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SURFING MAGAZINE
the perfect Donegal dreaming Perfect pOrtugal Mega morocco and...West wales!
storm carvemag.com ISSUE 123
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TOM
BUTLE R
Where: G-SPOT, IRELAND • Photog: WILL BAILEY
The G-Spot was named by yours truly (Sharpy) after I shot it for the first time from the water with Gabe Davies and Richie Fitzgerald eight years ago. Back in those days Richie and Gabe were the only people with a jet-ski and tow boards in Ireland. They pioneered the whole scene which is bearing such stupendous fruit right now. The irony is while many of the crazy waves in Ireland really need a ski to get you into them at size the G-Spot doesn’t. It’s a defined take off on a shallow rock ledge then freight trains down a boulder shelf. On it’s day it is one of the best reefs in the world. As this photo proves. Before you start whinging about tow-ins this is a paddle, Tom Butler paddled out, used his arms to propel himself into a brace of bombs and got better barrels than the tow teams. Sometimes old school is all you need...
Golden
Bells The Rip Curl Bells beach is 50 this year. It the worlds longest running surf contest and has one of the most coveted trophies in the pro surf world. It’s winners list is a who’s who of surfing royalty and the event has seen historic moments that have changed the course of surfing history. It’s iconic long cold water walls inspired the worlds first surfing reserve, Rip Curl wetsuits and Quiksilver boardshorts. This is CARVE’s salute to a surfing institution, The Rip Curl Bells Easter Classic.
asp/karen
The famous Bells walls roll through.
1949 A group of Torquay based surfers and bodysurfers
1960 Torquay surfer and Olympic wrestler Joe Sweeney hired a bulldozer and cleared a road along the Bells cliff down to the beach. He charged one pound per surfer to recover his expenses. 1961 The first Bells contest is held. Early surfers at Bells included Peter Troy, Joe Sweeney, ‘China’ Gilbert and George ‘Ming’ Smith. Ming wins and collects a one-pound ($2) prize for riding the biggest wave of the day — making it the first modern professional event.
world class big wave venue. The swell peaked at almost 20 feet with Robert Conneely from NSW winning the event.
1965 Conneeley beat Nat Young in the final. "The final went on for two and half hours," said Conneeley "It took me 20 minutes to get through the shorebreak!" 1966 Bells Beach is visited in the legendary documentary film The Endless Summer.
1973 Bells went fully pro in 1973 with the help of a jeans company, Amco, and a growing local surf shop and wetsuit business, Rip Curl. It offered a substantial $1000 first prize and $2500 in prize money, and a new ‘points per manoeuvre’ system. The idea was to eliminate subjectivity from judging by counting moves completed. 70s surfing mega star Michael Peterson worked out the system and started making turns like crazy. He still thought he hadn’t done enough in the final though so he legged it. In fact
1976 Terry Fitzgerald, Reno Abellira, Bruce Channon, Michael ‘MP’ Peterson
and Hugh McLeod during 1976 Bells Beach Easter Rally won by Jeff Hackman.
1962 The ‘Bells Beach Rally’ was originally scheduled to
run Dec 31st but was rearranged as it clashed with a surf club event. Sydney surfer Glenn Richie won the event.
1963 The event had grown and had a new name — the Bells Beach Easter Rally. It was now drawing surfers from around Australia becoming a rallying point for the hottest surfers in the nation. 1965 The year that all others are compared to. A huge swell smashed the coast during the comp and photographs of the six metre waves went world wide established Bells Beach’s international reputation as a carve surfing magazine 55
Photo: joliphotos.com
began riding their motorbikes out to Bells along the cliff tops to ride waves. The beach was named after the Bell family who owned the land behind the cliffs. It was a long trip with the 16-foot hollow boards.
IRONICALLY WE SHOT EVERY DAY FOR TEN DAYS AND BARRELS WERE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN. THE DAY AFTER THE GROMS AND RUSS FLEW BACK THE SWELL ANGLE CHANGED AND STU CAMPBELL HERE AND MR STOKES GOT WATERY TUNNNELS A PLENTY.
