Are we Lucky? It’s a question I often ask when we step out of our door. When we walk across the field to check the surf, walk down the hill onto a beautiful sandy beach, surf in crystal clear water and or ride and enjoy a landscape that has beauty in all seasons, I ask myself are we lucky?
“You’re so Lucky” is a comment I’ve had so many times when meeting passing visitors or friends who visit, or comments on social media. I suppose when you post a photo showing our beautiful location we call home, with the hashtag #lovekernow it’s arguably a comment you’re open to expect. But from who, and why are we lucky and not you? But are we Lucky? My answer is no, and always my reply to those who make that innocent and well meant comment is “no we’re not lucky, we’re thankful, and grateful”. Because luck didn’t bring us to Cornwall, luck didn’t get us our house, luck didn’t play a part in the rollercoaster ride of the past 17 years both emotionally, physically and financially. Luck played no part in it whatsoever, just choices and sacrifice. We sacrificed our careers as teachers to move West. Both full-time salaried Teachers, my wife in Secondary School and myself in Post-16 College. Between us (pre child) we both had a healthy salary, but still we could not afford a house on the mortgage offers we received. So we made a choice, and the decision to start fresh, to try and change our futures, and move to Cornwall. Secondly we gave up the chance of living closer to our families. I was living close by to mine and I left behind a brother and elderly parents, (my father past away in 2018, but he was always supportive of all our decision). My Mum, bless her misses us everyday and that can be hard sometimes, but we visit as often as we can and I phone every other day. We left our friends, childhood friends, work friends, and community friends. We were at the heart of the Brighton Surfing community, many of whom I've not seen for the entire 17 years we have been in Cornwall. When I visit I have good intentions of catching up but it's hard with limited time. I want to spend it with my family the most, so visits are often restricted to a few beers up the pub, a good laugh or a cup of tea in the afternoon. We basically left our home and moved 300 miles away to the Wild West of Cornwall and the adventure began. Savings ran out very quickly, unemployment was brief but enough to remind us how close to the breadline we were. I quickly moved back into teaching, a career I thought i’d left behind, and my wife Jill followed. These jobs were rocky too, with both of us suffering at the hands of awful bosses. Lets just say that both of us experienced stress and anxiety over this period. Then can my Charity work, a rewarding role in part, a mental and physical disaster for the most. Hospitality followed which meant I rarely saw my family, working all unsociable hours and drained me beyond belief. Finally, Jill had found her feet after teaching, setting up a small textile business and working from home. She carved a little niche for herself whilst our son was at Primary school. She began, and still does have a little portfolio of jobs that have given her the time to concentrate of activities she loves. I decided to go back into construction as my last post explains and it has only been since then that life has settled. Of the 17 years living in Cornwall I would honestly say that it is only the last 5 years that have been healthy, stress free and structured. Are we lucky to live in Cornwall, no we’re thankful. Thankful that we made it through some really tough times, some troughs in health and well-being I wish to never feel again. I’m thankful I can walk out of my door and breath in the freshest air, swim in the cleanest ocean, on the cleanest beach, surf perfect waves somedays, ride my bikes on the hills that over look the ocean or the country lanes that rarely see a car in winter. I’m thankful I can bring our son up in this environemnt, and thankful that we made that choice all those years ago, to leave a place we loved, but didn’t leave us feeling content. I’m thankfull we stuck it out in Cornwall and dealt with each drama as it happened, together as a family. As tough as it was sometimes we got through and we now live life how we want to live. Are we Lucky? Not in the slightest.
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I fancied a ride the other evening so I took my enduro mtb bike out for the first time in probably two months. I consciously prepared to go as fast as an old man can on a trail I’m very familiar with and see how I got on. I wanted to see if a two month break had made a difference. When I got to the bottom of a forty second run, (as that's all we have), I was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Was I quicker? No idea, but I was so stoked on how I rode so I went up again and did it again, many times. I really didn’t expect it but that ride gave me the idea of writing this post, that and I keep hearing the phrase 'disconnect'.
