Slide Magazine...

Let The Froth Commence...

There was a time long ago when surfers forecast what the waves were going to be doing in the future themselves- just by looking at a picture of squiggly lines. They didn't go on the interweb and get spoon fed numbers and stars. These squiggly line pictures were hard to find -the world wide web only existed in Tim Berners-Lee academic brain at the time- and to see them you had to watch the BBC weather religiously...

Alan Stokes Is The Internet...

Mr Stokes has a shiny new website that's gone live about 3-seconds ago. It looks right tasty with plenty of photos, vids and his bloggity. Good to see the Brit pro's catching up with the World Tour fellas when it comes to online shenanigans. Mick, Parko, The Goods etc are all doing it so why can't we? It also features a plethora of my photos from all over the place. Go check it. It nice...

Fings You May Have Missed...

       
 

Skiing In The Surf? Truly Bonkers...

 Exactly what it says on the tin- some of the worlds leading freeski fellows surfing on skis. Check the clip after the jump-

Fings You May Have Missed...

     

More Surfboard Wisdom...

Last time we had a comprehensive, well, as comprehensive as possible in the black art of board design, look at three of the fundamental aspects of board design, namely: Rocker, Outline and Bottom Shape. That trinity don’t work alone and in this issue we’ll round off the other interplaying factors that make your board go good or surf like a lump of wood.

Ain't Satellites Ace?

 
That's a lot of Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... Photo: NASA/GSFC

Things Of The Year...

Film of the year- Avatar (in 3D at the IMAX you'll not beat the experience of being in a cinema. Sure the story is Dances With Wolves and the US is nasty for invading Irag for oil but we knew that already).

Worst- 2012. CGI shite. Considering what Cameron did with Avatar it's about time everyone else stopped using their 48k Spectrums and gets with the program.

Slide Mag's Guest Cameo Appearance In The Micktory!

 Now I don't usually do cameos in world champions new mini sites but seeing as it's Mick I thought I'd do it this once... I'm the speccy berk in the opening shot, just tastefully out of focus at the back... I don't normally rock a beard I'd just been on the road in Europe for a month and standards were slipping.

Now I'm No Lawyer... But This Is The ASP Rule Book 2009.

 
But I think Sunny was ripped off. Kelly and Wardo were both late for heats in France and allowed to surf. Sunny would've won his Rd2 heat in fun Backdoor as well. It's not just about the event he was 2nd in the Triple Crown ratings which is $50,000 he won't be seeing now. What do you reckon?

Fings You May Have Missed...

     

Surfing Wisdom Reduced To Bullet Points...

1. No matter how many fin keys you own, the length of time it takes to find one is in direct proportion to the quality of the waves.
2. There is no way round a wet wetsuit in the winter, buy two.
3. It will take exactly five minutes from when you buy a new board until you ding it on a lampost, door frame or car.

The Results Are In...

Had to wait until the mags came out in case this got used. Didn't make the cut in the UK due to space constraints but should be in ASL... Ladies and Gents the scores are in: The 3 big European World Tour events scored on the availability of coffee, food, parking, waves, controversy and more... In chronological order.

How to be a Redneck Local Asshole…

We’ve been mercifully free of the disease that is localism in our islands. Sure there are places where you tread and park carefully but the innate friendliness of British and Irish surfers, borne from the days when seeing another surfer was a rarity, still holds sway. Which is why you’ll hear arrogant young Turks say things like this, ‘Yeah all the locals are super mellow, didn’t seem to mind us paddling past them at all to go deep…’ That’s what is known amongst locals as a queue, an orderly way of handling reef set-ups.

Oh My It's A New British Slab- Number 10...

 

Mr Nunn of Wavelengthshire sent me this pic last week. It's a new British slab, it is nuts, it really needs a jetski to get you into it. Mr Tim of Wavelength shot it 1st and the fellas from Carve weren't far behind. So now we have the anti-Rileys... A good thing for all the natural footed slab freaks out there. I await further shots in the mags with interest...

Rip Curl Goodies Up For Grabs...

Hey! Fancy an exclusive bundle of Rip Curl Pro Search gear? The same stuff that the staff got? Well you can have a short sleeve tee, a long sleeve tee and a cap- tee's are mens size L so either be a L size chap or I guess if yer a chick who needs a 'flop around the house' tee to team up with your burger pants then that's cool also... Or it could make a nice Crimbo pressie? Anyhoose- it's a caption competition to enter just swing over to our Facebook fan page and unleash your wit.

Fings You May Have Missed...

     

Adopt An Artisan Today...

Learning to surf is a lot like learning to drive a car. Sure, you can go out on yer lonesome, bumble around and crash into a few people, alternatively you can get a few lessons from an expert to give you some pointers about how to handle the thing and learn the rules of the road. Once you have the basics mastered and have solid road sense then you can go off by yourself. At this point, like in surfing, its best to have a slow, cheap, beast of a car, cos it doesn’t matter so much if it gets knocked and you are less likely to wrap yourself around a tree because you can’t handle the power.
So a foamy or mini-mal is the equivalent of a beaten £400 1.0L Fiesta… Where is all this ‘analogy crap’ heading I can hear you ask?

J'arrive Mundaka ...

After a 730-mile jaunt from London via Calais to Hoss' yesterday (and a 'not great' sleep in the car-park at Estagnots last night- it may be October but there are still hippy bastards playing bongos at stupid o'clock in the morning) I've made it to the river mouth of dreams- Mundaka. It's flat as you'll know but there's swell brewing. So. All good. Billabong have furnished me with an awesome lil bungalow, all mod-cons and wifi so I can work up a storm from here... Long range charts- :)

Pro's Twitter On...

You may, like many people, be wondering what the hell Twitter is. Or have started an account stared at a blank page and thought 'huh? that's shit!'. Well it's simple- it is a microblogging platform. A user can post updates of up to 140-characters and that's it. Much like the status update on FB. But that's not the be all and end all. It's about following people be they pro surfers, celebs or friends and using it for communication (especially news and event updates), sharing links and it has the benefit of not being a closed loop of just your mates like FB. Cos if there's one sure thing the likes of Kelly and Parko would not be your friend on FB but you can follow them on TW.

Reubs Rides The Nationals Express...

This weekend was dem British Nationals. An important event. Cos calling yourself 'British Champ' opens many doors and generally means you don't have to make tea for anyone anymore. It was at Fistral (quelle surprise- it should be at Thurso like it used to be!) and the surf was flat dribbly shite on Saturday (so small and poopy looking on the webcams that I didn't even bother going) but it built a bit for Sunday and was contestable, onshore, closey-outy, dribbley shite instead. In other words business as usual for British comps... Not that the dire surf prevented some serious schwacking, punting and gouging from going on.

Err?

Technology is a marvellous thing. I'm currently lying on some nice flat sandstone (thanks passing geography field trip for that titbit) on the north side of Lahinch Bay. The sun is blazing. People are in bikinis (women anyway) and life is good. All the while I'm sorting out trips with Mr Nunn of Wavelengthshire and getting jazzed on the Indo clip that Batty just uploaded to me. All through me phone.
Just thought I'd let you know. Battys clip will be up later once I've found some wifi. Cos whilst tech is cool it ain't free.