Personally, I can’t imagine ever seeing it in Cornwall, hurricane or no hurricane. I’ve kept a keen eye on the conditions on a daily basis for a good few years now, and I’ve never seen a 22 second* period swell strike our peninsula. With such a high period, and such a low amplitude, isn’t this a tsunami? LOL Nowhere near. Going into the end of next week looks well tasty though, pray for good winds on it. Perfect SE’s are forecast at the moment. A just reward after a gutless summer so far.
*22 second period forecasted has since dropped to 20 seconds, but the fact remains the same, we don’t get into the 20′s here.
well, after nearly 5 weeks of lack luster surf everywhere, I had two evening surfs back to back at my local spot, only 2 maybe just 3 footers occasionally rolling in, but hey, they had some grunt to move me along, the spot is generally very quiet & not too many people know about it :0), but it always has the same ol faces from the local scene when its breaking, its like and old school reunion. fingers crossed some more waves will follow soon???
Chris Levi and myself trundled on down South yesterday and managed to score some big cross shore conditions early on, later joined by Eldred Hawke and Brooke Mason for some sweet low tide, offshore wind, groomed cleanliness, as shot here by Porthmeor’s Jon Grant of http://www.alldayphotography.webs.com
Next week looks like it might throw up some long period power, accompanied by hallowed south easterly winds. Exposed spots on the North coast should really come into their own if their banks are good.
The recent wind chop has done little to alleviate the swell starvation of the last few weeks, however, there is hope. I feel another sacrifice to the swell gods might be in order. I really want this one to pan out going into next weekend.
Jetstream. (swells track along this upper atmosphere flow, it’s what gives swells their direction)
If this holds up, it’s on.
No, I’m not talking about buying a stick, but rather embracing the challenge that is “The Left Hander”.
After such a long flat spell I figure I’ll be pretty much starting over, so why not “go left” this Autumn. With many excited/despondent mates all debating their French, Irish and Scottish travel aspirations, I thought I’d take a look at some of the challenging breaks potentially on offer through October when the Atlantic finally wakes from it’s slumber, and some of those Lefts are starting to look pretty inviting.
I was testing out my camera today in a very small and inconsistant 1-2ft waves but still managed to get a couple of waves. I had it all to myself which was pretty surprising, being as theres normally about 50 people there. Maybe it was the torrential rain that put them off, haha. Ive been filming at 720i @ 60fps and the quality is unreal.
The only problem im finding with my helmet cam looking down is that it makes the waves look fat and it could be 2ft or 6ft and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. I might just get a load of stuff that im happy with at that angle and then try something different so it doesnt get too repetitive.
Check out these grabs from today,
MSW 5 star rated swell hits this evening around low tide on the push. 8 foot, solid 13 second period accompanied by some sweet southerly winds.
A while ago I put together a quick round-up of water housing ideas for Matty Allen and Matt Stansfields Minority magazine (there’s a new magazine project coming soon apparently), my conclusion was a point and shoot camera with a separate housing was the best budget option.
Since then GoPro have released the excellent HD version of their camera which I am a big fan of, and have been experimenting with since I got my first one at the end of last year.
However, they are pretty expensive and have a fixed wide angle lense, ideal for POV shooting but not versatile enough to get consistent shots of other riders.
So some people may be interested in some bargain housings up for sale through the Canon outlet on Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Waterproof-Case-WP-DC70-IXUS-700-NEW-/290454827649?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_CameraAccessories_BagsCases_JN&hash=item43a074f281
They have at least ten of these housings for £35.99, they’re waterproof to 40m and they’re currently on sale on amazon for £189.
I just bought one for my Ixus 60, it should only need minor adjustments to fit most Canon Ixus cameras which are smaller than the Ixus 700 it’s designed for (they have very similar layouts).
You could pick up an Ixus 95 for £99.99 on Amazon and have a brand new 10MP water shooting set up for less than £140.
If anyone’s considering buying a point and shoot camera I’d thoroughly recommend grabbing a Canon and one of these housings and trying your luck for a budget taste of water photography.
Also as a bit of a bonus if you get a compatible ixus you can run some hacked firmware (see the CHDK site for details) to open up lots of extra features like shooting in Raw format, this should give you plenty of scope for experimenting with the new set-up.
My new camera arrived yesterday and im stoked. You should see the quality of the grabs I got yesterday!!! Picture quality or what!!! but im not going to put them on my blog, haha. Will have something soon tho 
Im working with Chris Levi now on his new film called The Project and all my decent footage will go to him.
Not a fantastic swell, and dogged by SW winds most places, but with a bit or looking around, there is always a spot working on the conditions you’re dealt. Me, Levi, Dinham, Dogger, Meloy and Thirlby got it spot on for about half an hour before the tide dropped too low, the swell plummeted, the wind got up and the rain and crowds came. Here’s a shot I got of our favourite videographer Mr Levi making the most of the temporary conditions, enjoy..
