A Quick Word With Scotland's Very Own Surf Photographer - Nick Law

how old are u?  27

where are u from?

The Highlands, Carrbridge.  But now i float about a bit (no pun intended hoho).

how did u get into photography? 

I've always liked cameras, I had an old film SLR which I learnt on when i was at school, I then studied Fine Art - Painting at Uni so I've always had an interest in aesthetics. Before shooting surfing my photos mainly stemmed from the fine art side and I had some photographs in art exhibitions and have some pics in the permanent collection at the Royal Scottish Academy.

how did you get into shooting surfing and how long have you been doing it?

I got into shooting surfing more seriously (at least the water side) when i went to indo the last time. I took a dive style water housing which kind of fitted a small SLR. After arriving I spent all my money on a dirt bike and had to survive for the other 5 months on selling pics to surfers. I got quickly board of cooking in the sun with a long lens from the beach/boat so did almost all from the water. 

So about 5 years now on the surf photo front.

tell me a bit about your water housing?

The housing that I'm currently using is one which I built. Taking the time to design and build a housing adds a whole other element to water photography. At one time that was the only way you could get in the water with a camera. Now it's available to anyone who can scrape together a few bob, however the charm isn't quite the same. The one which I'm using now is the second one i have built and allows complete manual control of the camera while in the water and saves about £2000

tell me about any shots you have had published?

I'm just really been making connections with the Magazines recently. I've had a few shots in surfer magazine from last summer in France and the contents page of wavelength in Dec was one of mine underwater at Bagpipes. I have lots of photos from this winter in Costa Rica which should hopefully be in wavelength shortly.

where is your favourite place to shoot? 

Honestly it's got to be in Scotland, it might not be cooking every day and the sun might not always be out, but when it comes together you have the sickest predictable reefs with crystal clear water.

who is the best surfer you have shot? 

I've not shot with many of the big international names but one water session springs to mind with Cornish Pros; Russell Winter, Alan Stokes and Mitch Corbett at in Scotland.

what do you think of the waves in your home country for shooting surfing? 

Tricky conditions wise, but easy waves to shoot when it all comes together. When it's on it's as good as anywhere in the world.

what ambitions do you have with your surf photography? 

We'll I'd love to do it full time and continue to travel, get well known for what i do and just keeping enjoying it like i do now i suppose.

which wave would you most like to shoot? 

It's scottish and I've shot there recently... but not speaking too much more about that...  I'd say No 10's, I keep missing it! I want to get some solid time up north with the local Scottish boys on local reefs thats what its about really if your from here.

what would be your ideal photo?    

Oooya, thats a hard one! I'd like to get something set up on a reef underwater with a tripod type fixture and remote flashes, I've never seen that kind of thing done before. My housing was built to accommodate a wireless flash trigger so I'm keen to get onto that once i've made the flash housings. 

Thurso Harbour Centre

Check out the plans to develop a facility at Thurso harbour which could be utilised by surfers and other sports clubs, including viewing and changing facilities: http://thursoharbourcentre.org.uk/

EuroSurf 2011

EuroSurf will take place in Bundoran, Ireland from Friday 23rd September to Sunday 2nd October 2011.

Anyone who is interested in participating in the Scotland team please send an email, with subject "EuroSurf" to: markboydsurf@hotmail.com

All participants must be eligible to participate for Scotland as stated in our consititution and those with the highest ranking in their chosen category at the Scottish National Championships will get priority into the team

Categories are:  Open, Ladies, Senior, Masters, Bodyboard, Longboard

Note that there is no Junior category in EuroSurf but we are looking into sending a junior team to The Atlantic Watersport Games, Interceltic watersports competition which will take place in North Devon, from July 23rd to 28th, 2011.

