Carlos and Ligia are currently in San Francisco, enjoying the sites and preparing for a little training… Maverick’s style. They sent the below image, the two are madly in love and we’re stoked to be a part of it.

Random Golden Gate Fact:
Only eleven workers died during construction, a new safety record for the time. In the 1930s, bridge builders expected 1 fatality per $1 million in construction costs, and builders expected 35 people to die while building the Golden Gate Bridge. One of the bridge’s safety innovations was a net suspended under the floor. This net saved the lives of 19 men during construction, and they are often called the members of the “Half Way to Hell Club.”

We’ve been in touch with boys filming for the next BBC wildlife series for some time. They’ve been wearing our kit for a while and have been invaluable at giving us feedback as well as firing us up with some unbelievable stories and images. Just got in yesterday morning and this email was fresh from Doug in the Antarctic (hope to get some images up soon).

Hi All at Finisterre,

All fine here in the Antarctic. Just spent the last 2 weeks filming killer
whales generating waves to wash Weddle seals of small Ice flows. You guys
would love it. The whales rush the flow together (up to 8 of them) making a
wave. Then at the last minute they glide, the wave passes them, they lift
their tails and break the wave over the flow. It really peals and for sure
would be ridable. perhaps tehapoo isn’t the most dangerous wave on the
planet after all? Fall of this one and the 30foot big black and whites will
finish the job in a heart beat.

The new jackets are really good. And my feeling is the combination with the
synthetic down is better than last time. Standing spotting in 30knots of
wind at 2 degrees below for an hour no problem. The merino tops are classic.
I’m using them as a base layer under the dry suit. They are a truly warm top
and I love the cut and the colour.

Cheers guys. I’ll get in touch in early April.

Yours Aye,

Doug

Released in 1952, Monkey Business is the movie Marilyn Monroe made before she became famous and many say that she held her own up alongside the likes of Cary Grant - not an easy thing to do. In any event, this was her first movie before she made it big and last week was our first, in terms of visiting one of Cornwalls - ‘diamonds in the rough’, the Monkey Sanctuary Trust.

In 1964 the Monkey Sanctuary, located in Looe Bay (Southeast Cornwall), was founded by Leonard Williams, a musician who felt compelled to give pet and zoo monkey’s a more fulfilled life, by way of freedom to roam and an opportunity for a more developed social group life.

Years later, the Trust has become one of the UK’s few rehabilitation centers, where dedicated and inspiring caretakers and staff create an environment where primates, ranging from wooly monkeys to capuchins, can live.

The whole team went to check the Sanctuary out, meet all those involved and see where we can maybe get involved. We’re hoping to shine some light on the trust and the crew who watches over it and perhaps aid them in there pursuit of rescuing the thousands of primates still in captivity throughout the UK.

You’ll be hearing more about the trust and the many primates over the year, but in the meantime, enjoy the image of Charlie Brown and Joey monkeying around.

This is quite a cool story, click here

Surfers have always been drawn to the comfort of warmer climes. Migratory instincts are triggered as the mercury drops and restlessness stirs the souls as winter front’s sweep in. California’s habitually seek out some refuge along the desert coastline of Baja, European waveriders flock south to the sun-baked point breaks of Morocco and Australians abandon the chill of Bells Beach for the balmy waters of Indonesia’s jungle fringed reefs. The flow was always in search for the perfect wave. The cliche was chasing an ‘Endless Summer’ around the globe armed only with boardshorts and a block of warm water wax.

Yet there have always been those pioneering souls who swim against the current, eschewing the increasingly crowded tropics for a new search. While surf charter boats rock up in air conditioned comfort at the most remote corners of the Indian Ocean, a new breed has been scouring the planet with a fresh agenda, the mission for them has shifted to a search for classic waves away from the numbers. In looking again at the globe, they found their attention drawn to some of the planet’s chilliest locations. They dreamed of huge swaithes of coastline where classic point breaks and thundering reefs were peeling in splendid isolation.

