The Car Whisperers

Dave, throttling.

Engine block.

Mikey got hold of this old Ford Capri one winter a few years ago. He took it back to his Dad's garage in North Wales and set to work doing it up in order to sell it on. When he pulled back into town the following spring we could all hear him coming, the sound of the throaty 2.8 V6 engine preceeding the view we got of the sleek black machine; reborn.

What an amazing car it had become. Mikey went to put the car up for sale but his twin brother Dave, who is just as much of a rev-head as Mikey, couldn't bear to see it leave the family so ponied up his winter's wages to buy it from his brother. Both of the Jones brothers are crazy car whisperers, able to listen to a crook vehicle and make an instant diagnosis. The Capri has been their labour of love and I spent an evening with Dave in their garage a few weeks ago to get some shots of him spannering on the car, part of a 1950's style greaser set of images that we wanted to produce. This was the first shoot, as Dave prepared the car for a classic car show that weekend. On the way to that show some clown reversed into the side of the Capri in a supermarket car park, stoving in the passenger door and the wing and effectively writing it off in the eyes of the insurance company. Both brothers are now hard at work, spending all of their spare time trying to nurse it back to health and keep their baby on the road. Once they're done, we'll get some images of their machine going sideways in a cloud of tyre smoke up at the old airfield... I for one can't wait to see that thing on the road again.

A workshop wall to envy.

Tight for space; The Viva, Dave and the Capri.

Check Dave's motor racing and Caterham 7 blog out at www.rawkusracing.com.

Pick Up 3

In mid-winter we have all sorts of flotsam and jetsam wash up on the beaches of Cornwall.
Photo by Dave Williams.

Iniative Surf recently ran a training camp on Long Island, New York and the groms got involved with improving their beach environment after a training session.
Getting good habits at an early age.
Photo by Alex Espir.

All this will end up in the Ocean that you can see at the end of the ditch (right into the line-up of a surf spot) next time it rains. This has to change.

An Tor Orth An Mor took a two week holiday this northern summer, a bit last minute and far enough off the map to make posting photos difficult so apologies if you missed us...but we're back now, so on with business.

This one is an important one, both to spread a message well worth spreading and to try and shout it from the roof tops and encourage you the reader to pass the message on, but also to salute the people in this post who lead the charge in one way or another and do their bit.
Litter. You wouldn't believe how much of it ends up in the oceans or washed up on beaches, almost anywhere in the world no matter how remote and off the beaten track you go there's a pretty good chance that you'll find some plastic washed up on your idylic beach, maybe carried there by the winds and currents from thousands of miles away. In some places there are unbelievable levels of rubbish on the beaches and in the water, perhaps because of the prevailing wind direction or because the locals there don't have any refuse collection and wherever they throw it, it washes downstream to the coast. But regardless of the reasons why, it really shouldn't be there at all. But how can you help? Sometimes there's just too much to feel that you can make a difference.

Pick Up 3. It's that simple. The brainchild of 16 year old Cobi Emery from San Diego, California, Pick Up 3 asks you to pick up just three pieces of litter or trash when you walk back up the beach from the surf. You can carry three bits in one hand and dump them in a bin at the top of the beach or put them in a bag in your car to dispose of later, that way slowly but surely, little by little, we can start to make a difference; it's enough to have an impact whilst still being easily manageable.
Not only does the beach look nicer then, but the impact on the marine environment is amazing too - thousands of turtles and dolphins die each year because they mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and eat them, only to either fill their guts with undigestable plastic and starve, or in the case of turtles, float to the surface because of the increased buoyancy and bake to death in the sun. Wrong. So plastic bags, bottles, bits of fishing nets and line...if it didn't grow there it shouldn't go there.

My friend Alex from Initiative Surf asks all of his clients, be they junior competitive surfers or clients on guided surf trips to pick up 3 on their way back from every surf as part of his coaching regime, whilst Tom and the staff and customers of Island Vibe in Jeffreys Bay do regular beach clean ups there, with one big annual effort. This year 80 of them collected litter on the western beaches of J-Bay, filling bags and bags with unwanted refuse. Unfortunately, the next time the wind blows offshore, more plastic will blow out of the township and down the beach, just as after the first rains of the season in Morocco, Indonesia or any other developing coastal nation the water is too filthy to surf or swim in because the floodwater washes out all of the ditches and drains that locals use to dump their refuse in to. But perhaps slowly, 3 pieces at a time we can set an example, educate and begin to clean up the marine environment because we all live downstream of something and the oceans are too important to mess with.

Leave it better than you found it. Please.

Staff and guests at Island Vibe clearing the beach and drains that make up their back yard.
Photo by Rene Thornton.

More people and less litter than the previous year, so it's looking hopeful.
Photo by Rene Thornton.

A good job well done.
Photo by Rene Thornton.

Volounteers from the Polzeath VMCA clearing our local beach, thanks guys!

www.pickup3.org
www.sas.org.uk
www.surfrider.org
www.polzeathmarineconservation.com

Super Soul Sunday

Dave and I used to have a solid Sunday morning routine in our draughty cold house on the cliffs above the sea. 10am through until midday was Super Soul Sunday time: Big pots of coffee, poached eggs, newspapers, absolutely no work and the Reverend Al Green and lots of other great soul music blasting from the stereo. Whoever woke up first put the music on loud enough to wake the rest of the house. Guests crashing over on our sofa had no choice but to wake up and engage, and friends would come by for the morning bringing breakfast stuff, newspapers or music with them.

It's a damn fine way to take some time out on the weekend, so go get on i-tunes or spotify, or heaven forbid perhaps actually get some good old fashioned cd's back in your life and hunt down these tunes, the ones that influenced and informed the current revival and rehash of soul music that's all over the radio these days.

