Monday 29th October Homeward bound
Thurso in Caithness is 3° north of Moscow and about 800 miles from Newquay, the trip there is full of anticipation and, depending on your vehicle, takes about 15 hours – usually split into two days. The trip back takes twice as long.
Sunday 28th October Boys into men
What an exciting bunch of young surfers we have in this country at the moment, probably the best since the Mark Harris, Alan Stokes, Nathan Phillips and John Buchorski era, and that’s a big shout. The boys especially are so competitive, pushing each other to the outer most limits of commitment. Bloody good to watch and be apart of. Jobe, Harry, Josh, Miles, Paddy, Ed, Jak, Taz,Dale, Liam, Harry, Simon, Luke. Will et al, good on ya.
Results:
U18 Girls: 1st Peony Knight, 2nd Jaide Lowe, 3rd Lucy Campbell, 4th Emilie Curry
U18 Boys: 1st Jobe Harris, 2nd Paddy Daniel, 3rd Miles Lee-Hargreaves, 4th Josh Braddock
Womens: 1st Evie Johnson, 2nd Hannah Harding, 3rd Peony Knight, 4th Lucy Campbell
Pro Junior: 1st Miles Lee-Hargreaves, 2nd Taz Knight, 3rd Harry Timson, 4th Luke Dillon
Saturday 27th October It’s such a perfect day
Twas the Thurso Surf Festival today, big party in the car park at shitpipe, roasting pig, cider, music, hallelujah and perfect surf for the few free surfers and the frothing groms, who had a heyday at Thurso’s quality second wave Shit Pipe. Good performances today from Jobe Harris, Alex Gibson. Miles Lee-Hargreaves, Dale foster, Josh Braddock, Paddy Daniel, Angus Scotney and Evie Johnson. Some nice cider after the event was consumed. Looking forward to a lazy start tomorrow morning for the finals and hopefully a dryer day so the skate ramp can get going. Dont forget the clocks go back so we get an extra hour in bed, get in.
Friday 26th October Mental
What a fucken mental day, the very worst conditions I have ever experienced for judging and full respect to all the surfers today who pushed their bodies to the very limit in absolute horrendous and extreme (it’s not very often I use that word but in this case it’s justified) conditions. Raging onshores all day, blustery skin stinging hail and sleet, numbing cold and punishing sets ranging from proper four to eight foot with strength sapping hold downs. Lots of stories today that the results will never alude to Tucky’s ripped off vest, Dale Foster’s smash, Oli’s run, Jobe’s obscene turns and Jayces’ complete display of competition surfing: in the end it was the quickest who took a resounding victory, Reubyn Ash – like your work. 1st Reubyn, 2nd Stuey Campbell, 3rd Jayce Robinson, 4th Gordon Fontaine. Stuey now moves to the top of the leaderboard, probably.
Thursday 25th October We have waves
Low, low, dark and crushing skies and onshore 3 foot swell greeted us this morning. We eventually started at 2pm when the tide turned at Thurso East amid squally showers of rain and hail with the cold northerly winds making the faces surprisingly clean. It picked up from 3 foot in the morning to a very consistent 4-6 foot with occasional sneakers and there were stand out performances from Jayce Robinson, Stuey Campbell, Russel Winter and Micah Lester who bagged the highest scoring ride of the day (9.17).
We’re checking in tomorrow at 8.30 for a decision, depending on the conditions it may be another day at Thurso with a predicted 5m swell or run to a more sheltered spot.
Wednesday 24th October Grey lay day with rain and wind
Big swell on the way for the weekend, may get a round done tomorrow afternoon.
Tuesday 23rd October Lay day called for today
Beautiful crisp blue sky morning here in Caithness, glassy ocean with no movement so a lay day has been called. these are a few randoms from a day spent sight seeing and distillery visiting…..
Monday 22nd October All the leaves are brown
Getting a bit fed fed up with the early starts, alarm in the dark, weird dreams disrupted, fumbling for socks and travelodge tea bags but the drive up this morning was stunning. Beautiful misty start that blossomed into a blue sky day with golden brown bracken and red, yellow and rusty leaves… Surf was small when we arrived but the sunshine made up for it, glassy wave-ulets where hacked to pieces by the frothing groms and old campaigners alike.
Canon 7D c/w 70-300mm IS
Sunday 21st October The Road to Nowhere
Leaving Newquay at 6am was a bit painful especially as the surf was pumping, word form the BUCS student Champs was that it was perfect four foot at the crack of Dawn then picked up to 6 foot with the occasional sneaker set. Holly Donnelly won the womens division for the second time is a row beating Sophie Hellyer into 2nd, Gwen Spurlock was 3rd and Nina Brooke was 4th. The Mens event was again dominated by Gordon Fontaine, who took his fourth consecutive title in a row beating Chris Kelly, Harvey Tredigo and matt Rodwell. Well done to all the finalist.
After 10 hours we’re resting over night in Perth. With another early start beckoning to get to Thurso for a noon check in at the break. Word is that we may run the first round tomorrow afternoon. Follow the tour with daily updates and some more inspiring photos (hopefully) here, stella.
Ester is travelling with a Canon 5D, Canon 7D w/ 28mm f2.8 & 70-300mm IS
Click on an image to make it bigger
esterspears 
Lorraine Fontaine
October 22, 2012
Brilliant to have news….especially from Scotland :-)) Have fun and surf!!