So in this first chapter of Chris Nelson’s exploration of some of the planets coldest and most commited surf spots, he brings us a short piece from his recent Nova Scotia trip:

- We climb the ladder into the large 4th level attic space. It’s one of those rooms loosely scattered with bags, boxes and assorted, accumulated ‘stuff’. Jim swings open a giant hinged window between the roof apex at the far end and there before us the mist fringed Atlantic is revealed, greying in the advancing afternoon light. The air outside is cold and heavy with moisture, wafting into the room, the droplets condensing on my face. “There’s The Right over there.” Jim sweeps his arm towards the pine covered, rock fringed headland to our south. “Probably one of the best waves around here,” he says lowering his voice in a conspiratorial way – although there’s no one else to hear. “And that point to the north we called The Left, and in the middle of the bay sits The Cove. We weren’t very original when we named these spots,” he smiles. He turns again to admire the view.

Jim Leadbetter’s house sits back from coast road enjoying an elevated stance, yet is just tucked in behind a screen of pine. Jim wasn’t the first surfer in Nova Scotia, but he’s certainly first generation, catching the bug in the mid sixties, when surfing here was just a couple of years old. “We never thought we were doing anything that ‘out there’. It was just fun. There’s times when you were out there, middle of February, minus 32 windchill. In the old days, often we went out without hoods. Back then a lot of us had long hair, and you’d have chunks of ice frozen to your hair as you came out, like dreadlocks. I used to have to sit in the tub for an hour to warm up – I was borderline hypothermic. I wasn’t alone – everyone would. You’d get the woodstove cranked up so you knew you’d be nice and warm when you got out.”

“The other thing that happens here is that we get full on ice flows come right into the area. Not icebergs as such, but big chunks of ice as big as this room. Then we get the slush ice, that’s really interesting. To watch a wave move through that is incredible. It’s a whole field of slush. We used to get up on the ice pans and when a wave came you could run off and dive in and catch the wave off it. Kind of like a little island out in the middle of the surf break.” He smiles and turns. “Coffee?”

Surf writer Chris Nelson is currently touring the planets most frigid location, from the icy waves of Alaska, Nova Scotia and Maine, to the frozen shores of Iceland, Norway and Scotland researching his latest project ‘Cold Water Souls’, a book celebrating the untold story of the planets cold water surfing pioneers and their communities. www.coldwatersouls.com

Took a walk to the cliff at lunch with Debs, Ernie and TP. This is the sight we were met with - a thumping January groundswell and the S wind still keeping it all pretty clean. Lines right to the horizon and some of the offshore reefs nearly breaking. In truth, most places suffering from a little too much of a good thing, but if you were game and did not mind the odd beating, there were some bombs to be had… (Tom)

Have to say, I ‘m loving the winter right now.

Steve (from Empire boards over the way) and i made it down to the South Coast yesterday afternoon. Unbelievably clear and cold day with a lush 3ft making it into a small right hand reef near Porthleven. Steve and i paddled out - the one guy who was out came in as we made it out - leaving the super glassy peak to ourselves. Quite a long gap between the sets, but some fun cover ups to be had and an incredible sunset.

We surfed until about quarter past five and then made our way up the cliffs and along the cliff paths over the frozen puddles in the half light. Van thermometer was on -4.5 by the time we got back - deep winter!

Checked the surf at first light this morning - again clear and frosty as they come - although it had dropped off a bit and was not doing it on the banks round here. So came into work and saw Steve who showed me his suit that had been left in the van overnight (see below) - had not seen this type of cold in Cornwall for ages! Looks like we have a few more days before things get milder. Still some fun waves about too. (Tom)

Beauty morning in Cornwall today. Hard frost everywhere and cold as it has been so far this winter. Made it up to the Aggie beacon for sunrise - the whole of Cornwall looked spectacular with what looks like well groomed, good period groundswell in for both coasts. Clean as you like in the biting NE wind. So crack on with some work, warm the wetsuit up and try and get in later. (Tom)