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Save Me From Tomorrow
Tom Curren, Stephanie Gilmore and fellow Searchers probe for playgrounds new along a shrinking horizon’s sinking atolls.
The Northern Gate
As winter 07 brings the infamous Moroccan tube machine back to the boil, Didier, Fredo, Sancho and Saca revel in the best Safi conditions since 2001.
Westward Bound
As the freshly-awoken year of 2007 was yawning, stretching, rubbing away the eye bogey and beginning to think about brekkie, continental Europe’s Atlantic coasts were being blessed with a procession of back to back clean meaty groundswells, groomed agreeably with mild offshore winds. In Europe’s most westerly nation, Portugal’s premier tow-in team of Jose Gregorio and Tiago Pires struck out from their homes in Ericeira to tackle a hitherto-unknown reef located somewhere along the coast between Porto and Faro, in search of expensive thrills of the strap and rope.
Eurojem: Coxos
(KO-shuss) razor sharp rocks, heavy barrels and the best wave on the portuguese coast.
How to Plan Your Surf Trip
For heightened pleasure, at home or on safari.
Arabia Felix and the Isle of Bliss
Socotra, (from the Sanskrit dvipa sukhadhara – island of bliss) is a small archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Somalia, some 350km’s south of the Arabian Peninsula. Its relatively unknown coastal waters are known to be home to over eighty species of sharks including 15m Great Whites, as well as, when the SW monsoon blows a myriad of uncharted, ridable waves.
Gone Feral from the Weather Kitchen
Dustin Humphrey had no idea. Eleventh-hour enlistment by the brothers Turner amid one of Humphrey’s sporadic SoCal visits led the Bali-based photographer to the Los Angeles International Airport, himself weighted with an unusual amount of heavy clothing, booked to fly in an unusual direction. Fresh on the recovery heels of a staph infection inside his brain, surfer/filmmaker Timmy Turner, perhaps best-known for his rough-hewn forays in hot Indonesian jungle, found equally fresh allure in the green-wooded shores of the Pacific Northwest. Last September, Turner unveiled his new slant: to bust feral and go film once again, exchanging reef cuts and malaria for grizzly bears and hypothermia. Earlier, Timmy’s doctors had ominously warned him that, should Turner return to the tropics any time soon, staph would relapse.
Bring the Drama
Not the most wave-blessed Hawaiian contest season in memory, yet lack of swell doesn’t necessarily equate to lack of incident along the Seven Mile Miracle. Some of Europe’s finest recount this season’s high jinks.
Eurojem: Mundaka
Stunning scenery, authentic basque culture and screaming sand-bottomed barrels at Europe’s best lefthander.
Eurojem: Supertubos, Portugal
Super powerful, super barrelling beach break. Surfable from 2ft to 10ft, with permanently shifting peaks. Usually the lefts are more perfect and longer, but the rights can be a good choice too. The wave is fast as hell so knowing when and how to put the brakes on is the key to finding your way in to a Supertubos pit.
Eurojem: The Peak, Bundoran, Ireland
Situated 100 yards offshore from the town centre of Bundoran in Donegal Bay, the Peak is also one of the most visible and accessible waves in Ireland. Bundoran is one of Ireland’s most popular tourist resorts, with a small local population that swells dramatically on weekends and in summer.
Eurojem: La Graviere
The first thing you’re going to notice when you paddle out when the first bit of whitewater hits you is the power of the wave, it packs a punch. Bear in mind that even on smallish days, every wave that breaks here can snap your board, so pick your waves carefully.
Ericeira, Portugal
The small Portuguese town of Ericeira is blessed with a multitude of quality reefbreaks. With it well within overnight striking distance from SE headquarters in France, Laurel hitched up his jetski and joined the Euroforce crew on the road in early 2006 to capture Tiago, Jose and Ruben at their favourite home break, Coxos.
Eurojem: Safi, Morocco
A secret spot for many years, Safi now has an international rep for being one of the best rights in the regularfoot paradise that is Morocco. People compare it to J-Bay, but when it’s firing certain sections are arguably more hollow and gnarlier. Today the town has even developed a surf park‚ to encourage Moroccan surfing and tourist development.