Apart from riding my Gravel Bike to work to save a bit of fuel on the odd day this summer, the occasional evening dirt jumping session at the Track in Portreath, and a couple of dawny sessions at the new Skatepark at St Just, I’ve not ridden bikes a whole lot this summer/autumn. I’ve probably only ridden my enduro bike twice since July, and whilst summer is the time to get out and ride, something else took over. Something that feels exciting and fresh, and the result has meant my time on two wheels has taken a back seat. All last winter I rode bikes, I trained hard for enduro events and personal fitness, (none of which I ended up doing due to cost of living, and the huge hike in fuel prices), I was fit and I was riding loads, but as spring grew ever nearer, something took priority, and that was Surfing. As the season changed I surfed a lot, and then surfed some more. When I knew I had to cancel my entries to the enduro events, I backed off the training, and as the evenings drew out It became a refreshing change to come home from work and head down for a surf and not ride up the hill. To focus the weekends on surfing again as a family was refreshing, to not be totally transfixed on riding bikes seemed to make sense. The summer has been about one thing, staying local and riding waves. I feel like I did many years back when surfing felt new and raw, and as I write this I'm super excited on a new board that's being shaped for me, and as the winter draws closer, although governed by the weekend conditions and time restraints; as the youngsters might say, 'I'm frothng to surf'. I’ve never given up on surfing, but over the past few years I was just surfing less as bikes slowly took over. I suppose I disconnected (there's that phrase) from surfing, and as I mentined before I surfed when it was necessary, and at points over those past few years I didn’t surf for two to three months at a time. Whilst that might be unbearable for some, that's really not a bad thing to me, because at times I nearly had to force myself in the water and that is no way to go surfing. Something happened this past year or so that changed all that, something very special. My son Jago became slightly more addicted to the ocean and thankfully he brought me along for the ride, and it’s been amazing. Doing any kind of activity with your kids can be our best experience and the most rewarding part of being a father. Myself and Jago have done and still do a fair bit together over his 14 years. BMX Racing, Mountain Biking, Bushcraft, Gravel Riding, Dirt Jumping, Skating and Surfing. His love of getting pounded in the shorebreaks leads him towards bodyboarding and I’ll join him by grabbing my wooden bellyboard and a pair of fins. Usually when this happens the stoke is higher than any other aspect of our surfing put together, honestly we love it. When we have small waves where the sets come in clean and just super fun it means we’ll grab our longboards, and considering he’s been riding one of my old big heavy boards, he's doing really well. He's now the proud owner of his own 9’2” Traditional Single Fin Longboard meaning I can put my spare away now and when the waves are in-between, or a little bigger, he takes a mid-length board around 7’0'' or something smaller. I’m so proud of his progression as he’s getting all the bases covered by surfing the right board in the right conditions. I always wanted Jago to fall in love with surfing but it was certainly a delayed reaction considering he's been in the ocean since he was a few months old. Steadily over the years his confidence has grown, his knowledge and wave judgement has developed and his ability to surf well is coming along very nicely. He still has so much to learn, like the intricacies of noseriding, but he’s doing well and what’s best about this scenario is his independence in the water, I no longer have to play Dad in the water, I just give him pointers here and there. This isn’t a post to boost my son's ego because he won't read it anyway, or say ‘hey look at us we’re doing great!’. It’s about what really got me stoked again on surfing. It’s hard to say no, when my son asks to check the surf every day when I get home from work, or if he’s already in there somewhere, I'll go an join him. It’s been fun to find him the right longboard, asking him to be patient whilst trawling through the overpriced second hand market for months on end, but eventually we picked up the ideal board from our local lifeguard and at a proper price. I honestly feel that time out from surfing so much did me a great justice. It made me reflect on a few things too. Surfing has become so crowded in the line up, to a point that it really began to get to me, and I'll be honest and say that my mindset has changed from frustration to acceptance and now I