This month our intrepid photojournalists bring you a mix of experiences from three very different surfing backwaters. Cain Kilcullen, Josh Hughes and Fergal Smith journeyed to exotic Tanzania; Sam Bleakley and Tristan Jenkin trekked across the sandy wilderness of Western Sahara; and an international team went tow-surfing in Alaska in the depths of winter.
INTERVIEW: MATT CAPEL
Born in South Devon and raised in New South Wales, cheeky young Matt has spent his life flitting from one hemisphere to another, dodging the dark months and hardly ever having to pull on a cold soggy 5mm. CARVE dived into his pool of consciousness, banged its head on the bottom and came up with a bloody nose. Verdict: not too deep, but entertaining none the less. God love him.
MAD FOR IT
Bona fide big-wave chargers Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker and Greg Long hooked up with Fergal Smith and Tom Lowe in February to see just how heavy the North Atlantic can get. Several humongous sessions and one dislocated shoulder later, they were left in no doubt. Swell of the year? Check out the photos.
PAINT IT BLACK, YELLOW, RED...
Got a white board and a black wetsuit? Fair enough, most of us have
too. But there’s no reason why your next board shouldn’t have a bit more visual impact. There’s a huge range of board art styles available, and a cool spray or design won’t break the bank (‘cos they’re broke already!). To find out more, we talked to three leading exponents of board art, on three continents.
FAMOUS FIVE GO TO P-PASS
On a remote atoll in the Caroline Islands lies a beautiful racetrack of a wave that some say is the most perfect right-hand barrel in the Pacific, possibly the world. But is P-Pass all it’s cracked up to be? This winter photographer Simon Williams took five world champions over there to sample its delights. Here are their verdicts, in a glorious Technicolor pictorial.
FLEXY BEASTS!
THE 2009 SUMMER WETSUIT GUIDE
Wetsuits save our lives, yet we tread on them, kick them about, and generally treat them no better than a mangy Balinese stray. It’s amazing really that our flexible friends are so robust. They’re our most valuable piece of kit, enshrouding us in a warm protective layer and making our lives worth living. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you...summer wetsuits!
