Wow it's been a manic month but a brilliant one. The Spanish trip went well. I was a bit worried we wouldn't get there as a force 10 gale was forecast for our crossing but the ferry sailed and we just about held onto our stomach contents!
We stayed in Asturias with Tony Butt and his wife Annabelle. Also visiting was Will Henry surf photographer, filmmaker and founder of Save The Waves Although there to interview them both we just spent the first couple of days surfing and surf filming. The swell that had made for a rough crossing was still turning the WAM (Wave Amplitude Model - Chart which shows size of swell) blood red and Tony and Will were keen to get out there. I surfed a few of the sheltered spots but was far to scared to even think about paddling out at some of the breaks.
Tony lives for big wave surfing and rarely surfs anything other than a gun (a big wave board) it was amazing to watch and I managed to get a couple of his waves on film.
Will's from Northern California and looked perfectly at home in the big surf on his 6ft6 quad (four fined board) not your typical big wave board.
On the Wednesday we were all invited to attend a surf festival in Salinas one of the larger local towns with a large population of surfers and a beach break at the front of the town. Carlos who was running the festival took us for a lunch of menu del dia at a restaurant overlooking the surf. The event was going to start with some surf films including Will's film Lost Jewel of the Atlantic to be followed by an environmental discussion on climate change and coastal development.
Salinas is near to Rodiles a world class river mouth break similar to Mundaka. It is currently being threatened by the local government and developers wanting to dredge the river mouth to allow bigger boats into the local marina. Doing this would benefit only a minority of locals and a few rich visitors who own larger sailing vessels. For locals it would mean the destruction of a natural sea defence (while we were there the large swells resulted in surges which moved up some of the local rivers and flooded mostly uncultivated and undeveloped land). Removing a natural sea defence and building on the coast and flood plain is just making us more vunerable. The natural coastal environment will be fine it will just adjust itself but it's those people that live in this dynamic environment that will suffer.
With the threat of rising sea levels being linked to global warming this hardly seems the time to be destroying natural sea defences.
So this was to be the topic of discussion with a panel sitting on stage in front of an audience of local surfers and media. The panel was to be made up of lawyers, scientists, Will, Tony and me. Not quite sure how that happened and what exactly I could contribute to this discussion next to all these but I said I'd try my best.
As it turned out when I did have something to say it was very hard to get a work in edge ways which I didn't mind too much. The discussion got very heated and there were a few sceptics in the whole global warming debate but the biggest issue for them was Rodiles which was an issue they felt was out of their hands. With the suggestion of improving the profile of local surfers and surfing in the area there appeared to be a reluctance to the whole idea of opening it up to the wider world and bringing more surfers in. Rodiles already has a reputation as being a very localised spot.
Even with this reputation we found every surfer we met friendly and open and enjoyed a night out on the tiles of Salinas. Needless to say we appeared bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning for our interview and photo's for surf mag Sesenta 6! The photo of the 4 of us at the top of this blog is from that morning.
Our interview with Tony deals with climate change and we are doing a different issue for Will's interview as he talks about the destruction of surf breaks and why they are worth saving. The issues they are having in Northern Spain are similar to those facing surfers and surf breaks around the world but we are also going to look at this issue as it comes a little closer to home and affects the breaks of Gower.
I came home over a slightly calmer bay of Biscay to a peaceful Christmas and fun waves. New Year was also blessed with waves although there were plenty of sore heads in the lineup that morning it was a perfect way to start 2008. Clean waves, warm(ish) weather, sun on my face and sharing it all with friends I hope there's plenty more of that to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment