Xmas cheer,ACCCHHOOOO! and pumping waves

After resolving my allergies problems in OZ,i have developed more here and every couple of weeks i'm having a pretty bad day,so I'm off to be screened next week.Not much fun with lots of sneezing and none of the medication theyve prescribed so far works
Xmas has been and gone with a big lunch here with 14 of the family.Big day with lots of food and wine.The waves have been pumping for the last 2 weeks with 3 stand out sessions.Last tuesday, a barrell fest in 4-5 ft waves,perfect clean conditions and not many surfers.I was very lucky and definitly jagged the best ones.The same bank as the quik pro was on and similar waves.Yesterday ,same spot ,a heaving solid 6 ft was not for the faint hearted.I saw some ridiculously serious and perfect waves,but wasnt as lucky as the last time;I picked off one big bomb which made it all worthwhile and a couple of smaller ones but i came in tired and feeling that age was catching up with me.Until this morning, 4-6 ft pumping and only Another aussie Darren, jez and i .A great session with some good barrels.The water is still around 14° so its not too cold and the last couple of days have been high teens ,so great weather too!

Winter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The rain stopped 2 weeks ago.It rained for about 5 weeks with only 1 dry day each week.Wet and windy ,i was going batty!!!!!!!!Then last week it cleared up and got really cold;it snowed everywhere in France except for this region.The last week weve had really heavy frosts with wednesay and yesterday being the coldest ,-6° and -7° in the mornings.BBBRRRRR!!!!!! At least it wasnt raining,until i woke this morning to -YES!!!!! more rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its not too cold, maybe5 or 6°.Again ,its snowing everywhere else but here
Lola has been home from school with a bit of a flu this week.A viral thing thats kept most of her class at home.She's alot better today and i'm sure she'll be better for her school xmas break which starts tomorrow.I'm sure santa will be good to her this year as she has worked very hard at school and had excellent results
Were getting organised for xmas and preparing for the xmas lunch here with 14 of the family coming.We're the only ones that can fit them all in together.looking forward to plenty of good food and wine.
I have only been surfing once a week lately with the conditions being less than ideal.I had a good session last week with jez and i and 1 other guy brave enuogh to tackle the cold conditions.It was 3-4 ft and some fun Left and right peaks,not perfct but we have to take what we can get at the moment ,so if its offshore and surfable we jump on it right away(even if its 2°-3°)Water temp is still not too cold at 14°, so its still bearable and i havent needed my hood yet so its not too bad. Its usually colder on the beach looking at it than it is in the water; and of course getting changed afterwards isnt much fun.With 2 winter wetsuits and 2 sets of bootys it means i can always have a dry suit to put on- definitely makes it easier

Ugly weather

Its that time of the year again,Stormy,windy and so much rain! Weve had only 3 dry days in the last 3 weeks.Its so wet !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Its not even winter yet and its grey and darkIt hasnt been very cold but it will come soon.No waves for the last 2 weeks ;I've spent a lot of time stocking our firewood;Jez lost a couple of trees in the big storm 2 years ago and said i could have them if i wanted to cut them up.So with what he had( and theres more)i should only need to buy a couple of vanloads this year.I've finished the garden shed so i now have somewhere to stock the wood under cover.i can fit enough wood to last (hopefully)about 6-8 weeks

Grande Lustre

Well i have finally found the light that weve been looking for the last 2 years.Not really a light but a' Lustre' . Very heavy,around 70-80kgs,made of forged steel, a handmade masterpiece that needed some serious anchorage.It feels like were living in a castle every time we look upat it.I was looking for some timber in a second hand yard and stumbled across this little treasure.It was in really good condition and a quik rub with some steel wool to clear up alittle surface rust and its wiring was good too ,it was ready to hang in no time.80 euros later it was an absolute bargain.The photos dont really give the impression of its size.At nearly a metre across and 1.3 metres high is very big and perfect for this big room
I've finished rendering two walls and its looking good.The garden shed is done and i'm getting our firewood ready for winter
The waves have been pumping and have had more good wavesthis week and last week.The waters still not cold so thats good too

Garden shed and External Render

The waves have continued to pump until a few days ago when the swell dropped to about a metre for 3-4 days.This autumn has been so good for surf.

