We also made our way to Margaret River for a few days (I’ve always wanted to surf The Box), but it was onshore most of the time we were there. I did get a surf in, but nothing amazing, and nothing at The Box:

It has been good seeing the places that I’ve only ever seen on video and in magazines though and seeing what the setups are like. It’s making me super amped to go missioning near my hometown to find some new breaks.

I got some really small, but fun and clean waves in Perth a few days ago. It was a fun little shorey and I was out on my own, which was both nice and surprising. We didn’t get any video that day, but there are a few pics. There is one below, but you can see a few more on our Facebook page. We will try to get a new video done as soon as we can.

I realise that for some it may seem to be too little too late, but I do apoligise to anyone that was offended and, for lack of a better phrase, pissed off by the voice over.

This was our first video and we are learning as we go so a sincere apology to the local surfers in the area and I hope you can believe that no harm was intended and this really was a case of believing I wasn’t giving any locations away.

The video is a little weird without the voice over and when I get some time I will do a new one that hopefully appeals to everyone.

To everyone who commented, thanks very much. I’m sure I still won’t be welcome in a lot of places, but I hope you’re all getting waves wherever you are and if you’re ever in East London, South Africa when we’re back there get in touch and I’ll take you surfing.

Video below:

So I have had some really good feedback on the Scotland vid, but also some very angry and also some concerned and constructive feedback. It may be hard to believe for some, but my intentions for the video really were good. It seems I may have missed the mark somewhat and was possibly a little naive about my voice over on the video. I have taken out most of the voice over to exclude spot names and some other stuff I mentionedand replaced the video on Vimeo with the new one. That means that any site with the video embedded will be showing the new one too. (I have uploaded and swapped out the video at the time of writing this, but it may take a couple of hours for the new upload to be transcoded by Vimeo)

I realise that for some it may seem to be too little too late, but I do apoligise to anyone that was offended and, for lack of a better phrase, pissed off by the voice over.

This was our first video and we are learning as we go so a sincere apology to the local surfers in the area and I hope you can believe that no harm was intended and this really was a case of believing I wasn’t giving any locations away.

The video is a little weird without the voice over and when I get some time I will do a new one that hopefully appeals to everyone.

To everyone who commented, thanks very much. I’m sure I still won’t be welcome in a lot of places, but I hope you’re all getting waves wherever you are and if you’re ever in East London, South Africa when we’re back there get in touch and I’ll take you surfing.

Original Post below:
————————-

So just over 20 days ago I posted our first real travel video about our trip to Thurso, on the Scottish North Coast, and and the response has been great so far.

The video has been embedded on a bunch of different bodyboarding sites from around the world. Some of the best responses have come from Spanish and Portugeuse blogs and the video has even been embedded on a French bodyboarding forum. With the help of Google Translate. I managed to decipher what the various comments and posts said. One of the guys who commmented here on Video Surf Guide, and on a few of the other blogs, is a Spanish bodyboarder (Cercata) who is doing a trip to Chile in August and has offered to be our interpreter there if we can make it. What an awesome dude! So we are trying our best to make that trip part of our plans bacause that would be sick. We’ll see how that goes!

The good guys at sixty40 in South Africa also put the vid up on there site and, from what I hear via the tweet-vine, they have also mentioned it in the latest issue of the mag. Very stoked about that!! Go get the mag if you’re in SA – the guys are doing a sick job and in buying a copy you not only supprt what they’re doing, you also get a sick mag to read!

I was also contacted by one of the guys at the Riptide Mag forum (Doc – if you’re you’re on the forum and wonder who it was) a couple of weeks back and asked if I’d be interested in doing an interview to put on the forum. It was good fun to do and gives some insight into what we’re doing here at Video Surf  Guide so go check it out if you feel like a little read. – http://www.riptidemag.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3695

We have some great plans for the near(ish) future and a possible massive trip on the cards so I’ll keep you posted about all the developments on that front!

Our next post is a good one too so be sure to check that out soon!

You’re all awesome! Thanks for reading!!

A huge thanks to all the guys who made posts about our vid!!! Here are some links to them – go check them out!

• http://www.sixty40.co.za/video-114-thurso—videosurfguide-episode-2
• http://bodyboard.pt/videos-f5/scotland-t1056.html
• http://spongewars.com/v3e/?p=2204
• http://s224806679.mialojamiento.es/wordpress/?p=1110
• http://stayinverted.blogspot.com/2009/12/scotland.html
• http://ivanbodyboardcny.blogspot.com/2009/12/escocia-episode-2.html
• http://trueboarders.blogspot.com/2009/12/escocia.html
• http://orzanbay.blogspot.com/2009/12/scotland.html
• http://eneseubodyboard.blogspot.com/2009/12/thurso.html

Thurso (Episode 2) from Video Surf Guide on Vimeo.

Thanks everyone! You’re Awesome!

It goes by the name of Bagpipes and has a beautifully messed up end section. It’s the kind of place that, if you got to surf it a lot, you could really wax, but the first time you paddle out and you aren’t used to the setup it’s pretty unnerving. I have some awesome local breaks back home that I miss a lot, but I would definitely love to have a local break like this one.

Footage coming soon…(ish)

I’ll try to put in some late nights soon and get a post of the trip done asap…

So far Thurso has been very rainy and very cold – and I absolutely love it! The amount of spots and potential spots within a very small stretch of coast is freakin astonishing! The water is pretty cold, but a good wetsuit is all you need to be comfortable in the water.

The first day we were here we had some small waves in the 2 foot range, but they were some of the best 2 foot waves I’ve seen. Just reeling perfectly along a little reef. The next day the swell picked up a foot or two and we had some really good waves at the same reef. The next day was onshore and extremely windy and wet. But, the wind created some wind swell and today saw some bigger swell hitting the same reef again. The swell so far has been very westerly and doesn’t get into Thurso and the other spots that we have been waiting to score so we have been surfing a reef that picks up westerly swell in bounds. Check it out below…

The forecast for tomorrow is looking mental! 6-8 foot swell coming from a direction that wraps in enough to hit the slabs that we’ve been checking out for the last four days. So by the time you read this I might be slotting into some heavy, flat-bottomed barrels and getting spat out…

Sounds well worth the 13 hour drive from London to me!

For those of you interested in the spot I mentioned in the first Thurso Article - we did find it and it is SUPER heavy!! We got some video footage of it breaking and it’s pretty amazing. I might get the balls to surf it, but hitting the rocks is a given there so it’s a tough call. There were some makeable ones, but wave selection would be the key out there…
I’ll keep you posted on that one…

Later…