Teams will be sent to either of these international competitions subject to there being enough interest from participants

A Quick Word With Our 2011 Scottish Ladies Champion - Dianne Ripoll

how old are you and how long have you been surfing?
I'm 25 and I've been surfing for 4 years

where did you learn? was it difficult at first?
I learnt to surf at Aberdeen beach and it was really hard at first...took me months to be able to stand up and I got really frustrated. I would go out whenever there were waves and used to go visit (my boyfriend) Allyn in Edinburgh so we would go surf down there a lot too and it was down there that I first rode down the line on a wave.

what is your favourite place to surf?
Pipe in Fiji, and also Sandend and Point of Ness in Scotland

how do you cope with the cold in Scotland?
The cold weather in Scotland totally sucks but some of the best surfs I've had have been when it's been snowing and the water is freezing… I've got a really good excel suit, gloves and boots for when it's really cold and of course, couldn't go out without the hood

where do you surf mostly?
I mostly surf Aberdeen because that's where I live but if there's waves on the north coast
then I go up to Sandend and Fraserburgh

do you travel much? Do you think travelling outside Scotland helped progress your surfing?
In 2008, went travelling and surfing for 5 months - surfed in Bali, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii and California and I think it definitely helped my surfing

why do you think there are a lack of female surfers in Scotland?
I think there is a lack of females in the line up in Scotland because surfing here isn't very glamorous and it is really cold.  You need to be really committed, surfing as much as possible all winter.  . I guess a lot of girls get put off at an early stage with the cold and the snow but if they would just persist they would get hooked like I did!

have you always been interested in competitive surfing?
I used to play tennis competitively so when I started surfing I definitely wanted to try and become Scottish Ladies Champion

how does it feel to be a Scottish Champion?
It feels really good to have won this time as I've entered it a few times now

whats your next ambition with your surfing?
It was definitely an ambition achieved, but like I say I'm not the best in Scotland until I've beaten the best so I still have a few awesome ladies to beat before I can fully achieve that ambition.  I'll keep pushing myself to get better and surf better waves but for now

what would your message to any young girls in Scotland who want to get into surfing?
My message to any girls out there trying surfing out to keep persevering. It's not easy at the start but it is so worth it once you can do it and don't feel intimidated by any guys in the line up - just show them you can surf too!  Any girls in Scotland wanting to get into surfing should get in touch. I'm going off to do my instructor course this week and I'll be doing lessons!

Dee is on Facebook for any girls who want more information

Wave North Beach Day & Scottish Surfing Federation Fundraiser

Our Wave North Beach Day & Scottish Surfing Federation Fundraiser was a great success, with over 30 kids attending for surf lessons and others coming down to enjoy the beach games which involved volleyball, cricket, beach flags and a sandcastle competition.

A huge thank-you to those who gave up their day to come down and help us out in particular the staff at Caithness Horizons, Helen, Marion, Joan and Bethany.  Also a big thank-you to local surfers, their partners and Scottish Surfing Federation members who gave a hand too - Pete Fenwick, Roz MacLeod, Ali Coghill, Chris Clarke, Sheila Findlayson, Phil, Tamara, Laura (im sure I've forgotten someone please let me know)

And finally another thank you to Michael Heddle of Thurso and also to Idris @ Surf Wrath for helping us out with kit for the day - it would not have been possible without your generosity, and hopefully as a result we have some surf stoked kids in Thurso.  Should any of the kids who attended on the day be interested in trying surfing again equipment can be rented from Mike (obtain contact details from Tempest Cafe) and Idris http://www.surfwrath.co.uk/.  And if you do go surfing - be safe! ask advice from other surfers at the beach about conditions, don't go surfing without parental supervision and stay within your depth until a sufficient level of competence has been reached.

Boydie

ColdPro

Our 2010 Scottish National Championships finalists (with Scotty Main taking the place of Georgie Watt) in February were invited to attend the first annual ColdPro surf and music festival in Ireland from the 30th of May - 5th of June.  Follow the progress of the Scots and find out more information about the event by clicking on the link below.

