A few weeks ago I was sent a link to a preview for a product which is soon to be released in the UK. Intrigued, I found myself on the homepage of the Wavecave, and a few days later I found myself unwrapping the test model. I headed to the coast for a surf and a test run.
Police have now confirmed that the body of a man found on Fistral Beach last week was indeed surfboard shaper Mark Neville.
Chris Stevens considered surfers ear an old-wives tale, until he met Rob Shaddick, who learnt the hard way to look after his ears.
Andrew Cotton talks to Chris Stevens about life out of the water while recovering from a recent knee operation. Photos: Ben Selway
We still surf for a handful of moments. Moments that make the hours of trawling charts, freezing in rainy car parks and surfing inadequate waves worthwhile.
These moments don’t all have to be picture-perfect sun-drenched barrels. We paddle out into breaks all around the world, emerging with the same beaming smile from a mushy session at Saunton as the guy who just got slotted at an offshore, overhead Pipeline.
Earlier in the year I wrote about re-losing my surfing virginity in Australia.
After a couple of months out of the water I vowed that I’d spend as much time surfing as I possibly could – and never again would I be content spending that much time not riding waves.
I’m a fairly fortunate surfer – I’ve very rarely encountered localism and even when I have, it’s been pretty mild and mainly down to people being ignorant of the unwritten code of surfing.
At the Noosa Festival of Surfing the other week I was lucky to catch some time with Thomas Meyerhoffer, who some of you may know as the inventor of the Peanut, a radical new board that pretty much defies categorisation. FULL STORY »
As I entered the penthouse suite of the Emerald Hotel in Noosa – aka Global Surf Industries’ HQ for the duration of the festival – two fair-haired arty types were in deep in discussion.
The guys in questions are Stefan Hunt and Jonno Durrant, who are currently touring Australia with their second movie ‘Somewhere Near Tapachula’, a documentary about Mision Mexico, an orphanage owned and run by an Australian couple, Alan and Pam Skuse, who care for around 50+ Mexican children.
After leaving the Alley Fish Fry, I hit the aptly named Sunshine Highway and was finally on my way to the destination I’ve craved since landing in Australia – Noosa Heads, for the Noosa Festival of Surfing.
After waking up not so unusually late, my mood dropped with the sound of the rain on the roof on my van. I was shooting the 4th annual Alley Fish Fry on Australia’s Gold Coast, but I wasn’t going to allow a bit of rain to spoil the day. I’m a British surfer, goddammit, used to braving much worse conditions in search of a wave. This bit of drizzle was nothing to write home about.
Few people would imagine that I’ve spent the last three months in envy of my brother. He is currently in his second year at Swansea University – in the freezing Welsh valleys, completing assignments and attending lectures. I’m currently in my fifth month of travelling, enjoying the baking heat of the Australian summer, sleeping in late and partying away the night.
Chris Stevens
As a born and bred Devonshire boy, the beach has always been in my life. These days it still excites me as much as it did when I was little, but instead of paddling in the whitewash I'm paddling out back. Photography has always been a passion, but after studying documentary photography I knew I wanted it to be my career.
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