I'm now building the garden shed so i can finally empty out the garage to convert it into another bedroom.And in between that and surfing i've started the external rendering also.Its not very easy as i havent really (except for inside) done it before.Its an acrylic render which makes it easy to apply and seals the walls well. i'm trying to get a rough and kinda old finish on it to match the existing house,as the other walls are pretty rough .With my lack of experience ,my finish is (when i try to get it perfect!) so rough that it actually looks similar.

We had our first fire for the season last night so that means we're moving into winter.The weather is getting colder .the leaves are changing colour and starting to fall.Autumn is a very pretty time of the year here with lots of different colours and lots of still days.It also means the water will be cooling down and i have ordered my winter wetsuits.I need 2 new ones this year,A 5x4x3 with a built in hood and a top of the range 4x3,so with the

hooded suit from last year it means that i can(hopefully) always have a DRY suit ready at all times

Quik Pro 2010

The Quik pro was on here last week with some amazing waves and some amazing surfing.Brian Forward was in town on holidays,so we hooked up and watched most of the competition.Thanks to Richie Porta(now head judge of the ASP) ,who sorted us with some VIP passes,we got to watch the comp from the stand and enjoy plenty of free food and drinks and finished off each day with plenty of cold beer(also free,good on ya Rich!)The waves were most of the time,incredibly heavybarrelling waves that were only for the best .I have never seen anyone surf in conditions like here before.Normally too inaccessible from the beach without jetski assistance the conditions were absolutely jawdropping and the surfers wereimpressive in the way they attacked the thick heaving and a lot of the time dangerous waves at times up to 10feet high.Jetskis are used here quite often ,but they are usually on the outside banks and not inside and maybe only 50 - 70 metres from the waters edge.Well done to the water patroll boys for that!Owen Wright and Dan Ross had one heat where Owen broke 3 boards in 4 waves and then Dan broke one too.4 broken boards in 15 minutes.Ridiculous stuff!!!!!!!!!!!Shame for Owen coz if he hadnt broken so many boards he would've no doubt advanced.Immediately after the heat was over he had a 10ft wave that had him so deeply barrelled and for soo long it waould have been a 10 no worries.Slater, Ace Buchan,owe wright and of course the eventual winner, Mick Fanning were the standouts in a real spectacle of a competition.I was so lucky to see such an event live

Apart from that the waves have been pumping for all of september up till n ow;Great autumn conditions with another good week in front of us.The crowds left last week when the circus moved on to Portugal.Uncrowded pumping waves were everywhere last week.

Lola is 10

Lola had a 'Rock Star' birthday party for her 10th birthday last weekend.She had lots of fun with her friends here and then we all went for a treasure hunt and finished up down the lane checking out our new neighbour-A 2 week old baby donkey-So cute they all gooed and gaaed for ages .

Later on Derek and Niki dropped around to wish Lola a happy birthday too.Co and i went out with D&N on the friday night for dinner to a sushi bar and then onto a cocktail bar to finnish off with ,A fun night was had by all .

The waves have been pumping for the last 2weeks with some very solid waves provided by the hurricanes in America.Warnings are in place for a busy H season this year which is great for us coz we get the long range effects with long period swell of up to 20 seconds at tmes.Solid 'straight ,thick lines which give us some epic conditions!!!Watch this Space!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to school

8 weeks is a long break.Lots of beach,surfing, sleeping in and doing nothing.Now get back to school!!!!!
There are still lots of people around and lots of surfers,so the water has been busy, but theres been plenty of waves and this week has returned to the way i like it with waves everyday.I havent been working much for Jez,just keeping busy around the house.But he wants me to do a few things for him now so thats good too.Its good to be surfing everday again ,i was going crazy thru August with the lack of waves.My shoulder is sill not too good but it seems to be the work that flares it up more than the surfing.Lots of ice packs and massage and some (lots)homeopathic painkillers keep it bearable .This morning Jez and i had some nice clean 4-5 ft lefts as the sun was rising to a magnificent autumn morning.Tomorrow will b the day with an expected 6 ft at 15 seconds.OOOHHH the season has begun
Brian Forward and his partner have arrived for a 4 week stay in Hossegor ,i caught up with them yesterday.I might have a surf with him tomorrow.Derek arrives for 2 weeks work tomorrow and Richie Porta arrive on the 24th with the pro tour as the circus hits town for a couple of weeks;Then all the travellers will follow the competion trail down to portugal.Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!!