ANYONE GOING TO
? Words and photos: SHARPY
Show business wisdom tells us that you should not work with children or animals. For they are unreliable, unpredictable and given the chance will turn your lovingly crafted project into a shambles. So what the hell were we thinking organising a coaching trip with seven groms to Costa Rica?!
MAN OF THE MATCH AND PLAYER OF THE SWELL WAS DEFINITELY SANCHO, KNOWN TO HIS MUM AS BENJAMIN SANCHIS, HE’S A LACONIC FRENCHMAN WHO HAS SLOWLY BUT SURELY CARVED HIMSELF A REP AS A WORLD CLASS HELLMAN. HIM AND PARTNER ERIC REBIERE GOT SOME BOMBS ON THE MORNING SESH WITH TOM AND FERG AND THEN THEY WENT ONTO WIN THE MULLY COMP. SANCHO THEN HIGH TAILED IT TO FRANCE, SURFED HUGE BELHARRA THEN WENT TO MOROCCO AND GOT ALL TIME SAFI... NOW THAT’S DEDICATION.
---donegal bay dreaming--2001
2011
T h i s w i nter h as been w hat' s known in the trad e as " rather good " . Wav es of 'potenti al' w i thin Donegal Bay, places that surf ers have wo n dered abo ut or d ream ed of rid ing for years.
gary mccall
“Benjamin Sanchis is an animal and a force to be reckoned with. He rode this swell three times in three countries. First he won the big wave event at Mullaghmore head in Ireland, then caught an XXL contender at Belharra in France and then this North African bomb with such poise as if it was a small playful day...All within 72 hours. Then again maybe he’s got an identical twin brother.”
“Our collective would meet in Marrakech the following night and head straight for the coast into what would turn out to come straight out of a dream. ” 94 carve surfing magazine
accustomed to my last minute phone calls with promises of epic journeys. Tyler along with film maker Mark Jeremias was finishing up his latest film project, “The Tyler Warren Experiments” where he can be seen riding anything from “4'7 Bars of Soap” to Campbell Brother Bonzers in perfect waves. In my opinion, Tyler is the epitome of style and has a true gift for riding anything in any kind of waves. As I was talking to him, I imagined him riding his 5'7 Bonzer in perfect barreling waves. And just like that, Tyler and Mark booked their tickets minutes later. Our collective would meet in Marrakech the following night and head straight for the coast into what would turn out to come straight out of a dream. As I pulled into the airport, I thought about how our
technology is changing and information is now spreading so quickly, thanks to people like Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. A few years ago it would have been impossible to book a ticket through an iPhone on the way to the airport, let alone answer emails and look at surf forecast and make decisions like this one at the last minute. As I parked my car in the long term parking lot and pulled out my bags and started walking towards the check in counter I said out loud to myself, "Too easy" with a big smile on my face. We met up in Marrakech and beelined straight to the coast. We spent the next week getting some of the best waves of our lives. Well, the surfers did anyway. I was stuck, as fellow photographer Mickey Smith would put it,
on “the Dark Side of the Lens”. People sometimes ask me how I can manage to diligently shoot perfect waves all day long without getting riding a wave myself. “Doesn’t it get frustrating?” My answer to that is that I’ve managed to channel this irresistible desire into some kind of bank where the need to ride waves gets stored and can be accessed later on, usually when I’m back home in Canada freezing and looking to muster up to courage to paddle out in perfect yet hypothermic conditions. It also beats being stuck in a cubicle. The first pulse of the swell hit the following morning where we met up with local Moroccan surfers Abdel El Harim and Saad Abid as well as French hellman Benjamin Sanchis. Sancho was just in Ireland a few days earlier
carve surfing magazine 95
Nath Phillips gets a bit of ‘amplitude’. No idea what it means. I was just listening to some snowboarders and thought I’d throw it in for a laugh.
Take one part time pro Welshman with a wry sense of humour, add two of our most colourful pro surfers, a grom, his dad and a mooby photographer and this is what you get...
estpix
Lyndon Wake, Croyde.
rubber Bandits
carve summer wetsuit guide 2011
“Summer time and the living is easy...” Or so the song goes. But let’s not forget snarled up traffic, kook filled line ups, chav’s in three quarter length trousers or a naughty amount of corn beefy British flesh on display. It’s only as hassle free as you make it, so Carve have put their collective heads together to make your life in and around our tepid shores as easy as humanly possible. It’s wetsuit guide time... the range is better than ever.
