Extremehorizon surf blog providing: regular surfing news, updates, stories, surf pictures, product reviews, surfer interviews and anything from the world of actions sports which is begging to be blogged!
Check out the latest Northcore Boardriders blog entry below on their trip to the Orkney Islands:
"Big waves, unsurfed/undiscovered locations, huge swell windows, vast ocean fetch, endless variety of set ups, constant waves....its like a mini-Hawaii, so who wouldn't want to go to the Orkney Islands?!
For those who dont know, the Orkneys are a group of islands situated north of Scotland and the fabled reefs at Thurso. They lay on the same latitudes as Northern Canada and Greenland but although the islands do get bitterly cold in winter, the gulf stream tempers the climate and the ocean enough to mean that icebergs and polar bears arent local hazards!
We were lucky enough to visit one of the outer islands recently, partly to visit friends and partly to check it out for a possible future Northcore team trip and after days of looking at maps and swell charts I was dreaming of the seemingly limitless surf possibilities.The main drawback other than the aforementioned cold, is the length of the journey there, for us it meant a 450 mile road trip, a flight, a cross island drive, a ferry and a long walk, which meant that we could have flown to the other side of the world in a similar amount of time. The journey is worth it though as the huge skys, vast seas and remoteness of the Orkneys is stunning.
The drive around the whole island we were staying on is only about 45mins and a few potential surf spots can be seen from the road but most are well hidden and all involve long walks across steep fields, stone walls, dead sheep and streams. Winter swells regularly reach 20ft+ (it was only a 12-14ft swell when we were there) and all of the spots we saw were rock reef set ups, some only accessible by boat or PWC. This place is hardcore!I'm not going to give away anymore for now but watch this space for a possible trip in 2009..... "
Now this is a tricky question .....would the population of the USA or the world for matter prefer a partially literate, wholly inarticulate, self-serving, greedy US President who'd rather shoot squirrels, play golf and invade foreign nations with bigger oil resereves than his, or have an articulate, open minded fair President that loves to body surf?
Mmmm lets ponder that for a moment....
A US President who loves waves and Hawaii...this video and still were shot during Barack Obama's August holiday at Sandy Beach Honolulu, where he was seen chatting with boogie boarders (we can forgive him that ;) and body surfing a few waves. Good man
Not all of us have surfed monster waves...but all of us are fascinated by them. This fun little poll is to find out which wave extremehorizon.blog readers rate as the gnarliest, bad-ass, mother wave on the planet. Just click on your wave to register your vote below...
Criteria includes wave size, wave thickness, hold down potential, shark factor, water temperature, remoteness and any other random voodoo scariness. We have a webpage on the worlds biggest waves here, which might help the decision making process:
If we have missed any spots out you feel should be included, send us a comment or even any brave souls who have first hand experience of any of these waves email us your stories and I'll be glad to post them up here to share with the world
Its almost inevitable that living the life of a surfer will lead to a search; whether its a search for the perfect wave or sometimes its a search to validate, understand or explain the act of surfing itself. The latter is the intangible goal which author Jaimal Yogis has, in part, set out to attain in his nonfiction saga, Saltwater Buddha.
Many surfers who write (or even writers who surf!) have tried to capture the feeling of riding a wave in the written word and some have even likened surfing to a religion, but none that I know of have used religon as a metaphor or comparison, to imbibe a sense of meaning into what it feels like to surf a wave or be a surfer. Yogis has done just that by drawing parallels with his journey to surf and travel, with his study of Buddhism and quest for Zen.
Yogis story draws heavily on his buddhist influences which is conveyed in a genuine, self-effacing narrative style which explores a personal voyage of both physical and spiritual discovery. Its an engaging tale of a restless young man looking for direction in life through study, travel and a desire to surf, which sees the author living and surfing in Hawaii, France, Santa Cruz, New York and more.
Saltwater Buddha's Zen/surfing analogy gives a fresh perspective to the joy of riding a wave, set within an intelligent, thought provoking story which expertly captures emotions and situations which all surfers will relate to.
The quality of Yogis writing is up there with, amongst others, Daniel Duane, Allan Weisbecker, Kem Nunn, Tim Winton etc. Surfers and searchers alike will love it. Out in May 2009....reserve a copy! www.jaimalyogis.com.
Surfers Path, the distributors of a new surf film "One California Day" have kindly supplied a DVD copy to Extremehorizon HQ to review on our blog and I'm pleased they did.
One California day is a grounded surf film which immerses the viewer into the vivid, rich colours of the Californian landscape and its ever evolving surf culture. The makers acheive this by featuring surfers like the Malloys, Tom and Jimmy Curren, Joel Tudor, Dane Perlee, Jimmy Gamboa and more who all embrace the west coast's vast natural beauty and influential surf history and use this to form the face of modern day Californian surfing.
The film explores how the diversity of California's reef, point and beach breaks have given birth over the years to a huge range of surfboard shapes and designs which in turn have lead to developments in unique surfing styles. The film is part documentary and part travelogue woven together with stunning 16mm cinematography both on land and in the ocean.
One California day is an evocotive, rootsy and soulful film which has captured the essence of one of the worlds most influential surfing regions. Its a DVD to buy, keep and watch again and again.
Announcing the Extremehorizon Surf photo competition
To all budding surf photographers out there, we are running a competition up until Christmas 2008 to find the very best surfing pictures, with the chance to win some great surf prizes and the opportunity to have you work seen by visitors across the world.
Photographers and images can be from any location on the planet as long as they are surf related.
All you need to do to enter is register on the Extremehorizon image gallery and start uploading your pictures. Please note that images cant be any larger than 1024KB each (if you need to resize your pictures try some free software like PIXresizer via download.com). Once registered drop us an email and we'll track your uploads
The winner will receive and Extremehorizon Surf goody bag which will include: Northcore hardware, Matunas wax, a copy of Surfers Path magazine, stickers and more.
Winners will be chosen based upon a combination of the number of public views and ratings images receive via the gallery. However judges reserve the right for their decision to be final. The closing date is 20th Dec with winners being notified via email before 24th Dec 08
The Association of Professional Tow surfers (APT) has announced the green light for the 2008 Punta de Lobos, Pichilemu Chile World Cup Tow-In Surfing Championship to begin this Saturday, October 25th, and just in time before the holding period comes to a final close at the end of the month. Event officials are stating that the surf forecast should be in the 30'-35' face height range with the possibility of a larger swell around the 27th Oct.
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