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50 Issues of Surf Europe
Over the past eight years, SE’s consumed a few zillion airmiles, a several generations of Macintosh computers, one dune-top house at La Graviere, four Ed-in-Chiefs, one office in Soorts that melted, untold blagged boards and wetsuits, one or two contest beers, one Chrysler Voyager that blew up, a few thousand Big Mac Meals (Laurel), very little jail time and only a few minor lawsuit threats. Onwards and upwards.
SE1: EDITOR IN CHIEF DEREK RIELLY GOES TO JAIL...
Austrian immigration officers raided the Austrian offices of Onboard in Mayrhoffen. Everyone was in Munich for the ISPO tradeshow except DR who’d just landed in Europe, and was answering some emails in the office, barefoot in t-shirt and trunks. He had no passport with him, couldn’t prove who he was, so he went to jail. Only after his no-show at ISPO did we find out he was in the can. Eventually his wife got the embassy to fax his passport and they let him out... Welcome to Europe. - Iker
SE4: INDO TRIP WITH EUROS
This was the first full European trip with top international photogs (Childs and Morris). Guess what? Carwyn was naked. Carwyn had nearly all his coffee & beer breaks from Billabong across the street in the SE office, spreading his Welsh wisdom and perving on the light box. Later, in his interview in SE 12 was the perfect example of how the man always saw the positive things in life, having reached some dark depths after his car accident and making it back to nearly claim victory in the first EPSA contest he entered. - Archi
SE5: THE SATIRE ISSUE
Mundaka sold and Fred the Snake. For our satire issue and the particular article on Mundaka being sold to a motel chain with restricted access to the wave, people probably didn’t notice the little joker at the top of the page designed to remind everyone that it was a joke. Anyway, six months after having published it we were still receiving calls from angry surfers, who probably didn’t go beyond the main title. On that same note, we had to deal with a surfer who truly believed that he was the Fred in the ‘Fred the Snake’ article, threatening to come to the office to punch our lights out to prove he was not the aggressive, snaking Fred depicted in DC Green’s article. - Archi
SE9: TIAGO PIRES INTERVIEW
TP passes a milestone and becomes the first European pro surfer to make a final in Hawaii, doing so at Sunset Beach in solid surf.
SE12: HE CAN TALK
We interviewed Mr Robert Page on his favourite subjects and he let loose… Robbie stayed 4 hours in the office, used up 3 tapes and still had plenty of love and passion to share with classic quotes such as “Today if you have no sponsors you don’t exist and that’s bullshit. We aren’t a disposable product, where you put a sticker on and then get thrown away when the competitive side of life stops happening... I saw Boris Letexier crying in front of a cooking Pipe because his sponsor didn’t manage to get his boards to him, so I went back to my house and left a brand new stick by his side... Magazines are just putting a new wanker on the cover every month, because whoever sells is in... I ride a surfboard because I can’t walk on water.” - Archi.
SE13: MALIK
Before that Chopes wave in 2003, Malik was just a semi-reknowned Tahitian tube chaser with big stoke. R.I.P.
SE14: APPAS INTERVIEW
Laurel’s journalistic debut is a fairly explicit interview with Jason Apparicio in the rapid fire Q&A style of (French journalist) Thierry Ardisson. We would quote a few bits, but it’s way too naughty.
SE16: AICHNER’S NEW ANGLE
North Shore wide-angle ace Scott Aichner begins to master the between-the-lip-and-the-surfer angle, with impressive results. This was the first time Euro surf mag readers saw this angle in all its glory.
SE17: ARCHI’S CARIBBEAN TRIP
There is nothing like a boat trip to test surfer’s social skills. Not the full pampered trip with a cook and onboard servants, surfers had to cook, do the dishes and take their shift on look out at night. During that 15 day trip, on one occassion photog Thierry Gibaud had to crack the shits about the food and water supply. ‘Guys, you’re not at home, I’m not your mum! You can’t just open the fridge whenever you are hungry coz I don’t want to waste time to stop over at the next harbour. Got it?’ After that dressing down, everything went super smoothly, swell lines rocked the boat from a big north swell and the fridge stayed well stocked.
SE18: THE EMERGENCE OF SAFI
Rumours of another super-hollow long right point in Morocco turned out to be true, with publication of some of the deepest barrels in (extended) Europe. No longer a secret spot, SE got the green light from Laurent Miramon to name the area. These pics hadn’t been surpassed any winter since until early in 2007, featured in this very issue (p92). - Archi
MORRISSEY’S DONOSTIA BOMB DROP
During Quik Cup 2002 the swell was big, Morrissey was super keen to try it, so he stuffed his brand new board in my Twingo with his video guy and off we went to San Sebastian. There was one guy surfing there, he was a bit of a nightmare because he trying to catch everything and not succeeding; basically he was in our way. After a heated conversation, a local surfer called Txipi showed up and wanting to see the stunt, cleared the spot for us. Morrissey tried it 6 times, he landed on the flats, he landed on his back, but one he landed right over the crumbling lip and rode that down. Some of the landings were super hard, because his momentum didn’t really match the wave’s movement and he ended up buckling that board pretty badly. - Timo
SE20: PROJECT ATLANTIC
Ted Grambeau’s photographic odyssey from the top to the bottom of Europe in a green rental car from Norway to Portugal. Nice to know even the top dogs balls up occasionally - Ted arrived in Svalbad (in the Arctic Circle) in December to take a portrait of a local surfer, only realizing it was 24-hour darkness when he arrived there off the plane from Oz.