summer in France

Summer in France means beach ,packed beaches even on days with crappy weather,warm water with small waves and lots of tourists.The water temp is about 22-23° ,pleasant swimming temp and the waves are generally small which is a change from the strong and powerful waves and currents that make these beaches very dangerous and not really user friendly for kids or unwary, uneducated tourists that can live a long way from the beach.Drownings are not uncommon here and i am sure that i prevented what could have been a possibilty if i hadnt informed the lifesavers who unfortunately werent really watching what was going on .A guy swimming a long way from the flags was caught in a rip and i saw him struggling a long way from shore;After telling the lifesavers,one of them swam out but as the crowd watched what was going on ,others continued to swim in this rip as the other LS blew his whistle and waved to them to move, they just waved back,familys with young kids too.It amazes me to see all the warning signs in the carparks and next to the tracks but so many people take their young kids to swim in unsupervised areas;its not like Oz ,where everyone can swim.I'm amazed at how many people cant swim here.

The waves have been small for the last 2 months and i havent been surfing much .I still get in the water when we have a little pulse of swellthat may last a couple of days.But mostly I've been hanging out at the beach with Lola,swimming with her and taking her surfing in perfect little kids learning waves of not much bigger that a foot at times.She has progressed well and is catching the waves on her own now.I still need to help her as her surfboard is so big and bulky she has trouble getting it in the right position.Its big and being so big its very stable so its easy for her to get up to her feet, but also easy to catch waves too.We're going surfing this afternoon as the waves are small and low tide is at 2pm.2 days left in the holidays and its back to school on Thursday.Finally after 8 weeks

fete de Bayonne

We went to the Fete de Bayonne last sunday.We caught a train from St vincent de Tyrosse to avoid the traffic and lack of carparksfor this huge yearly fiesta.With everyone in traditional red and white, its an amazing sightin the beautifully historic city of Bayonne on the edge of two large rivers that run into one.Red wine,great food ,roving minstrels,thousnds of people ,this fiesta runs for 5 days

and attracts an enormous crowd with fun for all from heaps for the kids thru to bars every 20 metres.Very loud with lots of drums and trumpeters everywhere.I loved the makeshift urinals (as you can see in one of the photos) that are in the smaller laneways,hilarious stuff.

We met Corinnes family there about 11am and kicked right into things ,then wandered from bar to bar and onto an outdoor restaurant where we enjoyed some very good wine and some great food,very traditional with lots of foie gras and lots of duckand of course finished off with more red wine and some cheese.After that we did another bar crawl,watched some traditional dancing ,found another bar where some of the patrons picked up their guitars and sung some sensational basque songs,excellent stuff.Something that i do love about the french is that they really do guard their traditions ,and in such an old historic medieval city like Bayonne,a fiesta like that has an amazing feel ,its something that is impossible to find in Oz

Corinne ,Lola and i caught the 6 pm train back and left the rest of the family to continue their bar crawl.A very entertaining day for all.

fete de Bayonne

Dirt

I hired a small tip truck and transported 20cubic mteres fo dirt last week so i could finally fill in the old trench that ran thru the yard.I then hired a mini digger to spread it and then finished it off by hand and threw some grass seedout.Ive evened out the levels of the yard and it lokks a lot neater now.I had prices of 4000 and 2000 euros from 2 different places.NO WAY!!!!450 euros and a case of beer later ,we have the same outcomeI bought the dirt form a local farmer and i did 10 trips in the truck .THe dirt was 6euros a M3 and was cheap ,but he had to keep loading me all day.It was veryhot So i bought him a case of beer before lunch ,but he didnt want to take it.I told him thts the way we deal in Australia and he was quite impressed.After lunch he kept on slipping me a cold beer in betwen loads and then another to finish off with.Lucky the bottles are small and i didnt have to drive far.Any way, he was happy and he learnt a little about the australian way.

