The Times seems intent these days on doing lots of articles about obscure places to surf where you would never guess
the waves are any good. This week,
the Times takes on Cornwall in Great Britain, where the sky and the water seem to blend together at the horizon
into the same dismal grey. No offense, but calling Cornwall “England’s answer to California” makes me wonder if the
writer has ever been to California. That said, it is nice to see a place like Cornwall, known for being a sedate
retreat, gathering some steam as a viable water destination for younger folk. To be fair, the article actually paints a
nice picture of Cornwall, and as someone who has long has a Jones to live and work in London, I could see making the
occasional trip there to hang ten or hang out beneath the British sky.
Lifelist Intro – New Feature
Are there things in life that you’ve always dreamed of doing, that you
told yourself with utter seriousness: I will do that someday? If so, then you have started your life list. It may be
just in your head for now, but the fact is, you’ve started a list of things that will make your life more fulfilling,
more adventuresome. That’s a good first step.
Now we want to help.
In the spirit of the grandfather of life-lists, John
Goddard, we are beginning a feature called Lifelist. Every week or so we’ll choose one great adventure and do some
of the research for you. We’ll help you discover new ideas, find outfitters, stories and everything else we can, to
help you build your own life list. Ever said you were going to climb
Aconcagua, scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef, learn
Arabic, BASE jump some high rocky place? So have we.
We hope too that this will be a collaborative effort, so if you have items on YOUR lifelist that you’d like us to
include, send us tips or post comments. Also, if you’ve ever done any of the things on the lifelist items we feature,
tell us. We’d love to hear about it, and to get some dialogue going. As we progress, we hope you add these babies
to YOUR lifelist and start knocking them off, one by one.
Boarding School
Boarding fans who caught the mind-blowing jump of Danny
Way over the Great Wall of China might be interested in this article from the
LA Times about
Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, at 15 years old, considered one of the top female skateboarders in the country.
The writer travels out to a remote desert outpost east of Temecula, where an extreme sports camp is the setting
for all sorts of hard-core board jumping, including Hawkins’ amazing effort to jump across the 50-foot gap of the Mega
Ramp. The ramp was actually designed by Way himself, adding a certain amount of lusty notoriety to the site, but also
leading to numerous broken bones and other injuries. Not a bad piece, but I wish there was some video of the
effort.
Surfing Biarritz
While I’m checking out the Times, I suppose I ought to
throw this one out, too. The article takes a look at the surf scene in Biarritz, the glitzy whaling port cum
European playground for the rich that sits on the Bay of Biscay.
Considered the surfing capital of Europe, Biarritz
apparently has decent surf due to the Atlantic’s low pressure system there that generates a “huge funnel”
toward the coast. Dunno much about surfing Europe, I have to say. Anyone ever hug ten in Biarritz before?
Kitesurfing Fall
Even though I blabbed that there is very little good video on the Web, I
did find this footage of a kitesurfer who falls over 100 feet
when the rope he’s holding breaks.
It’s shot from a distance, but you can clearly see him tumble from the sky and youu hear the dramatic POP as his body
his the water. He lives, but coughs up a little bit of blood. Again, it’s not great, but good for a quick mental
break.