WQS

Well April has been a very busy month for surfing in Scotland. On the back of one of the best winters on the North Coast in recent times, the O'Neill Cold Water Classic once again rolled into town with some of the world's best surfers and this year they scored!  The waves were epic as I'm sure you are well aware by now.  This year we had two SCO competitors in the competition - Scottish Champion Chris Noble, and Mark Boyd filled Scottish #2 Mark Cameron's spot as he was unable to attend due to work commitments. Both Boydie and Chris were astounded by the paddle fitness and heat tacticts in play during the heats at Thurso-East which made even catching a decent set wave a major task in its own, however the boys both got a couple scores on the board and did Scotland proud.

Wave North

9th - 17th of April in Thurso the Wave North festival will be taking place at the same time as the WQS surfing competition.  This week will include a variety of activities, live music and workshops including two Scottish Surfing Federation fundraisers.

The dates of the two SSF fundraisers are:

14th of April - O'Neill Autograph signing, Scottish Surfing movies and slideshow

16th of April - Come and try surfing! all ages (with our own qualified instructor and beach lifeguard), beach games, 5k run, BBQ, bouncy castle, etc etc

So come down and support us and any SSF members willing to help out on the day please contact Boydie on 07977867485.

For more info on the festival contact Helen at Caithness Horizons on: 01847896508

Videos!!

Check out the 2011 Scottish National Surfing Championships video clip at the following link (courtesy of Allyn Harper):
http://vimeo.com/21744038


Also,  check out last years Scottish National Surfing Championships 2010 video:
http://video.mpora.fr/watch/PDs0vqfIj/

Scottish National Surfing Championships 2011

Thurso East was once again the location of choice for the Scottish Surf Federation National Championships, held over the weekend of 19th & 20th March in prime conditions.


Not only was the prestigious title of Scottish Champion at stake but also a wildcard entry to compete against the Worlds elite at the O’Neill Cold Water Classic, also to be held at Thurso during April.

Surfers from across Scotland competed in five divisions – Under 18, Ladies, Senior, Longboard and the Open.

Saturday’s smaller - but no less intimidating conditions – proved ideal to run the Under 18, Ladies and Longboard finals. All three of the Under 18 finalists found themselves paddling into Thurso’s world class for their very first time, and it was Daniel Mowat whose nerve held to take the title back to the Broch.

Some of the biggest tides of the decade saw the water rapidly draining off the reef, but failing to deter the Ladies who took to the water in conditions that many would think twice about surfing in, Dee Ripoll taking the crown.

Thurso East’s steep walls can be tricky to ride on a longboard (9 ft+), nonetheless the final was fiercely contested, with local surfer Mark Boyd edging out Sam Christopherson who was looking to take the title for his third year in a row.

Seniors ran through the semi-finals before the extremely low tide forced a postponement in proceedings until Sunday.

Dawn on Sunday vindicated the decision of the contest director as first light brought with it well over-head sets of world-class waves, light off-shore winds, and even some sunshine!

A tightly executed schedule saw the Open division take to the water with both competitors and spectators frothing over the conditions. Surfers showed exceptional commitment, pulling into the long barrelling waves on offer and risking snapped boards pulling off some huge floaters and heavy hacks on the flawless walls.

Standouts in early rounds of the Open were reigning champion Mark 'Scratch' Cameron, Chris Noble – who made history in 2010 as the first Scottish surfer to progress beyond the opening round of the Cold Water Classic, Mark Boyd throwing buckets of spray and Scott Main with perhaps the best barrel of the event. These four surfers would ultimately make up the final of the open with Chris Noble taking the title and Mark Cameron, Boydie and Scott Main taking 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively.

The final was too tight to call for the spectators on the reef, but the judges called the result in favour of Chris Noble who had generated unparalleled speed on the clean face of the wave allowing him to make a number of critical manoeuvres, which coupled with his ability to exit the seemingly unmakeable tube proved too good to deny.

Three of the Open finalists stayed in the water for the Senior event, but it was the fresh arms of Russell Cruickshank who came out victorious after a double interference was called on both Chris Noble and Mark Cameron in debatable circumstances as Chris Noble opted to go left on the World famous right hand reef break.