don't want as many waves so I'll sit off the main peak a little, or surf a smaller wave down the beach to avoid the mayhem. This way I still get my waves and I leave the water happy. However, I do wish the etiquette was better in the water, I would like to know that surf schools and surf shops are spending more time explaining the unwritten rules before releasing their newbies into the wild world of surfing, with their new boards, and sheep mentality, but I also realise it's every surfers responsibility to explain politely the rules of engament in the line up. If you are victim to an 'infringement by a beginner, educate them, don't shout (Note: I used to shout!), educate them, and remember we were all beginners once. Sadly as I seem to be fully stoked on surfing again, and as the crowds continue to grow, many of my older friends have stepped back and moved away from surfing, especially in the summer months when the silly season arrives because they simply can't handle it. It does seem that everyone wants to be a surfer right now, and once upon a time I was the same. So disconnecting a little if needed is not a bad thing. Doing something else, finding another outlet is a healthy thing to do because if you crave space, you can go off and find that and get that ‘Nature Hit’ in another form. Personally, this this summer has been the opposite, I've just wanted to surf, I seem to be drawn into the water despite the crowds and yes I have had to educate a fair few!. Just being in the ocean really is a priceless gift, and whilst that might sound very cheesy, Sea swimming has also played a huge part in that renewed passion. It’s been refreshing to ride my bike out to a local swim spot, take a flask of tea, some snacks and have a dip and get that salty fix, that 'spiritual rinse'. I suppose I’ve also realised that I don’t have to surf or ride all the time, it’s OK to go off and follow other pursuits, because that creates a craving to return. I've learnt to do what makes me happy and not suffer from so much FOMO. We went for a family surf last weeknd in what was probably some of the worst conditions this summer, not big, just onshore and closing out, but we made the session about progression, what could we do on awful waves. Jago, a little bit grumpy at first, soon realised he didn’t want to be on his longboard, so ran back up the beach and grabbed a smaller board from the van, he returned and proceeded to love the session as he was more in control. My wife just practised taking off, grabbing a rail and racing the closeouts, occasionally making an effort to get up on the white water. I remained on my heavy longboard and just practised ridiculously angled take offs and had so much fun beating the closeout section, grabbing a quick noseride if i could, and practised what I call cross country surfing, trying to beat all the closeout sections, and ride the waves to the end and do a nice turn. It was a super fun session that would not be the same without my family around me. The best part of disconnecting for a while though is that I truly believe you come back fresh. As a surfer, I feel that once you’re happy with what you can do, or once you’ve achieved a level that makes you content then It’s pretty tough to go backwards, so taking a break shouldn’t mean you return to being a beginner. Paddle Fitness might suffer but muscle memory will remain. Sometimes we need to disconnect from the things we love and in turn this helps us regain the passion. There's often a catalyst to this disconnection, and what made me step away from surfing so much is a long story, and a personal one, but what made me jump back in was so positive, my son and his stoke. I’m not fussed about having loads of waves, I just want a few nice ones, riding each wave the best I can, and chasing that very same smile. Watching my son and his reaction to his best waves is priceless. Disconnecting from surfing for a while was been a wise decision, because as I write this, its horrendous weather outside, winter is coming and yet all I can think about is new boards and surfing. But I'm also excited about riding too. The break from riding my enduro bike so much has fuelled that craving too get back on it too, with night riding season upon us, the lights are charged and the winter evenings will see us tearing around the quiet lanes of the wild west. Disconnection is a good thing whatever you do, and it's healthy to park the passion for a moment, and then jump back in frothing like a stoked grommet who's chasing that feeling that it's beginning again, and with that new found stoked, a world of progression is in front of you. This post may not be about activity, surfing, riding or being within or outside our Radius, but there is a point to this post and I hope it might have a positive message too.
