Photography, art, surf, lifestyle and just about anything

2011-03-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

Just stuck my head out the window and thought there's some nice colours.

2011-02-26T06:31:00.000-08:00

A day out in glorious Devon

2011-02-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

Kovert

2011-02-03T08:37:00.001-08:00

I recently done some spraying and sanding for Bryn Dampney of Kovert Kneeboards. These bad boys came out looking sick!

10'0 gloss polished, classic mal.

2011-01-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

Recent spray jobs yall!

2011-01-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

North (b)east!

2010-12-12T06:38:00.000-08:00

South Hams sunset

2010-11-10T14:21:00.000-08:00

Caught this image in my rear view mirror driving home from work and just happened to have my camera with me so I ditched the car in the hedge for a second and took a couple of shots.

Couple more sprays

2010-11-08T08:16:00.001-08:00

West Winter Warmers

2010-11-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

Roll up roll up! Luke Young Shapes has a limited amount of super toastie winter wetsuits from West in stock. These bad boys are incredibly warm and flexible, come on get involved! They come in some neat colours too.

2010-11-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

Some recent sprays we've done.

2010-11-07T12:24:00.001-08:00

Yorkshire

2010-10-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

Don't feed the seagulls if you know whats good for ya!

2010-09-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

The guy in this car wasn't counting on this many seagulls turning up when he started taunting them with his chips. He paid for it though after his feathered friends each decided to take a crap on his shiny truck!

Hurricane swell!

2010-09-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

A tasty looking peak from the weekend rolls through empty! A few more swells like this would be nice before winter kicks in.

Lowestoft

2010-09-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Ahhh....pure nostalgia! My home break showing signs of what it used to be like on a more regular basis. It was so nice to see this little swell rolling in on a recent trip back to visit the folks. Loved catching up with some of the old crew who are still as keen as ever. It gutted me slightly not being able to surf having left my gear back in Plymouth, however I was well aware of the impending hurricane swell due to hit the southwest in a weeks time! Still, it's always nice to surf you old stomping ground whatever the conditions. I'll remember my stuff next time.

Johnny's finished quiver

2010-08-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

These boards have been finished for a while but I forgot to post it up here until now. As far as I know He took all three to the Maldives and loved them. It's got him thinking about ordering a few more.....sweet!

9'6 tripple stringered, resin tinted, gloss polished classic mal

2010-08-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

This thing really took some work but well worth it!

A few recent sprays.

2010-08-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

The White Helmets!!!

2010-08-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

Make what you will of this image I took at the Totnes show a few weeks back. Some of your captions would be an interesting read if you're able to come up with any....

Mexico again

2010-07-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

If any of my surfing Buddy's find themselves in Puerto Escondido anytime soon and wouldn't mind getting some water shots then you have to hook up with Local charger and photographer Edwin Morales. What can I say about the guy other than he was in the exact spot every time I pulled in! I think we had about an hour in the water before it went onshore and he still nailed a barrel load of sick shots!

I'm a bit grumpy tonight

2010-07-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

Messing about on paint, bored out of my tiny mind!!!!

Diggy's latest project

2010-07-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

Check this beauty out!

Errrm........

2010-07-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

Though I was doing well at scrabble the other day until I got skunked with this lovely selection of letters. I'm not exactly a Count Down boffin so to say I was stumped would be a slight understatement!

Dawny

2010-06-30T06:56:00.001-07:00

Another good reason to be up for the early surf.

Creepy crows!

2010-06-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

Tucker

2010-06-30T01:25:00.000-07:00

Jonty came to pick up his new board and you can tell he's pretty happy with it. He'll be testing it out in Costa Rica real soon so that might explain his ear to ear grin!

Quiver

2010-06-25T01:11:00.000-07:00

Three new boards for Johnny who wanted to tie them all in together, so I gave him the same spray on each board, only I mixed it up with the fluro colours. We think they look pretty cool! He'll be testing these bad boys during his upcoming Maldives trip.....lucky git!

Look out!

2010-06-23T09:32:00.001-07:00

Well I don't know what it is but at the moment we've had a lot of customers asking for some pretty, shall we say "bold", spray jobs. I guess it's a good look for summer if you're into that sort of thing or if you rip! One thing's for sure, it'll be hard to miss Paul Gunning tearing it up on his new pink and yellow Robot!