The event as a whole was a credit to Scottish surfing, and the SSF would like to thank William Watson, Mark Boyd and Chris Noble for organising a tightly run contest, Patrick Murphy, Andy Bain, Neil and Elliot Dudley for judging and Santa Cruz for providing the epic prizes.

RESULTS:

OPEN

1.Chris Noble (Thurso (formerly of Fraserburgh)
2.Mark Cameron (Fraserburgh)
3.Mark Boyd (Thurso) (formerly of Portsoy)
4.Scott Main (Thurso) (formerly of Fraserburgh)

LONGBOARD

1.Mark Boyd
2.Sam Christopherson (Dunbar)

WOMEN

1.Dee Ripoll (Aberdeen)
2.Sheila Findlayson (Thurso)

JUNIORS

1.Daniel Mowat (Fraserburgh)

Full list of results to follow…

More images from the event can be viewed at www.surftalk.co.uk

AGM Update

Sorry Guys,

I posted the wrong time yesterday for the AGM, it starts at 18:45 not 19:45

Thanks
Chris

The Scottish is On!

Evening everyone,

Well the charts looking reasonably good so we are good to go for this weekend.

The contest will be at Thurso East (swell dependant), 8am check in at the Thurso East carpark.

The 2011 AGM will be at the Orange room in the Park hotel at 19:45 on the Saturday evening.

Any questions just drop me a mail.

Cheers
Chris

Dates for this years Scottish

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been a while, anyway we have finally managed to decide on the dates for this years Scottish.

They are, the 19th and 20th of March there will be a call made on the Wednesday of that week. If we have to call it off the dates then would be the 9th and 10th of April.

Usual divisions, Open, Ladies, Junior, Senior and Longboard.

Any questions just shout,

Thanks
Chris

Done and Dusted!

Evening everyone,


Well that's the Gathering of the Clans done and dusted for another year, and I'd like to say a huge thanks to everyone who turned up, helped out and basically allowed the event to happen.

It was a real tough call, there was a chart for waves but of questionable quality and duration. A few phone calls later with the possibility of the event not running if it was postponed we decided to give the event the green light and go for it.

I left Thurso early and arrived in Fraserburgh just before seven am watched a few sets and decided that it was at least worth a paddle before things kicked off.

It's been a while since I've had to paddle out through any surf and just after my feet left the sand I thought that I was going to be challenged to say the least before I saw any breaking waves. It didn't take long though and it was actually quite easy to get out there, staying in the right spot was a completely different story! Forty minutes later and four waves I was back on the beach getting ready to set up.

In all honesty I have to say a big thanks to the Broch surf club who really pulled out the stops, arranging access to the beach viewing room which made for a fantastic judging, prize giving and general focal point throughout the event and helping massively throughout the day.

The sun shone all day, there were some challenging conditions but the waves held good shape and consistency all day. Due to the conditions in the morning it was decided to run the open first and extend the heat length to forty minutes to give competitors a fair chance of getting waves.

Next to run was the seniors, longboards and ladies. Once the first rounds were completed it was decided that it was still a little too much for the juniors to contend with at that point so it was onto the finals.

By this time the surf was beginning to shape up well and the wind calming down, all of the finals were closely fought, even though it was the finals and everyone wanted to win as much as the next there was a good atmosphere in the water and a fair bit of joking around if I was to be truthful.

With the day drawing to a close the swell had died down to just overhead and was looking good for the juniors, after a quick chat with them they were eager to get out there and give it a go. All of the juniors gave it a good dig and it was a real inspiration to see so many juniors competing and enjoying the day in general.

At the end of the day it was the Fraserburgh team who won the event, although I would say that it wasn't all their way as the Aberdeen team were hot on their heels and narrowly missed out.

I was going to say below is a full rundown of results from all of the divisions and the overall team placing, however I forgot the sheet with the full listings and i'm offshore now. I'll post the team placings and winners from each catagory instead for now and post the rest later.

