Devon
Issue One
Editor’s Note
Dear Reader, Today marks the day of the first Men’s Health Devon issue! The wait is over and I am pleased and excited to share this zine with you, designed to fish out the explorer in us all, I ask you to flick through these pages as you surf the waves of our beloved Devon and explore the articles for yourselves. Enjoy!
Page Two
Where to stay
S u r f e r ’ s Paradise Facilities include equipment hire, RNLI lifeguards, toilets and showers etc, as well as plenty of picnic tables and information on local events. There are also opportunities nearby for sand boarding, kayaking, coasteering and mountain boarding, horse riding and so much more. Definitely one for adventurous families… Nestled in a field amongst sand dunes Open 16 July-31 August; £11pp per this picturesque camp site is a mere night 01271 890671 surfparadise. 10 minute walk to Croyde’s charming co.uk town and a 30 second walk to the beach – a real surfers paradise! Directly behind the dunes that lead to one of the UK’s best surfing beaches, this laid-back camp site is the first port of call for early-bird surfers. That doesn’t mean early nights are necessarily on the cards, with the local pub, the Thatch, on the doorstep and a handful more in the town and if you’re lucky, you might catch a gig by legendary local band The Universe Inspectors in the village hall. The camp site itself is split into ‘family’ camping and main camping, so if late nights aren’t your thing you can always get away from he louder bunch! Charged per person and per car, you don’t get charged extra for trivial things like putting up a windbreak or awning, which is a bonus.
T h e W h i t e House
This stunning house sleeps 10 with 5 bedrooms so is perfect for family reunions – I stayed there whilst celebrating my dad’s birthday and it was amazing, the house stands on a cliff that, if you’re brave enough to look over, overlooks Croyde beach.
Imagine waking to the sounds of the sea and taking an early morning, five to ten minute stroll, to the beautiful sandy beach to catch the surf, or just relaxing in the balmy summer evenings whilst enjoying the most spectacular sunsets, absolutely wonderful! Oh and there’s a hot tub – You’re welcome. www.marsdens.co.uk 01271 813777
Words By H o p e Harding
Page Four
Looking for something a little more extravagant? The White house located on Baggy Point beautiful period home with stunning panoramic sea views towards Hartland Point and Lundy Island. With stylish furnishings and a welcoming atmosphere it makes it the perfect place to relax in especially with the added luxury of an indoor hot tub. The large garden even backs onto National Trust Land – now that’s gotta be good for your instagram!
It’s a bit of a step up from surfer’s paradise at £1467 - £3925 per week working out at £21 - £56 per night per person but this house really is a surfer’s paradise, well my kind of surfing anyway!
Eating Out
Croyde Ice Cream Parlour Ok so you’ve explored the beach, you’ve hired your surfboard and put up your tent, maybe you’ve even gone for a surf already but now you’re hungry, boy does that salty sea air take it out of you! You’re girlfriend is still unpacking, ‘making sure everything is in the right place and there is NO SAND IN THE TENT’ so you’ve walked into town and she’s going to meet you there in half an hour for some lunch, but you just cant wait that long. Then suddenly out of the corner of your eye you spot a little girl eating what looks like a triple scoop of bubble gum, strawberry and chocolate ice cream in a sprinkled cone covered in melted chocolate that’s milliseconds away from setting. Now you know your girlfriend wont be happy if you have the first scoop of summer with out her, but maybe if you just get one scoop you’d be able to eat it before she gets here and hey just have a light lunch and you could get another scoop with her after. DOOOOO IT!
Croyde Ice Cream Parlour have been serving cones of heaven for years and I got the chance to have a little chat with them and ask a couple of seriously important questions... Q. What is your favourite flavour of ice cream? A. Definitely the Blueberry Bubblegum! And yes, I know that makes me a 10 year old girl...
Words By Hope Harding
Page Six
Q. If you could make any meal into a flavour of ice cream, Willy Wonka style, What would it be? A. Oooooh that’s a tough one, I would have to say a roast dinner, then I can have it when ever I want with out the hassle of cooking - Perfect!
