Gabriel Medina @ Teahupoo by Timo. And yes, he got spat out.

HOW’S MY SURFING? You know how delivery vans have a free phone number for their company on the back, so you can ring up and grass em for cutting you up? How good would it be if surfers had the same on their boards? The email address for their team manager/dad for example. Or even just their Facebook page, so you could leave messages like, ‘Saw you in the surf today. When you paddle into a 2ft wave you pull a crazy strain/surprise grimace like that of a pilot about to crash a plane… and then you stand up…’ Just a thought.
That might be the kind of sentiment experienced when you’ve been in the same spot for too long. Time to ramble, brother. Time to hop that freighter, ride the boxcar with Cisco, Leadbelly, et al. Roll on out. Slip out the back, Jack. Get a new plan, Stan. Pastures new, afresh, change of scenery.
In which case, let us perhaps recommend a surfing trip. Yes, a trip away, a break. A holiday! Spin the globe, or perhaps spend a good week reading up on possible destinations. But you’ve probably already got somewhere in mind. That place that you’ve always kind of just fancied, or never did but now are curious in a kind of negative hypothesis type vibe, just to prove yourself right all along.
Whatever your reason, this issue suggests a dozen or so surf destinations worthy of your attention. To be honest, going away is always better than staying at home. Even if you find that when you get back your house has been burgled, your boards stolen, your woman has left you for a South African estate agent with a ponytail called Dion, your dog barks at you, you missed the ‘day of the decade’ at your local and your car won’t start, in spite of all that, the trip was surely worth it. All surf trips always make us stronger, wiser, better. The worst trip you ever went on made you a better human. The best trip you ever went on made the world a better place. It’s win-win.
Surf trips are all the rage at the moment around Surf Europe HQ, in the inbound sense. Autumn is here, and everybody is here. There are rather a lot of surf folk who all thought ‘SW France…’ and why wouldn’t they? The surf does get kind of crowded, and at times I must admit I might have cursed, but it’s the same story wherever you go. Everywhere gets its season, when it’s the season, everyone wants a slice, so what do you? Leave during prime time? Saw your tail off to spite your fins? Of course you don’t. You get up early, and try to tread that fine line between not being greedy and making sure you get yours. Because one thing’s for sure, the season will then shift again, and it’ll be you in another land, pulling a ‘can I this wave please’ type face.
The wisest and last word on the matter comes from this issue’s interviewee Aritz. “When you’re at home, be nice to foreigners, and when you travel, be nice to the locals…”
Roger that!
– P E