I listened to @theridecompanion podcast yesterday, one I highly recommend, and they were talking about the stories behind instagram posts. Why we post essentially. Who is it for? Is it seeking validation, to out do people, etc? I must admit sometimes I wonder myself why I post. Well here's a story behind a photo I posted on instagram and I hope it helps people thinking about making positive change in their lives. Five years ago I made a choice to leave another stressful job that affected my mental and physical state, it certainly wasn't healthy for my family life. I had no life. In fact whilst teaching here in Cornwall, then charity work and then finally hospitality it was mostly full of stress and mental fatigue. After reaching a low place I decided to go back to into construction as a labourer. I have a degree, I'm a qualified post 16 teacher, I've won hundreds of thousands in funding bids for projects, led successful projects, changed lives and most of it brought me unhappiness through stress. Since then I've learnt so many new skills, I've helped to restore old buildings, laid beautiful slate roofs, faced buildings in lovely cornish granite, I've had a proper laugh and still do. I work with some top blokes who are so unpolitically correct it's hysterical, the banter is, lets just say gross misconduct in any other business. The work is proper tough at times, and physically I'm not getting any younger but thanks to the lads I work with I learn every day and thats an opportunity. I go home and see my family, I sit and eat dinner every night with my family, I ride bikes, surf, walk, cook, watch TV, and relax when I want not when some rota or deadline allows. But here's the real message. In five years I have not got home with a single stressful thought. My only responsibility is to love and provide for my family. My sleep is better (although never been great), but my mind is clear and I'm creating again. The story behind this photo is one of change. Yes I earn less money, but success is how I see it, not others. We're having our first family holiday abroad this year and it's going to be great. If I hadn't made the change, I would not have a family now, and I would not have a life. The only person who can make posotive change is you and you'll have to make the tough decision. But I hope you have the support in your family and friends, talk to them, make some plans, and remember that change will mean a positive change for everything else you love.
I can't tell you how much I enjoy watching Beau Miles. This endearing Aussie is an inspiring character that creates such heart warming viewing that I'll always share his content. I've said it before and I'll say it again; You'll watch one and then you'll want to watch some more. Give Beau a watch and listen to his messages, you'll be hooked.
I don’t want to be a hypocrite - but I am.
I’m the same as so many people on the planet who say they do one thing but actually still do the another but I try and do my bit. I care about sustainability, yet buy endless products online. As a surfer my wetsuits is still made in Asia, and delivered to the surf shop wrapped in plastic, hanging on a plastic hanger. Am I alone? Have we reached the point of no return, can we avoid being hypocritical? Unless we buy bespoke, often more expensive, and locally sourced products then it’s a tough sell. But can we do more? Absolutely. This is such a tired and old debate but of course we can do more, for a start we can change our habits and change our ways. That might also mean changing brand loyalty because our favourite brands haven’t got the greatest green values and some simply mislead the consumer with a load of greenwash. But we might also trust our favourite brands to do the right thing. I love Vans shoes, I’ve never been sponsored by them, and never will, but I’ve been wearing Vans shoes for forty plus years. I know they’re made in Asia, but while I took a lap around their website, I found that under their environemental policy, they are committed to reducing single use plastics and sourcing renewable materials by 2030. Are the shoes functional? 100% Yes. Have they got the best soles for Skating and BMX? Without a doubt. Will I stop wearing them? No. Do they support Surfing, Skating, BMX? Yes, without a doubt, and have done ‘Since 1966’. They are a brand that gets behind young athletes and sticks with them, but they are also having their operational problems right now and thats a different story. I support my local surfboard shaper, but that wasn’t always the case and I think this is the same for many surfers. As I entered the world of surfing and began to understand more about where the direction of my surfing was heading, I bought imports from California or Australia. During the late nineties and very early noughties, longboarding was booming again but Longboards were still quite progressive, performance driven, three fins and lightweight. I wanted heavy 1960’s inspired ‘logs’. I wanted one fin, I wanted Californian, but it took a while of experimenting to know that. My first longboard was shaped by the legendary Australian Sam Egan, but I sadly snapped that one. I then had two performance longboards shaped by Brett Munro, who I'd met at the Byron Bay Malibu Club in 1997. I took these boards off travelling but after a year or so I snapped another, and knew the lightweight performance board was not for me, and