

Heat 1:

1.Richard Gray

2. Jamie Whittle

Heat 2:

1. Nick Whittle

2. Foz Heat

Heat 3:

1. Jo Truman

2. Al Reed

Heat 4:

1. Doug Richards

2. Matt Harwood

Semi One saw Douglas Richards start to show his quality, making some nice aggressive turns , and following him after a somewhat slow start, Jo’s local knowledge paid dividends, hooking into some good little rights, his smooth style saw him up his wave count and into second place only 0.5 points behind Dougie & just ahead of Rich who surfed well in both his heats.

In Semi Two, Matt, keen to progress, started with a bang – getting several scores on the board in quick succession. Al also posted some scores whilst Jamie & Nick, who both showed good form earlier on, were quiet until the last quarter, when Nick started to make a come-back, but too little, too late saw Al & Matt progress into the final

The Final was closely fought battle , the waves failed to improve, which saw the judges favourite going into the final, Doug, making a subdued start. We did see glimmers of his solid style, but the waves just didn’t go his way. Matt, with a great high scoring first wave, continued to post some respectable scores, streaking ahead on wave count alone, Al found a solid right all the way into the inside, showing some style with cross-steps & smooth cutbacks. Jo’s consistency and nack for finding those fun inside walls, meant he edged ahead of Al into second and Matt taking the top spot with skill & tenacity.

Final Scores:

1.Matt Harwood 11.83

2. Jo Truman 11.53

3. Al Reed 10.16

4. Doug Richards 9.63

The IOW Surf Club would like to say a big thank you for all turning up to make it a great little event. Hopefully we’ll see even bigger competitor numbers, in the next round in the IOW Surf Club Frost Bite series, as what seems like a 1/3 of the IOW surfers return from their Indonesian adventures! Boys, you missed out today !

A big shout out for all girls & groms wanting to get involved. I’m sure Julie, Robin & Dylan would love to beat you in heat & there’s hoodies, t-shirts & other prizes to be won !

It costs £2.50 per comp for existing members

£10 for non-members, which gives your Isle of Wight Surf Club Membership also including your BSA Membership www.britsurf.co.uk/bsa-membership

And that brings me to a last big thank you to Rapanui , who are very generously sponsoring every event of the Frost Bite Series.

For those who haven’t heard of them, Rapanui are an award winning Eco-Fashion company based/born’n’bred on the Isle of Wight.

They make some damm tasty ethical clothing using natural organic fabrics and manufactured using renewable energy in a Fair Wear Foundation audited, wind powered factory. Check them out:

www.rapanuiclothing.com/about

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)

Running out of things to say about it now, well it was the swell that kept on coming for days, so its kind of fitting that the photos keep on coming too

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’

Its not very often a surfing shot makes it to the front page of Flickr explore these days (i dont think i’ve had one out of the 596 that have made it to explore) so i was really pleased to see “Life is just a series of peaks and troughs” make it there this week.

The shot was taken during the good swell on the 6th Feb 2010, you can see more from that day in the ‘You should’ve been here yesterday…’ blog

Life is just a series of peaks and troughs. Retro surf style

Another random selection from the swell on Saturday 6th Feb, some heavy waves, some nice walls, a lovely relaxed backhand turn, someone playing snooker out there, a couple of seagulls cruising the line-up and a few wipeouts, what more could you ask for

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

Just a photo-blog today, lovely swell at the weekend but i’ve not too much to say about it this morning and have to get on with the day job. Here’s a random selection of shots from the hundreds i took on Saturday, the camera makes some of the waves look mellow, but there really were a few heavy closeout sets too, it made for great watching at the bay, and a few epic rides between the beatings.

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.

More from the day when it was ‘just right’. This time a sequence of photos of me, taken by Paul Blackley.

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).

Titled after the Goldilocks Principle*
definition from wiki…

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.”