Funny how 20 m3 can disappear to almost nothing

Summer madness

Julie and Kym were here for the weekend last week so we showed them some sights and of course some of the local delicasies.Lola enjoyed hanging out with her cousin.They were only here for 2 nites so it was a bit of a whirlwind visit.

Summer madness has well and truly started here with so many of the main roads blocked with incoming tourists.Theyve been lucky with beach weather, and ypically unprepared for the summer heat.Last week everyday was over 30°With 38° on thursday,so hot they are dropping like flies.I love to watch the french sweat and squirm in the heat.I always comment to them on the beautiful weather and they think i'm crazy as its too much for them!Wheres your scarf now you pussys?

I also had great pleasure in watching the overpaid,spoilt,underacheiving soccer team implode at the world cup.What a ridiculously embarrassing experience that was for them with their french pride!The french public,the government and of course the media have crucified all involved,with many sackings and retributions.Off with their Heads!!!!!!!!!

I picked up a gothic style antique backing for the fireplace in the second living room.Very solid,very heavy cast iron plate that should come up wellwhen restored.A guy renovating a mansion in Tyrosse gave it to me as it wont fit his style.I dont think he realises the value of something like that.I was prepared to pay for it but has a coupla broken bits so he didnt want anymoney.Cool!!!

Table

I just finished restoring our dining table.We bought it well over a year ago for 100 euros with a load of other stuff and i havent had the time to work on it.It was in pretty bad condition and the timber is so hard it laughed at my belt sander even with 50grit paper on it.5 pads and 2 belts later it still didnt come up as well as wanted.The wood was too hard!But after putting the 'vernis' on it has come up very nice,with some nice grain and all the damaged parts and imperfections give a lot of character.Its very low so i bought some brass egg cups to put under the legs and they work beatifully,bringing it up to a perfct height

End of year festivities

Lola had her end of year Gala for her gymnastics class on saturday nite with an impressive display of gymnastics and dance from all involved in her association, from toddlers through to adults.It was quite a professional display by all

Saturday morning Lola had her first surfing session for the year.The

water has warmed up enough now for her to go surfing and she was so exited to get back into it.She did really well and had about a dozen waves with 6 or 7 being really good long waves. It was only about 1-2 ft ,a perfect size for kids learning and she had a blast of a time and cant wait for the next time.trouble is , we have to wait till the swell is small enough and it lokks like being solid for the rest of the week

More apolgies for my slackness on updates.We have been busy,i've been busy working for Jez and Corinne has been busy with her job too.The weather has been crap,really bad for june which is normally one of the best months.No sun and no waves.Maybe good to rest my shoulder without the waves as it is much better now.

Lola had her school end of year concert /party which was a bit of fun for all

We had Lolas communion(i still dont really know what it is),with a long church service and short ceremony for the communion.Thr church was full with hundreds of people as there were 4 different villages attending the formalitiies.So many people that there wasnt enough room for everyone.Afterwards we put on a big lunch for the family,with plenty to eat and Geo brought along some magnificent wines.A big day.

The waether is finally warming up and there is also waves too-finally!I walked through the forest chasing waves a coulpe of days ago with Peter Lawson,who is back with his family for the second year in a row.the waves werent too good but we decided to surf anyway,and then after he tore his hamstring, we had a long, slow,painful trek ,about 2kms over sand dunes and thick sandy tracks to get back to the car.He then struggled to get in the back of my van.Poor bloke had a very painful trip back to his place.Not very happy!!3 weeks into an 8 week trip has just spoiled his holiday.

Work?!!!?!!!!

Sorry I havent been updating very often but i've been busy working.I had to build a catwalk for Element surfwear for the release of their new range.I had to build it and then transport it to San Sebastian, assemble it on sunday,which was a big day(12 hours) and then return to unassemble and pack it up and bring back monday night.We started about 9pm and got back here about 1.30am.next morning we unloaded and had to get the hire truck back.It was big hours but it paid well.Jez has had me busy with lots of work and theres more to come building stands for a trade show next month.

Ive been surfing a little more(nothing special) and the water is warming up.Shame ,my shoulder is still giving me trouble with physio work twice a week,sometimes too sore to surf,other times its ok.

Barry leaves Paris today and Kaye leaves next week.Sounds like they had a great time.

Not much has changed with the house as i havent had time to do much

I'll try and update more regularly