Waves 4 Water

Friday, 15 October 2010

I thought I would share a good deed with you

Jon Rose is a young man who has had a great life so far getting paid to travel the world and surf his brains out. Not a bad deal I think you’ll agree. Yet unlike so many of his peers who might feel third world poverty is something to be slept through on your way to the surf, (just turn up you iPod and snap a few picturesque shoots with your iPhone from the air conditioned bus) he decided on a different path.

Six years ago he set up Waves 4 Water to help give something back. In their own words Waves for Water was created with one goal in mind: to provide clean drinking water to those in need.’ their very simple simple water filtration system can be easily transported and with no more than a couple of buckets, a knife and the kit have clean water from almost any source up and running in an hour.  

Its a pretty neat and simple idea, just what the clip.

Have a good week Matt

Autumn Gold

Saturday, 9 October 2010

In a previous blog I wrote of the death of summer but that the real wealth, for those who live here, is often, or usually the golden autumns that we are lucky enough to have.

        To be fair over the last few weeks it wouldn’t have been easy to back up this statement. The rain and wind battered us about with a glee that seemed almost personal.

   Reading up on the next world contest over in Portugal, someone’s tweet read something like -’eight foot last night, two foot this morning, twenty foot predicted for tomorrow’. So we knew something was on the way, but as I turned the corner on to Pentire and craned to see the ocean across the golf course at Fistral beach, I caught a glimpse of a beautiful A-frame feathering in the off-shore wind. 

        An hour after I had finished teaching I snatched up my camera and dashed across the road and along the path at south Fistral. What a beautiful evening! The air was still warm and the winds, unlike today, were just strong enough to feather the sets without messing up the sea. The tide was as high as it’s possible to get without climbing the dunes into the golf course. Across the bay each set meant four to five peaks from north to south with a extra pair at little Fistral. 

South Fistral at dusk

        Until last year I hadn’t surfed Fistral in well over a decade. I felt it was overcrowded and overrated. With so many other beaches why struggle your way through the tourists to get a wave when there were so many quieter spots to choose from. But a mate from Bristol was down and he and his friends were already in the car park getting changed so in I went. Okay it wasn’t a revelation but more simply a realisation- that there may be a hundred surfers in the water but only ten of them are catching anything, the rest were just cannon fodder for the sets. It turned into a fun session, punchy and fast. 

        Since then I have had a bit more of a soft spot for Fistral, but rarely enough of one to drive into town. Yet last night was so beautiful, so clean, so beguiling that for the first time in ages I actually thought about shirking my responsibilities, struggling into my winter suit and getting my flabby arse back in the sea. 

        Time to sort out some work-life balance me thinks.

Have a good week

Matt