Peek and I shared the Christmas spirit with the ducks and two swans, cake and bread - they were stoked!

I's all set for a boozyaleyxmas day.

And I'm cooking.

Could be interesting.Possible surf on the saturday too. Super good at moment and I've got a new job - bah!

Hell drive to North Devon today as part of my "get in some fun before I have to get a job again" program. Up and out by 5.30am into the foggy, cold, dark and dirtyness. Squirting the windscreen every 5 minutes to clear the dirt is a pain in the arse. I almost talked myself out of it and turned round for home and bed at one point.

Glad I didn't. Ended up at Saunton which I'd never surfed before. Fun little 2 footers with the odd bigger set, bunch of Longboarders out, some had it, some didn't. Rode the 6'6" with oversized daft fin and got a few good ones, getting into the groove with it now, Saunton might be the wave it's made for and I'll be back there.

Snapped a few things as usual.

Cold set.

Quiet crowd.

Right hand rocks.

Reflecting on my daps.

Gearing up for getting cold.

Grainy cruise.

The Peebler, served me well this last year, getting traded in for something bigger next weekend. Will be remembered.
And yes thats my stupidly oversized fin on that there surfboard.

Wish I'd asked Santa for one of these. Nice.

Get your drool on at Surfy Surfy.

Still no job, no surf for a while BUT I did manage a rad trip up the m5/6/55 to Ramp City in Blackpool with the crew last weekend. They recently took ownership of the Simparch wood pool/bowl and fullpipe, an art installation that has pretty much travelled the world. And it's rad. Especially the pool. I wasn't sure what to expect from it, but it's as near to a real pool as you'll get over here, probably a lot mellower but still steep in the right places. Oh and the fact it's suspended in the air by struts is a bit wierd yet sort of sick. Frontside dad slashers were had (thanks bacon) and a super fun time was enjoyed by all. I'm going back again as soon as I get my new car (oh yes, the beast is back.....)

Skate snaps here me babbers.

Wet and cold day in Bristol yesterday, so we ended up having a bunk off session at Horfield. Not the greatest park I've ever been to but a game of SKATE on the flatbank and some wheelies will make you grin through the cold.

Got this snap of Geoorge of the George aswell so not a total loss. This guy is total Brissol bhuy Dubstep quote machine. "Gunna spin some Ben Shermans inneye...."

Had a swift half and picked up a few tasty beers from The Coronation to wash down a tasty take-away curry when I got home. Cheered me up after scrapping my old trusty (but knackered) Rover for £40.

RIP "The Mobile".

Gotta have a sticker box.

Got in my last surf before a new job last friday. It's sure getting cold. Took the ol 6'4" fish in and caught a bunch of gooduns, stoked. Turned lumpy towards the end as you'll see in the pics.










Lowtide looking nay bad.

















Just after I got out, bumpy but still pretty good.


Rocks and sky



























More rocks ha.



















Grainy turn, losing light.

My daily schedule at the moment (as a non-worker, actually when I was working too..er..) consists of trawling the surfblogs.

Dalybread takes some rad shots that keeps me stoked on getting back to Cali. Shakas & Singlefins covers all the artyness I need. Svrf&Destroy is the dirty metal side of surfing and a lot of these are all tied together on the Grass is Greener blog which kinda covers it all.

So now you know what to do if yer bored.

Found this on flickr - incredibly rad slow exposure of Rest Bay rocks. A large amount of my young teen years were spent mucking around here. Check out the rest of the shots here.

Aaarrrgghh. Apologies for the lack of blog-ness, I've been slack and there is no excuse. And I keep forgetting the camera when I go for a surf.

Here's a vid of the one band I can go back to time and time again without it getting stale. It's taken from probably the most influential (to me anyways) bit of TV from my youth - the "No Nirvana" show on The Late Show. It was packed full of bands doing songs that are still some of my favourites today. It's all on youtube and it's just made my sunday.

Had an over active weekend - London, Zoo, Camden comics, Rochester skatepark, mammoth drives and a monday morning junk surf. Rad times. I took a load of snaps from the zoo so prepare yourself for a meerkat overdose sometime soon.

I also missed fridays random so here you go, #3 with a bullet....errr...birdy....

































Wee burdy, Pacific Beach.

It's my last day in my current temp job so as you'd expect I'm spending it goofing around on the internet. Same as all the other days actually.

Anyways I came across this snap of me on Muttlynets photostream from a BBQ we held the other year. Thats my back alleyway 1/4 with real/fake pool coping, me and Wayne shot a vid on it too that I'll put up at some point, it's the highlight of my skatefilm career I think.

The old fart up the road hates us skating this but we don't shred it enough to worry him these days. Anyone for a schralp-o?

I spent a bit of time in Croyde over the summer, leaving Wiltshire super early, and getting to know the break. It's a rad one when it's on but I never really got in there when it was super good. These photos are probably from the best day I had there, well apart from the day Jim missed by sleeping in. Bummer.

Works better at a lower tide, really fun peaks this day.






















Summer time for sure.






















This guy had some serious speed lines, this is how my singlefin should (will) be moving.






















Slash I up.

Aahh weekend. Rugby woe followed by skate fun followed by skate woe followed by top grub and computer fishing. Radness.

Jim tweaked his ankle pretty bad on the sunday. He's probably blogged it in an extreme way HERE. Heal up soon champ.

On the upside I quit my temp job today to find something where I may actually get real work to do. Not before I try and get a few days off for a surf though.

Friday Randoms #2













































Bent City 2005 "Dear Skatan" wish list. I think we pretty much got everything we put down, well except Allah - although I haven't seen Crazy Phil for a while so maybe he's converted?

Anyone interested in dicking around in Cornwall for a week next summer please let me know.

The new board got it's surf baptism in perfect 3-4ft Rest this morning, unfortunately I sucked and I think it'll take a few surfs to get this board sliding right. I did manage a 3 1/2hr session though, and was pretty toasty all the way through, can't see that lasting mind. No pics as didn't take Cam but this place (Err if you are super quick) has a couple.

Picked up some new boots too, but don't tell the wife.

Waxed and ready to go.

Ah North Shore, the incredibly quotable 80's surf cheese fest. Starring Occy, Gerry Lopez and pre-tow-in Laird Hamilton. Ask anyone in my year at school who surfed and they will be able to quote at least half this film. Now someone's stuck it all up on Youtube. Get stoked!

"No-one rides a twinny in Hawaii"

Got my fin before the weekend, looks sweet. Looking alright for surf later this week but I feel a cold coming on so getting tanked up on orange juice and Lemsip Max.

My wonderful little Niece turned 1 today so we had a family do in lovely old Wiltshire.

Grace also does impressions. This first one is Oliver Reed. (We start em young on the booze in our family).

















She also does a mean Ian Mckaye.

































Happy Birthday Grace!

Just you wait until I get a lomo. They'll all come out like these:
www.ryantatar.com

Epic (and I use that word to it's fullest) session at a muddy Filton bowl this morning. Howling, freezing northerly winds, Corspey coffee warmers and FS Slashers in the deep end. The Bear returned and got street. Pics to follow.

Friday Randoms #1

This year I managed to complete the holy triumviate of things to skate for anyone over the age of 30. And all in the UK, which if you include the pool and the ditch is a pretty rad achivement. These fullpipes were actually 5 minutes from my parents new place in South Wales which I find pretty amusing. Thats Joe "The Bear" Habgood going big for the benefit of the Newport youngsters.

Fullpipes - super fun, but they don't half kill your legs.

Dave Carnie used to write/edit/arse around for fabled skatemag Big Brother. Now he writes a whole heap of funny shit with his wife about food. Makes I larf.















foodondrunk.blogspot.com

The Vegas stuff about Dude bags I found particularly amusing. Mainly as I've been in that pool and witnessed it first hand. "Awesome".

Southern California has always held a strange attraction to me. Growing up with the Taylor Steele movies, Rob Machado in Surfer mag every month, the punk that was associated with it and of course the skateboarding made me want to one day visit the places I’d read or heard about regularly. That and the perma-sunshine/waves.

Fast forward to last year and having an idea for a holiday I managed to talk the wife into going to San Diego for a week. We loved it, although I didn’t surf as much as I wanted. I went skating with a local and visited Washington Street and some other places, hung out at Mission Beach and just generally enjoyed the SoCal lifestyle.

[Click Pic above for Peekers 07 SD Slideshow] [Click Pic above for my 07 SD Slideshow]

So much so we went back again last month. We stayed in Pacific Beach again, but this time got a hire car and a proper board. This trip from a surfing point of view was a lot more enjoyable – up at dawn (thanks jetlag!), surf, breakfast, play at being tourists, back for a surf then out for food and drinks. Heaven. I got to have a skate day again with Riik and some other fellas, eat some amazingly good (and nearly authentic) street tacos, checked out SurfIndian store and chatted to Chris the owner about the amazing surf art and boards he has in there and drove up and down the coast through all the surfspots that were the reason for the trip in the first place.














Pacific Coast Highway looking down to La Jolla
[Click Pic above for Peekers 08 SD Slideshow]

The surf was pretty fun all week – 2-3ft, nothing serious but enough to have fun in. I got to surf 27th Street in Del Mar on the last day which were the best waves of the trip.

I’m saving up to go again next year. Even if the wife wants to go somewhere else.

Oh and one morning after a surf I went and took a few snaps at Pacific Beach.

















Crystal Pier windswept but fun.
[click for surf slideshow]

A driving force behind the creation of this blog was to document and make myself go surfing more. I’ve slacked off more and more over the last 10yrs with my surfing and something needed to be addressed.Yes - I do get pissed off at the crowds and the kooks, and this was a contributing factor in forcing me away from surfing, but am learning to come to terms with it. This summer allowed me a chance to get in more than once a week most weeks and it’s fair to say it returned a lot of the stoke I had from surfing.

Which has led me to purchase this puppy. After Whip got stoked on his, and I saw this bargain, I went and got into a lot of trouble with the Wife by buying it.

Let’s hope it rides well, I really need to get out again soon.

6'6" Seed Single fin shortboard. Pretty fat and wide, I keep thinking "mini-mal".

This is a test...

...icle.