certainly not sustainable due to the lightweight glassing. Three boards in and a couple of grand down, I knew I wanted something heavy and indestructible! When I walked into my local surf shop in Brighton around 2000, I saw a ‘Nine Plus’ Kevin Connely shaped 9’6” heavy single fin log, it was love at first sight. This was a thing of beauty, this was what i’d been looking for. A British brand but shaped by a great Californian surfer, who surfed how I wanted to surf. I rode that for years, and as my addiction grew for Californian boards and the Californians style surf. I bought boards by the likes of legendary shapers like Terry Martin (Hobie), Robert August, Donald Takayama and Rich Harbour. The more I learnt about surfing and the better I got, I understood what it means to the local shaper and to have support from a community. Still living in Brighton back then,there was only one shaper, Steve Darch (FILF) but he wasn’t shaping longboards but I also never asked. I had a Chris Jones (RIP) board made in 1999, with custom artwork from local Cornish artist Lou Tonkin, but the glassing wasn’t heavy enough, but that was my mistake. I had a couple of boards made by Albi Harris in Wales but again couldn’t relay what I actually wanted so got the wrong shapes. I had a Custard Point shped by Tim Mellors, (vreased that one in Costa Rica on my first day there}, a Guts Griffiths from Wales, a couple of classic Bilbos and then over the next 15 years I picked up some more imports, mainly shorter boards like a 6'8" Joel Tudor for bigger waves. I then began to have some absolute beauties custom shaped by Jools at Gulfstream Surfboards, and still ride them today. But as fond as I am of those boards I found Hugh Brockman at Bos Surfboards just West of Penzance at a time when I wanted to really buy as local as I could. Ten minutes from home, and after so many years of surfing, finally I was getting to buy and support a local shaper to me. I was looking for an 8’2”, a board that could be surfed in a variety of waves, something I could take on a trip. I spoke to Hugh and after sitting down chatting design and function we nailed it, and then Hugh shaped it and he nailed it again. ‘The Whatever’ was born and after testing and riding this board for two years now, MK2 is on the cards. Then in late 2020 we designed the ‘Chunky Brother’ a 9’8” Single fin traditional longboard, a tip of the hat to the classic California Pintail point break boards of the sixties. Pintail boards are not for everyone but I love the smoothness of the turns, the drawn out lines and the aesthetic of an unbroken line from nose to tail. These two shapes alone have got me so stoked on surfing. Two boards under our belt and I could not be happier. I can drive, or even ride (more sustainable) 7 miles to the factory, or pop in on the way home from work. Chat boards over a beer or two, and talk stories. Having a great local shaper, trained by some real heavyweights, and with a real eye for design and shapes so similar is a godsend. Having a local shaper who is accessible face to face, who surfs the same waves and the same type of boards as you, and a shaper that can surf really bloody well is an absolute bonus. Find that and you’re on to a winner. So after this gleamingly long intro what's my point? Everyone has a shaper that is near, or at least within their radius. As surfers we can all try and be a little more sustainable by buying British. Even being a landlocked surfer you can seek out a shaper on either coast, who is local to you, If it’s 100 miles then that’s still your local shaper. Do a little research, check their team riders on social media, and try and get a general feel for the boards they shape and the reputation of the shaper. In Cornwall we have some amazing shapers that all have their own credits. Shapers like Bro Diplock, Tim Mellors, Steve Darch, Ben Skinner, and Nigel Semmens, are perfect examples. Steve shapes for some of the best surfers in the country, and ghost shapes for other brands. Ben, whilst being one of the Worlds best longboarders also shapes for his amazing 14 year old son Lucas who has a bright future in the competitive world. Over in Plymouth there’s Luke Young, with his trade being learnt in Hawaii, Pete Symms on the South Coast at Chichester, Stu Thomson in Cromer and Jay Burnett up in Edinburgh. But, and here’s the but. Although there are other options like bio based blanks, Surfboards are predominantly petrochemical based and part of a toxic industry. Add to that the imported materials, it’s very hard not to be a hypocrite when we say we care for the environment but buy into this. Yes we can support our local shaper but can the local shapers support a manufacturer of bio resin and cloth? How do we offset this? If you're having a board made and it contains Carbon cloth, it might make the board last longer but you might also want to check if it’s recyclable, before claiming sustainability. Carbon Fibre in the most part is not recyclable, but there are a couple of bike manufacturers using variations that are and I hope these are finding there way into the surf industry. We could all move to Wooden Surfboards, like those produced by the super talented James Otter from Otter Surfboards. Shaping out of Perranporth Eco Park, James creates some stunning wooden boards using sustainably grown timber. One day I’d like to shape myself a wooden beauty at one