New Zealand

2010-06-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a collage of New Zealand waves. Note how every wave is barreling and there appears to be very few people surfing. Well that's pretty much normal For this amazingly diverse little country. Out of six countries I visited over nine months of travel, Aotearoa was the pinnacle for me and you can see why. Happy mind surfing people!

Southbound

2010-06-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

A view I'll never get board of...especially when you're heading somewhere you haven't been before. This particular flight was taking us to Mexico. Needless to say I couldn't think of anything but warm sandy barrels!

Rack em up!

2010-06-12T01:44:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the week again when we can dust ourselves off, have a tidy up, make a brew and admire the crisp new sleads we've been working on...very satisfying!

Ooh err!!!

2010-06-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

Luke Young Team rider, Rob Watson said he fancied something a bit saucy on his next board.....
....this should do the trick!

Pile up!

2010-06-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend and I have an understanding where whoever doesn't cook gets to do the washing up. I'm no Gary Rhodes so I leave the cooking to Joni and I sport the marigolds! Now I'm far to lazy to stop washing and put things away so I'll just balance everything precariously on top of each other. Think I've got it down to a fine art!

Mural

2010-06-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

Luke and I recently tarted up the factory with some gyp board and a splash of white paint, which was just begging for some sort of graffiti or art work, so instead of your typical palm fringed desert island mural, I kept it local with a Challaborough scene. Although none of us have seen it break like that for a while!!!!

The green eyed monster!

2010-06-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

I caught Boo's look of utter contempt as we sat down gorging on our barbie. The smell of burgers and sausages to a dog must be insane! Sorry Boo.

Shiny!

2010-05-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

My first gloss polish. Takes a bit of time but it came out looking pretty sweet!

A full rack!

2010-05-27T00:42:00.001-07:00

This is what we like to see......a full rack of quality finished boards ready for their owners.

The Moors!

2010-05-26T00:33:00.000-07:00

Sunrise over the foothills of Dartmoor. It' nice once in a while to forget about exotic locations and pay a bit more attention to what's on your own doorstep. The Moors are just a few minutes drive out of Plymouth and offers amazing scenery with it's highest point being 2,o37 ft above sea level. It's an epic spot to loose yourself walking for a day, drive by the mean and moody Dartmoor prison, bike ride, check out some cool rivers and perfect to let the dog go mental for an hour or two. Get out there!

Boojangles

2010-05-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

Even our friends dog Boo, who is known for hanging out near the oven door and burying under your duvet, was struggling with the heat! Here's a pic of her trying to chill in the garden.

Reunited!

2010-05-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

Joni and her dad, Derek.

Tea anyone?

2010-05-19T13:29:00.001-07:00

Don't let this ever growing pile of tea bags fool you into thinking there ain't much work going on at Luke Young Shapes. Boards are flying outta there quicker than you can say "put the kettle on"!

Ozzie who?

2010-05-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

A little bit different this one! You never know what the customer is going to ask for and in this case the guy wanted some Ozzie Wright inspired artwork with the word sparkles somewhere on it. That's easy you might think, and technically it is, but trying to come up with an idea is the tricky part! Black hull with angry clouds chasing a flying speaker?...why the hell not!!!!

Hoop

2010-05-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

Captured this image walking to the beach to get some sunset pics in Mount Maunganui. Just thought it looked cool!

Jimbaran Sunset

2010-05-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

The thing I like about this photo is all the activity going on, even though the day is drawing to a close. This time of the evening is when everyone comes out of hiding from the sun and there's always a buzzy vibe. The Indo sun is brutal so dog walking, football and beers on the beach are best saved for sunset. Not a bad way to end the day.

New York

2010-05-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

My girl Joni trying to contain her excitement while making her pose for a pic, must be hard for a little kiwi girl to keep it together when you're in Central Park up to your knees in snow.

Spray jobs

2010-05-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Some recent boards sprays I've done for Luke Young Shapes. About time I got back in touch with my creative side. Ain't used any paint since I finished college! The owner of the orange beast came to pick up his board just after we took this shot and said he could "almost shed a tear"! I think we'll take that as a complement!

Welcome home

2010-05-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

It was so good to catch up with family and friends after traveling for nine months but I must admit, I was equally chuffed to get stuck into some good old British fish and chips, washed down of course with a choice pint of ale...unbeatable!

