Slide Mag

Hot Girls Surfing In Bikinis...

 Forgive me for the blatantly search engine friendly title but it does some up the following clip to a tee. Alana Blanchard and Laura Enever look hot, surf good and the Telo Islands look pretty darn sweet too. Considering we are about to be whupped by a 70mph winter storm in the UK it might take your mind off the maelstrom outside... Clip after the jump-

Does A Bear?

Bored of dodging tectonic plates bumming each other in Indo Jerseyite surf-travel-guru Ian Battrick has been getting his vicarious thrills in a different, colder, hairier way- one that involves paws, claws, big teeth and, err, shotguns…

Batty and compadres Timmy Turner, Raph Bruhwiler and Eric Ramsey have been up in Grizzly Country- somewhere in the Pacific Northwest of Canada...

Winter's Coming- This Get You In The Mood?

Arctic surfing. Snow. Brrr. Cold. These Norwegian Islands may have been 'discovered' 10-years ago but it still feels like you are finding it for the first time if you do go there. Which you should as it's one of the most beautiful and amazing places I've ever been- stunning film (part shot on Canon 5DMk2 SLR) after the jump-

North Shore You Know The Score…

Fancy a trip to Hawaii for the big end of season Mick v Parko v The Wildcards v Pipe ding-dong? Well here’s some North Shore insider info that may help…

Greetings From Peniche...

Welcome to sunny Peniche in Portugal. A town famous for it's super tubes, fish stench and rancid bodyboarders; it's now also famous as the fifth spot for Rip Curl's globally mobile WCT event (nice discovery guys!). You'll be glad to know the all-pervasive smell of squished fish entrails has vanished. In the good old days it was an olfactory assault that  'would make you wretch' if you encountered it.

Lady GaGa Nearly Killed Me... (Or CaliGirlVacation)

A trip from February which has never seen the light of day in the surf mags... So here it is in interweb form... Pics here.

In which our heroines- Bethanwy Mason, Gwendolen Spurlock and Anastasia Swallow head Stateside to traverse the Golden State from north to south in search of waves, good times, ice-fuelled mentalists, celeb’s and the perfect breakfast pancake… (Whilst also attempting to turn one previously sane surf photographer completely doo-lally through the sickening mental torture of Lady GaGa on infinite repeat).

Things didn’t start well. I’d got on a plane in the tropical heat of Bali at the end of January and got off in a London that was battening down the hatches for a serious winter storm. ‘No problem,’ think I, ‘we don’t get proper snow anymore!’ I was wrong- three days of public transport free, snowy, house arrest and many flight cancellations later I was en route to Heathrow unsure if we’d be going to California at all…

Tuk Tuk Tales...

If you look at a map of the Indian Ocean Sri Lanka is the chunk that looks like it’s just been pooped out the arse end of India. It’s home to elephants, tea plantations, crazy bus drivers, three wheeled taxis powered by hairdryer motors known as ‘tuk tuks’ and until very recently a very messy civil war. The Tamil Tigers have waged a campaign for a separatist state in the north east of the country for over thirty years inventing along the way the suicide bomber belt and making good use of women and children to further their cause. Chuck in a bit of ethnic cleansing of the Muslims from Tamil areas and you can see why the whole country celebrated when the war was declared over on the 17th of May this year (shortly followed by the death of the Tamils leadership cadre on the 19th, so I guess they were still doing some mopping up with their rocket launchers).

Back In Town...

Sorry for lack of posts in the last week or so, the anticipated "wifi" and "good internet connection" in Sri Lanka's Aragum Bay didn't materialise. And with O2 charging £6 a MB on the iPhone when in non-european international areas it was a bit of a mare... So. Plan is thus- I'll just post what I was going to post a week or two late. So we left on a weds I'll post from then. In brief it was a good trip with plenty of amusing moments and a lot of wildlife. When people describe an area as a 'zoo' they really can only say that in Sri Lanka... Elephants, monkeys, scorpions, snakes, bats, jellyfish and more. Honorary Geordie Saffa and Pipe ledge' Richie Sills won the UK Pro Tour event and I've got a good few gigs of photos to sort out... Plenty of stuff in the pipe people- jetlag be damned.

Pic wise it's this is Jayce Robinson and a rather large heffalump.

Oh and in other news the June giveaway for peeps signing up for the Slide newsletter has been won by Paul Donkin who will be rocking a new SkullCandy backpack and headphones as soon as I get back to the office to send 'em out...

Surfing Sri Lanka- First Timer Questions...

Now I've not been to Sri Lanka... Indo and the Maldives, yes, many times but I've never made it to Sri Lanka. That's all set to change next week when I'm out there for the UK Pro Tour Champion of Champions event. Am looking forward to it and not just because of the tea or the thumping forecast. So being a good traveller I asked some of the pro's a few pertinent questions, my main concerns if you will-
1. Describe the wave at Arugam Bay.
2. Is Sri Lanka the hottest place you've ever been? And if so how do you cope?
3. Are there elephants? and of so is elephant dung an issue at night?
4. Is there any food apart from curry? and as someone that's not really into curry will I starve?
Answers after the jump.... (and you can add yours in the comments)