of his workshops, but until then I’ll be content with my wooden hand plane. I remain a supporter of a local shaper, within a toxic industry and community full of surfers who probably think are saving the planet, signed up to activist groups, whilst driving their diesel vans hundreds of miles to surf, or hopping on planes to tropical climates. But here is some simple economics. If we walk into a surf shop and buy an imported board off the rack, we're partly contributing to what is known as the multiplier effect, meaning some of that revenue will contribute to shop wages, those wages then spent in the local community, and so on. However, there is also Leakage. By buying an imported board we're essentially providing revenue to and supporting an overseas shaper, and this is not local. Think about this….Australians or Californians are not buying British, they support their own shapers. We should all be supporting our local surf shops too. They provide local jobs so essentially we might be supporting our friends in many cases, and they do often stock locally sourced products. It becomes such a difficult, confusing and contradictory statement. ‘Support your local surf shop’, but don’t buy imported surfboards or products. I also believe that the local surf shops should be supporting the locals too. A bar of wax should not be charged at full price, knock a quid off, please. That little discount goes a long way, I've always believed a discounted bar of wax to a local surfer is a community service, and if that shop supports a community then success will follow. That's the same for the local bike shop and I try and support mine as much as possible, yet here lies another gem of my hypocrisy. My bikes are not ‘Made in Britain’. I could have easily bought a frame manufactured in the UK like Cotic, Stanton, or Orange, and ordered through a bike shop, but as weak as it sounds it wasn’t an aesthetic and design thing, I just knew what I wanted, so I bought my MTB from a French company called Commencal. Partly because they only use Aluminium and this can be recycled but I also value their ethos as a company, and they fully support their athletes who are the best in the World. Other decisions for my bikes simply came down to price. No excuses nor reasoning, just price and no middle man, straight to the manufacturer and this meant getting a lot more for my money. But what I have done though to help redeem myself is slowly accessorise my bikes with British made precision parts like brakes and hubs from Hope Technologies and having wheels built at the local shop. I’m lucky enough to have support from British brands like DMR who make no bones of the fact that their products are made in Taiwan, whilst being 100% proud of their sustainability. Their products are designed in Britain by a brilliant team, they’re serviceable, recyclable, and super long lasting and a globally respected brand supporting cycling at grass roots level and beyond. . Sadly surfboards are not serviceable and not a quality shapers can shout about, They're repairable but not serviceable. They do have a good life when used well, and respected. They can be sold and re-used, then resold and used again, until the day they eventually die. Some are reborn and made into art, some are stripped of glass, reshaped and rise again as something totally different, so they can live to be surfed again, some are sadly landfill. As I reach the end of another unintentional poorly argued essay, I hope I have made some kind of point. We can make good decisions, but we can also make great decisions. If we try our best, we can be sustainable by not renewing everything we own every year. I own surfboards twenty years old, and have new ones that I know I'll never sell. I've bought walking boots that will last ten from an Italian company based at the foot of the Dolomites. My cycle shoes are German based and I know they won’t fall apart because I bought the best on the market. I have clothing that is not affected by fashion, It’s just functional, and therefore timeless. My bikes (one steel, one titanium and one aluminium) are all made in Taiwanese factories and built to last. Not everything needs to be purchased online, but it might well be the best option for you based on your circumstance. As businesses or consumers don’t preach about sustainability and climate change whilst sitting on a German Ebike, made in a Taiwanese factory, with production fuelled by fossil extraction, also buy a bike made of Steel that will last a lifetime, just look up vintage bicycles online, you’ll get the picture. Add a custom surfboard to your quiver from your local shaper, especially made for you, or a board developed by the best local surfers in your local waves, not an import that's been tested on a grinding point break in a far off country that you may never get to. We are only hypocritical if we choose to ignore the actual impacts our own lifestyles, our purchases, our way of life. If you can justify your choices then that’s your business, but the least we can do is try to make better decisions when we can, and despite others telling you it doesn't, it does....Every little helps. |
AuthorHi, I'm Russ Pierre, a Cyclist, Surfer and outdoor enthusiast. Please join me as I have some fun on my adventures and write about all the stuff that makes me tick. Archives
December 2024
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