the usual Xmas getaway

like every year around Xmas it was time to leave cold Germany for a while ot score some waves and this winter has really been a blessed one so far on the shores of the mighty Danger Island, part of the Canaries. A great weather pattern of permanent high pressures blocked storms away and groomed beautiful long-period lines to perfection again and again. Along with mad charger Matt Smith, my mate Raffi, Marco, Quirin, Robin, Easkey, Simon & Casper and the local crew it was a blast to share heavy, perfect waves day after day. Once again, the place showed it´s brutal force, annihalitaing 2 boards incl. 2 GoPros within the first week.

check out Matt´s Blog  http://www.honestcaptain.com

Roadtrippin with the boys

It´s rare enough that you manage to get on trips with your buddies with everyone busy in his daily life, especially before xmas time. I knew I would do a trip back to the Danger place on the 20th and so we managed squeeze in a little weekend Roadtrip jsut days before that. We encountered everything at trip to V-Land and surroundings should offer in a short span of time: a nightmare trip through 500km of snow to get there, sun, rain, onshore, offshore, lack of sleep, cold, near-accidents, more dough-products than your body could possibly handle, Klaus Kinski videos, and so on...   after all it´s all been worth it, we had fun waves, even got barreled and enjoyed some quality time together.

Danger Pt.2

here´s a couple of more shots of last week, look forward to come back soon...

Danger Island delivers

With a promising long period Swell-forecast and the knowledge that Garrett Mc Namara had just in these minutes surfed some of the craziest 40ft. waves in Nazare it was plain to see Danger Island would be smokin...  Not having paddled or swum much for a long amount of time, I really needed a good 2 or 3 days to get back into things but was quite happy I didn´t half-die the first couple of days of the really solid 4 meter 17 second swell.

and yet another time the island showed it´s fickle and magic sides. With changing weather patterns there was a bit of driving involved but there was gold at the End of the rainbow with heaving lefts and rights around the place´s cobblestone littered shores. Sketchy is always an understatement when it comes to entering or leaving the water, which is one reason why you get to surf by yourself a lot. I squeezed in an amazing amount of great surfs into 12 days which I shared with the tight crew of core locals that definitly have a good point for protecting their place from people without enough respect or knowldege of the sea. However it was great to be back, score some sick waves and catch up with everyone, here´s a few pics from a week of eat, sleep & surf

chasing swell

heading off to where the waves are...   5 meter long period swell on the way, will hop on a plane to Danger Island tomorrow. Back to back swells looking good after that so looks like I will have a good run of waves for at least a week. Yeeewww, can´t wait to be in the water again, this year has been the one with the least surf ever for me so far, so that´s about to change ;-)

Summer @ the River

Although not travelling we tried to put as much as possible in the weekends this year and made the most out of the riverwave right in town. With the right crew together, it was great even to stick or at least try a couple of new tricks. The barell-roll still doesn´t work and i managed to wreck my thumb a bit, but other than that things went smooth, we had many fun sessions with good weather and a beer every now and then. Though can´t wait to get back to the ocean and do a proper turn, a proper duckdive and possibly a proper cover-up again....

pics by http://svenschlager.com/

& Dieter & Gottfried. Thanks!

Californ-I-A

Planet Sports goes California. Although a work trip it was great to be there again, cruise around and feel the vibes that are second to none in a way. Cali is really special, it always feels like too much input, so much going on there all the time. We went to Agenda trade show, probably the most relevant streetwear / boardsports tradeshow right now over there as well as seeing heaps of shops, brand-headquarters and finally the Nike US Open. This event has go to be the craziest thing ever, never witnessed so many people for a boardsports-event. Everything was happening there, the world´s best surfers, skaters, bands, ...   all in one place. We managed to squeeze it all in before heading home back to the office again with heaps of ideas and new brands to get going oin the Euro-market. Staying on the old Queen Mary was definitly the highlight, it was actually the cheapest hotel we could find in Long Beach next to the show. To imagine how many times this beauty crossed the Atlantic Ocean and how many people it carried is just awesome.

pics by http://svenschlager.com/

new ride

t´s been tough selling the truck since I never wanted to get rid of it but it was simply too big for parking right in town. we´ve had great trips with it, and so the obvious question was which ride would be "car enough" to follow the RAM ;-)  with room for a couple of boards and the big HEMI engine, that one is serious fun to drive and big enough for the odd roadtrip to Tuscany in winter.

last trip with "the beast"

After countless roadtrips along Europe´s coasts, most of them to V-Land or L-Town, it´s time to say goodbye to probably the best Surf-Travel car I will ever own. Not without doing a last trip with the thing on a In-between Swell on some weekend in April. The Surf was alright, particually with some punch, though a pretty short period there were some fun wedges in both directions. The water was already getting warm again and the sun came out every once in a while as well. With work-mate Nicolai and Jonas we represented Muc in the water against heaps and heaps of Swiss ;-)   this has probably been the unfittest I´ve been on a surftrip and it obviously sucks to be in the water at a small but punchy Beachbreak with short perio swell and still get pounded, but well what can you do. Just another lesson that there should always be some sort of swimming training involved in your everyday life if you wanna have fun surfing. That trip however was plenty of fun and good to get back to the beach after couple of months abstinence.

Swell´s up at the Rock

the awaited swell was supposed to be a real good one with favourable winds, long period lines and a solid size to it, lasting for nearly a week. We weren´t dissapointed and after a couple of 8ft. days by 2.1. it was in full swing and really heavy. Getting in & out is always a extreme hassle, no matter if 2 or 30 ft. and the poundings I can honestly say are second to none in terms of Energy & holddown, makes most Indo-Spots seem like a walk in the park. The Queen of the Coast was doing it´s proper Mavericks impersonation and I got one of the more humbling experiences of my life this day. The Girls were charging hard which was great to see, big ups to Eva & Alena. However, we had some unforgettable Surf in great, challenging conditions and bar a few little injuries everyone came out fine. Don´t be fooled though by the pics, this is all heavy water and we saw some average surfers getting in proper trouble out there.

great times & thanks to the Locals & the Danger Island Crew & to Light Board Corp. for some great new Boards that work awesome.    http://www.lightboardcorp.com/products