Last night I stayed up late to watch the WCT fellas finish off the contest in Tahiti. There’s nothing like a surf contest in a perfect location, streamed live over the web to get you pining for a wave. Sadly there ain’t nothing doing here for a week at least.

Taj was beaten by an on-form Bobby Martinez to take the title, with Parko, Slater and Bede all going out early.

Aritz had another good event taking out Kelly en-route to a semi’s spot.

And then after watching that last night, whilst eating breakfast I watched the second in the awesome South Pacific series on BBC2.

Awesome footage and insight into the world of the ocean and islands.

Then stupidly I link-out from a tweet and start reading about the North-east guys who are getting set for a Mentawai trip… which in turn reminds me that 5 good friends have only just returned from the damn place – where they scored (as you do in Indo…)

Some snaps from their trip are below…

Indo dream

Randall getting set-up to be slotted...

Mentawai Perfection

More Mentawai Perfection

Yet More Mentawai Perfection

Now, normally all this would be fine, I can handle a fair bit of land-locked torture – its good for the mind every once in a while. Except I have to drive to London tomorrow. And that just makes things worse.

In fairness, im going to see a good friend who has the Best Job in the World… so there are gonna be some good bits. But im also going to a funeral and that wont be so good.

Anyway, to come full-circle, envy is terrible, but Im not letting it get to me. Im using it to motivate and search for that trip of my own. I’ll ge my piece of Indo gold… im just waiting in the meatime. Making it work for me…

Half an hour on the harbour with the camera proved quite worth-while.

View from above

Harbour boats

Footprints

Marram interference

Lobser Pots with Kilns

Harbour tackle

Mooring ropes

Sand texture

Sailing Club yachts

There are bigger versions in the Beadnell Harbour Flickr set should you need them.

A weekend of drinking and water sports – in the freezing arctic winds – has left me somewhat destroyed.

Skimboarding at Beadnell Bay

Getting back to the desk and the safety of the internet landscape was pleasant, untill it all kicked off again.

Lobster Pot design for a business card

James has to hand in his final photography project on friday, and with the seagulls not playing-ball, i was roped in for an all-day photo-shoot and editorial profile to complete the job.

Then, I found out with a hugely sad heart that a good friend of mine from school, a fellow snowboarder, sailor, surfer and lover-of-life was killed in february whist cycling to work in Notting Hill.

Eilidh’s Memorial Ride from Giles Carlin on Vimeo.

The world is a more than a little worse-off without Eilidh Cairns in it. So sad.

And then then twenty minutes after finding out that news, this news arrived;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8035175.stm

Ben Southall is the new caretaker for the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia. Congratualtions Ben !!.

After last year and the trek around Africa (http://www.afritrex.com) he deserves some time off !.

I look forward to visiting….

Here’s the original Youtube clip for the job.

Some points from the last few weeks…

Banksy is still causing a storm, even without actually doing anything… http://www.flickr.com/photos/i_y_e_r_s/3418682416/

There are some great little surf-culture outputs being touted at the moment. Having seen Searching for Michael Petereson in Noosa recently, im kene to watch this – http://www.waveridersthefilm.com/

Whilst cruising about some surf-based sites and blogs, I found Point Never. This superb little art/surf/culture based Tumblelog is the work of Jimmy Newitt. I used to work at the University of Plymouth when Jim did his Visual Arts BA. Good to see he’s still being creative.

Surf Directory is a new site that’s looking to corner the UK surf market for travel and directory listings… we’ll watch with care.

Bikecar – superb little adventure if your into bikes and snowboards. Order the DVD online now – http://www.bikecarmovie.com/

The photos from the trip around LA I had are up on Flickr.

Zeus pulling it together

I got back into town just in time to see the Easter weekend at Beadnell. And much fun it was too, some fun little waves sunny and offshore. A great way to get back into UK living. Then it was straight down to Cornwall for a combined research trip and Stag weekend with an old friend. Needless to say it was a great weekend, despite there being no surf whatsoever in Cornwall.

The Stag, of course.

So, with the fun almost over for now, its time to get back and start making nice things again . There are a good number of websites in the offing and some video and social-media fiddling too.

And as a last note im going to try and split these posts up into more sizeable chunks !

Gotta love escaping for the weekend eh ?

Here is the highlight from Saturday night, whilst transporting people, booze, food, wood and fireworks along the ebach to the designated party venue… The Argo-cat rules the beach, hands down.

And here’s the Set on Flickr

This site is super-basic, but should help drive some search engine traffic his way, handy since everyone thought it had been closed-down permanently…

Beadnell Bay Boat Launch