Sport
WANTED:
blogger to be trained for Croyde’s first triathhalon THE HUNT is on for an aspiring triathlete and blogger to take on a gruelling training regime in the run-up to Croyde’s first Olympic-length triathlon. The Croyde Ocean Triathlon takes place this summer and is “set to take the world by storm”, according to organiser Mike Morris. He said: “It’s going to be tough but we want it to be accessible to everyone and there’s no reason why, if you’re reasonably fit, you can’t achieve something great like this.” Mike has teamed up with the Journal to run a competition to find someone willing to train for, and complete in, the triathlon while blogging about their experience. The chosen competitor will receive intensive training and free entry in return for regular posts about how they are getting on. The event will kick off with a 1.5-kilometre ocean swim from Putsborough followed by a cycle over a series of calf-stretching hills. The final leg of the race will be a 12km off-road run requiring competitors to dig deep as they tackle steep, cliff-top climbs around Saunton and Croyde.
Words By Duncan Dury
To be in with a chance of being selected to blog about preparing for the event, email 100 words about an adventure you have been on to ddrury@northdevonjournal. co.uk. The winner will get free training from Croyde Surf Life Saving Club, a computerised bike fitting session and a bike for the day from Southfork in Braunton, nutritional advice and free entry to the event.
The company’s CEO, Steve Baker, said: “As a keen open-water swimmer myself I am delighted to be part of this new event.
Page Eight
Mike is hoping to raise £40,000 for four charities which they are asking competitors to raise sponsorship money for. The chosen charities are Surfers Against Sewage, Croyde Surf Lifesaving Club, Children’s Hospice South West and Surfers Not Street Children.
Shopping
Buying your first surf board
My quest took a long loop and I finally ended up buying the first board I had admired a year ago: a Hawaiian Soul fibreglass Mini Mal. One solution is to walk into a surf shop you can trust (a shop for surfers - not one just for tourists buying surfing T-Shirts,) and buy what they advise. I wanted to look into things more myself though because it’s nice to get your head round things. Initially I asked friends and browsed online. There was no doubt that the common consensus is this: a Mini Mal, probably 7’6 or 8’ long. However, this apparent simple solution is not uncomplicated as there are other factors to consider: 1. What can you afford? 2. Different materials have different pros and cons. 3. How do you see you surfing progressing? 4. Aesthetics
1: The price factor My first thought was to save money by buying second hand. However, after watching eBay, going round the local shops and checking the paper I found that it’s remarkably hard to find a second hand board in decent condition that is actually going to save you a significant amount of money - taking into consideration that when you buy a package (board, fins, leash + wetsuit) most shops will give you a discount (Surfed Out have given me a free lesson too) and they will also look after you in the future. I did find a good website called Second Hand Boards which found a nice Gulf Stream Mini Mal for me to look at but it turned out to be a bit too dinged. As far as new boards are concerned I was looking at about £300 for an injection moulded board or a Chinese import fibreglass one and then £450£550 for a lovely local Gulf Stream board. I would have chosen to go for the Gulf Stream if it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t really afford it - you’re likely to be selling on your learning board after a year or two as well.
Page Ten
When considering price remember that, like any hobby, there will be ongoing costs and extras (oh I need a wetsuit, board bag, wax comb, a combination key lock, board lock, a ding kit etc.) so don’t break the bank on the board alone.
2. Materials I didn’t consider a softboard or softtop as these may help you learn to stand and enjoy splashing about in the summer whitewater, but they aren’t much use beyond that - and they’re ugly! I thought about an injection moulded board because they are tough but I’d hired those and didn’t like them as they seemed heavy and sluggish. What’s more - I used to be a keen windsurfer - so, having used custom short boards and being confident that I’m going to fall in love with surfing I knew a fibreglass board was for me (the only downside for me as a learner was that they are more fragile). Unfortunately this meant going for the Chinese import board: but you can’t have everything. 3. Progression If you just see yourself and your kids falling about in the water on your summer holiday then a softboard or soft-top might be right. Otherwise you’ll want an injection moulded or fibreglass board. You can learn on other board shapes than a ‘Mini Mal’ (which is short for Mini Malibu): a long board, a Fish, a Magic Carpet or Egg. The problem with other shaped boards is that they have individual characteristics which make learning harder and if they don’t turn out to be the shape of board you want to progress too you’ll be selling that one on anyway. The safest bet to learn on is indeed - the square tail of the standard Mini Mal because you don’t really know how you’re going to progress so it’s wise to get the board that is definitely right for now and that will have a good resale value.
4. Aesthetics You’ve got to like your board - don’t you? Ok so I’d decided on the Hawaiian Soul Mini Mal and I left it to the staff at Surfed Out (thanks Glenn and Ross) to advise me as to the length. The length is important because it has to be about the right buoyancy to carry you and help you catch your first waves. My windsurfing experience just helped tip the balance to a 7’6 rather than an 8’ board.