Once again huge thanks to everyone and sponsors Staunch who provided prizes for the winners of each division. Hope that everyone had a great day and we can see you again next year at the Scottish nationals in the spring.

Team placing:

1st  Fraserburgh
2nd Aberdeen
3rd Belhaven
4th Banff

Catagory winners:

Open: Lester Cruickshank
Senior: George Noble
Longboard: Iain Masson
Ladies: Dee Ripol
Junior: Louie Chadwick

Congratulations to all...
Thanks
Chris

Clans is On!

Everyone,

Well we finally made a decision, and the Clans is a go for this weekend.

We have had a few folks keen on entering and there are a few teams. If you are looking to enter but don't have a team please email me and I'll try to sort it out before the weekend for you.

Check in will be at 8am Saturday the 2nd of October down the beach at Fraserburgh.

Cost: £5 per team member.

Hope to see you there,

Thanks
Chris

Clans Update

Hey Everyone,

We will be posting a final decision on whether the event will run this weekend tomorrow evening after looking at the chart again.

Thanks for your patience
Chris

Clans Update

Morning everyone,

Time's marching on now and the Clans is almost upon us. We will be looking to make a final call on Wednesday the 29th of September on the event location. Basically its either going to be in Fraserburgh or Thurso although Fraserburgh is the primary location for the event.

I haven't heard from anyone about teams entering so if you could let me know that would be fantastic and help the event run smoother on the day. If you are looking to enter a team you can contact me at scottishwaveriders@gmail.com

Looking at the team for those of you who don't know, you can have up to ten people in a team. The team has to be from Scotland although the members from the team don't all need to be Scottish.

The divisions are as follows:

Open
Junior (U18)
Ladies
Senior (Over 30)
Longboard

Thanks
Chris

Boom!

Had to post this.... Even if only for the first wave!


Cloudbreak September 2010 from Surfing Life on Vimeo.

Dates for the Gathering of the Clans '10

Hey everyone,

Sorry its been a while been pretty busy lately!

We finally managed to come to a decision regarding the date and place for the Gathering this year. We are looking to run on the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd in Fraserburgh. This is however dependant on the chart where if the chart is poor for Fraserburgh and it looks like there will be waves on the north coast we will be looking to move the event to the north coast.

More info to follow soon, but as always if you have any questions please feel free to mail me at scottishwaveriders@gmail.com

Thanks
Chris

O'Neill Surf Academy 2010 Rocks Scotlands!

Hey kids, ever fancied trying surfing? We’ll now here’s a chance and it’s absolutely free!


In the final week of July the O’Neill surf academy will arrive in Scotland armed with 60 boards, 60 wetsuits and 6 professional surf instructors. The surf academy hopes to give kids aged from 6 to 16 the opportunity to try surfing for the first time under professional supervision.

The academy kicks off in Thurso on the 28th and 29th of July then moves on to Fraserburgh where it will run open courses on the 31st of July and the 1st of August. Each day the surf academy hopes to attract up to 50 kids; the aim is to start at approx 09:30 am where each kid will receive professional beach instruction followed by hitting the water for the first surf lesson, lunch will be provided before heading off for a second surf lesson in the afternoon (conditions permitting).

The format per day is outlined below:

09.30 - 10.30 Inscription & registration

10.30 - 11.30 Welcome and introduction

11.30 - 13.00 Surfing

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch

14.30 - 16.30 Surfing

16.30 - 17.00 Material back in trailer

17.00 - 17.30 Award ceremony + autographs

The Academy is open to all kids aged 6 to 16 however due to limited availability spaces will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. Spaces can also be reserved up front by contacting the following email address: oneillgrommets@gmail.com and providing each potential participants name/ age/ parental contact number/ home address and preferred location/ dates (as specified above).

All equipment will be provided along with lunch and tuition is free just bring a towel!

Hope to see you there!