New edition to the family

2010-05-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

My nephew Wolfie. Handsome young devil, just like his uncle!

Who you lookin at?

2010-05-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

This is Rudy, my Mum's English Bull Terrier. Don't be fooled by his rather menacing looking pose, he's pretty much the softest dog I know and just loves cuddles...if you can get your arms around him!

Sky Scrapers

2010-05-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

A major contrasting picture from the last one. These buildings were at the bottom of the hill on Hong Kong island .

Hong Kong

2010-05-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

I loved the mix of new and old buildings in Hong Kong. I saw these crumbly old apartments from the Mid-levels escalator, a series of escalators going from Des Voeux Road in central up to the Conduit road in the mid-levels (the mid section of the hill on Hong Kong island). It just keeps going up and up!

Bali

2010-05-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

My initial thoughts on arrival were that of shock, even though I'd heard heaps of horror stories and that I should be prepared! I got used to the constant hassle and pestering fairly quickly, because lets be honest, there's no avoiding it, when you're anywhere near Kuta that is. But this is how I like to remember Bali. Watching a stunning sunset from Nusa Lembongan without the toothless old crones fighting over who's going to give me the cheapest massage!!!

Luke Young Shapes

2010-05-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

The drips of resin really caught my eye while Luke was glassing this board so I took a quick snap. The application of cloth and resin to the foam is sometimes unfairly overlooked as most of the emphasis is centered around the actual shape of the board. It takes years to learn how to make this particular process quick, neat and stress free.

A whole bunch of blanks lurking in the factory just waiting to be whittled down into wave shredding machines!

Impossibles

2010-05-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

Puerto

2010-05-09T06:30:00.000-07:00

Another picture of empty Mexican magic to get the juices flowing!

South Ballina

2010-05-07T00:53:00.000-07:00

You can imagine my excitement when I first saw this beast freight training it down the line...well it didn't take long to remember where I was and the fact that Ballina is pretty damn sharky! Every time I've been to Australia I seem to recall someone being attacked down there. As it turned out after watching for a while, these rights were just too fast and also closing out...well that's my excuse anyway!

Luke Young

2010-05-05T00:16:00.000-07:00

I've been hanging out a lot with with my good friend and talented shaper Luke Young at his factory near Langage. Heres's a few shots of him working his magic in the glassing room and and setting up the FCS plugs. I'm doing the sprays for him now so I'll post some shots of my spray jobs when the boards are finished.

Zicatela beatings!

2010-05-04T14:59:00.000-07:00

During my stay in Mexico I was put on to water photographer and bodyboarder, Edwin Morales to try and get some shots for the next issue of threesixty, I thought great! can't be that hard, it's just pulling in! So we met up on my last day to find quite a decent sized swell, small by Puerto standards but not what I'm used to surfing! I gave it a stab and as you can see in the second shot that it wasn't as easy as I'd thought! Edwin probably had a lot more fun than I did that day watching me get axed all the time. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" kept going over in my mind! We scored some good shots in the end so well worth it.

Whitehaven Beach, Whitsundays

2010-05-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

Ever since my first Australia trip, I had seen pictures of this stunning beach and thought to myself, well it's very nice looking but I don't want to go all the way up there when I can just stay on the Goldy and surf! But my attitude towards only wanting to visit surfing locations has changed and I dare say it comes down to age, I'm no old fart, but it feels quite natural to gradually mellow a bit. I'm learning that there's more to life than just surfing, and having other interests is a really healthy thing. It made getting back to pumping D-bah all the better anyway!

San Clemente pier

2010-05-04T03:13:00.000-07:00

A very typical shot of Southern California, the likes of which you'd associate with Pammy bouncing around in that iconic red bathing suit, however this was taken during a small break in some very savage weather, not what you'd expect when you're only there for a few days and Cali is usually blessed with year round sunshine! The locals were saying it was the worst storm in 10 years! Good timing.

Puerto Power!

2010-05-04T02:55:00.000-07:00

Hello!

2010-05-04T02:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog. I do apologise if it seems to be somewhat lacking in content, but I must admit that I'm not the fastest when it comes to getting grips with technology or computors in general, so please be patient and keep popping in for a look to see whats new. I promise there'll be lots of images of lifestyle, surf and whatever else I reckon is worth throwing up here. Thanks, Al