Page Twelve
Words By Thos Sharpe
Life & Leisure
Dolphin School I have been fortunate enough to see dolphins, not only when travelling overseas, but in New Quay in Wales, and right here in North Devon – in Combe Martin and, on one fantastic day a few years ago, putting on an incredible display off Woolacombe Beach. However, my knowledge stopped right there – I could tell you they were dolphins but nothing more than that. Last weekend I went to Dolphin School. Ok, so it wasn’t really called Dolphin School – officially, it was ‘a Marine Mammal and Seabird Surveyor Training Course but that’s too much of a mouthful, even for a basking shark. Run by Marine Life (the marine conservation charity), the course aimed to train us in how to identify whales, dolphins, seals, and sea birds. And it was fascinating! It is an eye-opener just to learn how commonly dolphins, and even whales, are spotted in our own waters. From the ferry to Lundy, for example, you may see harbour porpoises, shortbeaked common dolphins (sadly one was washed up on Woolacombe beach last year), bottle-nosed dolphins, Risso’s dolphins (always horribly scarred as they are constantly fighting with each other), minke whales, grey seals and sunfish (looks like a dustbin lid with fins), to name but a few.
Here’s a few of the identification gems I picked up: harbour porpoises have a small dorsal fin shaped like a Dairylea Triangle whereas dolphin dorsal fins curve over like a surfing wave. Short-beaked common dolphins have a yellow streak down their sides whereas bottle-nosed dolphins are all grey; grey seals have dog-like faces while common seals have cat-like faces. It’s an exciting time for cetaceans, as our seas are getting warmer which means that we are seeing different species, while others remain under threat from hunting. A blue whale, the world’s largest mammal (about the length of two double-decker buses and weighing in at around 200 tonnes) was spotted this autumn off the coast of Cornwall!
Page Fourteen
I found out quite how hard it is to tell one species of seabird from another and that many sea birds have a nasty habit of having different plumage in the summer from in the winter so you have twice as much homework to do if you are going to tell your black-headed gull from your little tern.
I also learned that, despite being surrounded at time by hundreds of the things last time I went to Eastbourne, there’s no such thing as a seagull. There are many gulls, but none of them are called ‘seagull’. I also now understand that it is very difficult to tell one from another. Here’s a few of my notes: Greater Black-Backed Gull = black wings, pink legs = looks like a Lesser Black-Backed Gull but smaller (unless it’s far away and then it looks exactly the same) Lesser Black-Backed gull = black or dark grey wings, yellow legs = looks either like a Greater Black-backed Gull or a Yellowlegged Gull or a Herring Gull if you can’t see its legs Yellow-legged Gull = grey wings, yellow legs = looks like a Lesser Black-Backed Gull or a Herring Gull (unless you can see its legs) or a Greater Black-Backed Gull if the lighting is poor Herring Gull = could easily be mistaken for a Greater Black-backed Gull or a Lesser Black-backed Gull or a Yellow-Legged Gull unless you can get close enough to judge the greyness of its wings and the colour of its legs Common gull = looks like the other gulls but smaller = see Herring Gull, Yellowlegged Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull and Greater Black-Backed Gull depending on how far away from you it is. It also looks a lot like a Kittiwake Of course, it’s when they’re young and the colours of their wings haven’t developed that it’s really difficult to tell them apart.
All in all, it was a great day and we all learned an enormous amount. The aim of the course is to train us up so that we can report any sightings with confidence and, ultimately can take our turn volunteering on ferry routes as fully fledged Marine Life surveyors. It is through this invaluable voluntary work that Marine Life can gather information about the species that are around us and evidence changes that are occurring. This information is used to encourage policy makers to make the right policies to protect our seas. Personally I can’t wait for the next time I visit Lundy. I will be standing on the bridge of the Oldenburg with a pair of binoculars. I may have to lasso a few gulls so I can get a look at their legs. To learn more about the work of Marine Life: http://www.marine-life.org.uk/
Words By Gudrun Limbrick
Page Sixteen
To learn more about visiting Lundy: http:// www.landmarktrust.org.uk/lundyisland/
With Thanks To Hope Harding - Editor Hope Harding - Words & Images Thos Sharpe - Words & Images Gudrun Limbrick - Words & Images
Devon