SE21: 13 NOVEMBER 2002. THE END OF SURF EUROPE?
The threat didn’t come from our advertisers or from the publishers; it came from an unexpected direction, straight in our face and nostrils. An unthinkable natural disaster had occurred, beaches from North Portugal to Bordeaux painted black by the sticky oil of the Prestige. Thousands of dead birds and other ocean creatures, 77,000 tons of heavy oil about to spread across European lineups. No more surf, no more photos, so no more magazines was a major fear around here. Sadly, today not much has really changed and we still have boats with this kind of ID: single hulled, owned by a company based in Liberia, from a Bahamas fleet, last inspected (not fully) in Dubai, chartered by a Russian Company with a Romanian and Phillipino crew with a Russian cargo on its way to Singapore. The issue also featured some crazy images of Belharra near St Jean de Luz, like Seb St Jean shooting this big fat beast. - Archi.
SE24: 1ST MUNDAKA FISHEYE SHOT ON A SOLID DAY
The idea had been cooking in my head for a while to shoot Mundaka fisheye. (Those photos are standard stuff these days and every time it’s on there’s someone swimming there with a wide angle now.) I arrived there with my wife, didn’t really have a look how big it was and just suited up and jumped in for my first swim there. It was pretty big, a good 8ft and going square. I copped a lot of waves on my head and spent a ridiculous amount of time swimming against the rip. I shot two rolls, but spray from the strong offshores put water drops on the lens port softening a lot of the images. I was pretty happy anyway of that one single image of Iker Acero and to be able to get that from a first try on a solid day made me believe that it was as do-able as any other wave. The photo isn’t that great given these day’s standards, he’s actually between the sections, but it was a new perspective to show that wave to an audience and it started an itch that hasn’t been scratched away yet. - Timo
SE 27: LOST PHOTOGRAPHER
After hours spent on planes, a pretty rough crossing over the Mentawai strait, we threw the anchor down by a 6-8ft Lance’s Right. After having gone through a few rolls shooting from the boat, lensman Alex Laurel choose to go brave. Water shooting at Lance’s ain’t easy. He got a few shots in the bag when Kevin Johnson warned us of a big outside set. I made it just over the ledge, but Alex having to swim with his housing fell short by a couple of metres. We all looked anxiously over to the inside for any floating sign. Still nothing. Alex had been smashed so far down the reef that we only noticed him when he started waving his arms. After being rescued by the dingy and still in shock, Alex said ‘I thought I was gonna stay in the Mentawais forever.’ He’s been back every year since. - Archi
SE 28: G-SPOT
Former Ed in Chief Sharpy used to stake out Eire’s west coast with his favourite crew of tube hunters Gabe, Battrick and co. for months on end braving all kinds of nasty weather conditions every autumn. On this occasion, it eventually paid off at the ‘GSpot’, and he got himself sufficiently excited to claim it as ‘Europe’s Thickest Wave’ on the front cover.
SE 33: NORWAY DELIVERS
The crew dynamic was a meeting of hemispheres: squeaky clean Euro youth Marlon and Tim vs. the outspoken, guitar strumming wildman and former Pipemaster Pagey. In our little cabin everyone got on famously; and all the rumours you’ve heard about Norway turned out to be true. - PE
SE 34: NEW CREW
This was the first issue for your current team of clowns. The incoming Ed wanted to get off to a good start so wrote his first editorial about following through in his wetsuit. On the cover was Tom Curren at Backdoor by Scott Aichner, which seemed like a good place to start.
SE 35: CAVE
Portuguese Ed Ricardo sent us some mental images of a crazy spot near Coxos known simply as ‘Cave’ (Portuguese for basement). One Ruben Gonzalez sequence caused a comotion here in the office, as well as this Tiago one. Cave was the standout from a winter of ‘new’ discoveries being surfed and photographed all across Europe in 04/05.
SE 38: JEREMY FLORES INTERVIEW
SE interviews 17-year-old Jeremy Flores in spring 05, the issue came out in time for the Quik Pro France where, as a wildcard he beat Fanning in big, thick la Graviere barrels and very nearly beat Slater. When we met to do the interview he was just a skinny teenager driving round on a moped, had the hype but no real results of substance as yet. Less than two years on, he’s still a teenager, but has won the WQS and is currently rated 14th in the world.
SE 39: TRAVEL ISSUE WITH THE SURF-LESS COVER
Timo’s cover shot with the trippy infra-red film, Indo guy in a boat not far from Green Bush in the Mentawais. When it came out someone upstairs wasn’t too keen on it not having a surfer or a wave in it... yet we still had more requests for it as a poster than any other.
SE 41: CUBA & SIPPING JETSTREAMS
Hooked up with D Hump and Taylor Steele on their Sipping Jetstreams project, this particular trip was Ozzie Wright in Cuba. D Hump’s work always stands out, and we got tons of great feedback on this all year. D Hump is now an SE senior photog.
SE 42: MUNDAKA’S BACK!
After the dredging debacle that put Mundaka to sleep for the winter 05/06, in autumn 06, when she reawakened with a bang that man Laurel was on hand with his jetski to capture all.
SE 45: TENERIFE TOW SESSIONS
A big February swell in the Canary Islands resulted in some mental images by local photog Villalba of a reefbreak on Tenerife. For this issue we also ran different covers in each region; Nathan Phillips in the English version, Fred Robin in French, Vilayta in Spanish, Jose Gregorio in the Portuguese and Appas in the German.