Right here, right now, An Tor Orth An Mor presents the Super Soul Sunday playlist for your aural enjoyment. Hallelujah!

1. Frank Wilson - Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
2. Martha Reeves And The Vandellas - Heatwave
3. Al Green - Keep Me Cryin'
4. Sam And Dave - Hold On, I'm Coming
5. Martha Reeves And The Vandellas - Nowhere To Run
6. Little Richard And The Disciples Of Soul - Inside Of Me
7. Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons - The Night
8. Tony Clarke - Landslide
9. Dusty Springfield - Live It Up
10. Gloria Jones - Tainted Love
11. The Flirtations - Nothing But A Heartache
12. Marlena Shaw - Let's Wade In The Water
13. Stevie Wonder - Uptight (Everything Is Alright)
14. Sam And Dave - Soul Man
15. The Temptations - Ain't No Mountain High Enough
16. Wilson Pickett - Land Of 1000 Dances
17. Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up (LP Version)
18. Ray Charles - What'd I Say (Parts I&II)
19. The Hot 8 Brass Band - Sexual Healing

Get Some!

Image: Dave getting into the music sat on the workbench in The Pit one Super Soul Sunday a few weeks back, mug of coffee just out of shot.

The World's best righthand point? I reckon so...

Dawn at Supertubes in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa. Having run 5km in the dark to get there it was kind of annoying to find it breaking straight onto the bricks...

The 2011 Billabong Pro J-Bay has just finished up with South Africa's wonder-kid Jordy Smith coming out on top at his home contest. Every time I watch the World's top 44 surfers hacking into arguably the best right hand point break on the planet my jaw drops at how many turns they manage to cram in on a wave that is just too damn fast for mere mortals to even consider sticking a turn on. The first bit of advice I was given when I moved there was "don't even think about doing a turn, you'll just get left behind. Just take off and start going down the line as fast as you can..." Most of the contest was held in 4-6ft surf, pretty perfect size for Supertubes however the weather was grey, rainy and pretty strong onshore. It still looked heaps better than most surf spots do on their day of days though, despite the wind and rain.

It's set my feet itching, I'm trawling the internet for flights south right now...

A Word Before You Go...

Teak Bridge, Myanmar (formerly Burma)

Zanzibar

Packing antique heat, Ethiopia

Colonial Hangover, Sri Lanka

Samoa

Gorilla, Rwanda

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Ethiopian Highland Kids

African Sunset

You're in for a treat. A little while back I posted a blog with the ten top travel tips that I've accumulated and have served me well over years of hauling my sorry ass and a surfboard all over this big blue and green marble. I thought that this list was pretty concise and comprehensive, and then I got an e-mail from my friend Yvette which blew my list out of the water. Yvette is one well travelled lady who works in International Development, most recently for the UNHCR in East Africa but before then in South East Asia, and in between travelling for work her hobby is collecting cool passport stamps. In the past she's gifted me with solid gold nuggets of travel wisdom like this:

"Coconuts - the elixir of life, the saviour, the hangover cure, the life-giver. Any time you feel crap, drink a coconut and it will save your life. It's chemically akin to plasma and absorbs faster than h2o. If you need a blood transfusion and you have no blood - hook an IV up to a coconut, I'm 100% serious."

So here I've pulled together a selection of her photos and below for you to log away ready for next time you're getting ready to head off are her additions to the list. I strongly suggest that you take some notes:

"My tips are a bag for your cords and cables. A bag for your bras, undies and socks. Roll. Pillow case for laundry bag. Crappy phone (some countries won't let in smart phones). SARONG. Hard drive or iPad full of movies. EAR PLUGS. Steal the eye mask while you're stealing the blanket - you'll never sleep more soundly. Condoms. Stick your condoms and meds in the fridge. Don't fill your bag, 17kg max. Clothes that make you happy - you'll feel better if you look like yourself. No dark clothes - mozzies breed inside them. Toenail clippers. Notepad and pen fo sho. Board games for those days with no electricity (there will be many) ... backgammon? Social responsibility and a sense of the two way obligations and duties of the traveller. The Do No Harm principle. Norfloxacin - when it hits, you won't want to go to the chemist. A vocabulary that doesn't include the word 'do', or any variation on this, as in: "I did Thailand." A basic history. Courage."

The Kook

The hyper-creative Mr. Daniel Crockett has released the 2nd edition of The Kook surfing newspaper. An independent UK based surf publication with over 90 international contributors, The Kook is all about the creative side of what we all do. There are no paid advertisements and all contributors provide their creativity for free, simply for the sake and love of it, including some very high profile people in the wide world of surf - and some very low profilers.

I got in touch with Dan a while back about a photo project that I've been working on (2/3rd's complete to date) and it turned out to be deadline day. He managed to sneakily squeeze one of my other images in there for which I'm very grateful, prizes if you can spot it...

Please help to support independent, creative surf journalism.

Purchase The Kook through Dan's blog or website, or from selected discerning surf shops.

Art on Walls

Art on walls? I love it.

I'll put that in context: good art or poignant statements (not shite tag scrawls) in appropriate places is amazing and contrary to the opinion of many city councils can enhance urban environments. When I was at university in Plymouth I worked for a company called After Dark Media who organised the renovation of the skanky old underground bus station. Previously the concrete underpasses were the preferred hangout of the city's homeless and it was kind of an intimidating place once the sun had gone down, not to mention it stank of piss. But the council sorted the lighting out and it was transformed by a collection of graffiti artists over one weekend into a colourful, vibrant and engaging space. In the right place, and in the right context, why wouldn't you put art on the walls for everyone to enjoy?

Images: The assorted wall art of Barcelona, Melbourne, London, Oman and Morocco.