Foil 302
SGX 202
SGX
OK, no need to be smug – you’ve got a trip booked. And if you need a wettie in case the water temp drops below 16° or you’re nursing a bit of sunburn, then the Foil 202 is the short sleeve 2/2 of choice. It’s 50% Superflex G3, has strategic paddle zones, and super-light flatlock stitching. Not the kind of suit you want to accidently pick up for a February dawnie though. £118
Billabong’s entry level summersuit sees some of Billabong’s top tech high-end materials cascaded down to the more ‘regular’ suits. The Foil uses Superflex Neoprene where it matters, has ergonomic performance paddle zones, and is fully GBS. You’ll be busting out those sun-drenched 360s in no time. £120
Revolution
SG5
Prodigy
TIKI S90
The Revolution’s the kind of mid range suit that would have left you slack jawed if it had appeared as a top-end suit a few years ago. It’s got Billabong’s primo ZG300 neoprene where you need it most, and uses Airlite S Stretch elsewhere. Plus it’s got 80% externally welded seams to keep any kind of leakage at bay, and has a solid barrier system that’ll have you duck-diving those summer bombie sets with an ‘I’m untouchable’ glint in your eye... £160
Sometime it feels like surely things can’t get any warmer, thinner, or stretchier. But those neoprene aficionados just keep on giving. The SG5 is, we’re assured, 30% warmer than a standard nylon covered neoprene suit. It uses Solar Mesh which traps the sun’s heat and transfers it to the body, has a furnace lining on the chest and back panels, and a refined C2 chest zip. Three cheers for the boffins. £210
Tel: 01271 812442 Email: tiki@tikisurf.co.uk Web: www.tikisurf.co.uk
Web: www.billabongwetsuits.com Email: billabong@dohltd.com tel: +44 1656 747 790
Foil 202
Sometimes in life less is more (is that from an advert?!). Anyway, the SGX 202 is the ultimate in short armed smugness. It’s got the C2 chest zip, minimal seam design and uses the ‘how do they do that’ ZG400R neoprene to make sure that everything under the wetsuit is warm, superflexible and rash free. Why should only your winter suit have all the top tech hey?! £216
Billabong have long been committed to the technological cause and every year seem to have uncovered another nugget for their Solution Gold suits. This summer’s SGX uses ZG400R, a neoprene coated with H2R military-grade water repellent. This means that the suit never soaks up water so never gets heavier. So (if you’re of that persuasion) you might even have dry Speedos when you peel off your suit. And it means that it dries much quicker too – so a dry suit after a banana and water pit stop. Perfect. £250
Now, it’s easy to believe the hype from those smooth-talking bods at our favourite big name wetsuit companies, but Tiki have walked the walk with their Prodigy suit – it’s seen active duty at Prowlers, The Mullaghmore Tow Comp and the North Scottish slabs – 10's, Baggies and Evies – throughout last winter (one of the coldest for the last 100 years lest we forget). So you can expect the summersuit version to warm your cockles whatever weather this ‘summer’ chucks at us. £230
New for summer 2011, Tiki have added the S90 to their range – it’s a smooth neoprene version of their legendary TK90. The S90’s Smoothskin neoprene retains no water on the outside resulting in an unbelievably light, flexible and – because of the reduction in wind chill – warm summer suit. Plus it looks pretty stealth! Behind enemy lines in Hossegor then... £250
carve surfing magazine 99
NEVER FORGET YOUR WELSH 60 carve surfing magazine
The big February swell hype might have been all about XXL worthy waves, spectacular barrels, jet-skis and hellman derring-do over in Ireland but other places saw a brace of good days— Wales was one... word and photos sharpy
ABERYSTWYTH’S HARBOUR TRAP, NIGHTMARE FOR BOAT OWNERS, DREAMLAND FOR SURFERS… OCCASIONALLY. THIS IS THE LATE EVENING PEAK OF THE SWELL THAT CAUGHT EVERYONE NAPPING.
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