The Way Out West - A Blog about Pembrokeshire life, as written by an idiot

Outshot

30 August 2010
Carmarthenshire taken from Pembrokeshire and Amroth.
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Freshwater West - rubbish

12 February 2010
If you've ever wanted to start a fishing business (and who hasn't?) then you'll find everything you need to get up and running on Freshwater West beach. Ropes, nets, boxes, hooks, floats.

If you're not planning to start a fishing business then all this crap is probably just spoiling the beach for you. Its a common problem amoungst beaches in the UK and globally. Turns out only 13% of the rubbish is from the fishing industry the rest is from us average punters. 6% of it is flushed down our toilets! The Marine Conservation Society are helping to get this issue sorted. Heres a more indepth look of the wheres and why's of all the crap on our beach.
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Freshwater West - rubbish

12 February 2010
Grim.
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Big Saturday

07 February 2010
With the buoy showing 14ft and 10s with light NE's it was certainly a day for the smaller spots. I took this whilst on patrol first thing.
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Flat

31 December 2009
Bugger all swell around today, so a walk on Tenby South beach and some chips was the order of the day.
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Christmas swell

31 December 2009
For those lucky enough to find shelter from the howling easterlies yesterday, you would have been able to make the most of the swell around. Snapped this yesterday after a great session.
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Super Sunday Session

13 December 2009
After a sad farewell this morning to Kiwi, a couple of us headed to to Fresh to see what the surf had to offer. 3ft super clean perfection thats what! Snapped this on the way out of the carpark.
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Big Sunday

22 November 2009
Big swell, big wind, and guys with big balls surfing this! We surfed a more sheltered spot. Amazing day. This pic taken by e-sponger.
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Early weekend wave

20 November 2009
Visited this spot earlier today. It was a bit early to start working, but when it did an hour later there were 3ft gems rolling in. I was on one wave so long that I had to have a rest paddling back.
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Tubed in Tenby

15 November 2009

Friday surf

13 November 2009
Swell has arrived for the weekend and there is plenty to go around. All we need to do for tomorrow is get out of the 50mph winds and we're dancing! Snapped this en route to the surf today.
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A weekend of surf

08 November 2009
There was a good amount of swell knocking around this weekend. The Westerly and Northerly winds opened up a couple of spots which i haven't surfed for a while and one i haven't before at all! Todays double header was worth the 6am start!
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Shaped my own board!

06 September 2009
Well, its taken me over three years, but i finshed my own board over the weekend! Its a 9'6" longboard, single fin rounded pintail. The shaping was awesome fun, but the glassing is a real stresser! I got all the clobber from Home Blown
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Cliff hopping \ Coasteering

04 August 2009
After a heavy night before, a few of us took Castlemartin for a spot of cliff hopping. Beach cricket, seals, a 4 ft body surfed shore break and amazing sunshine.
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New surf board design!

16 July 2009
I've been following this new surf board shape by thomas meyerhoffe from its design to build. I would LOVE a go on one, the paint job on them is pretty cool too. More photos and videos here.
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Gwithian Beach for sale!

18 June 2009
Gwithian Beach in South Cornwall is for Sale! Its currently owned by Dennis Arbon but he's selling it by auction on the 10th of July to raise money for some performing arts outfit.
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Freshwater West

15 February 2009
We had three great days of surfing from friday to sunday. Manorbier, Newgale and Freshwater west all had a visit. This is a snap taken today in Fw.
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New board

08 February 2009

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Monday blues

02 February 2009
Whilst struggling through my monday in work i got this photo through from Timmy G who's just got out at Freshwater West. He said he was the only surfer there!
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Saturday - North Pembs

01 February 2009
Some big swell rolled in on Saturday and it seemed the swell direction was slightly more westerly as this break in North Pembs was firing!
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Surfing in Newgale - small sunday

01 February 2009

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After the big swell of yesterday, Sunday offered up a nice 2ft in Newgale with some fairly sympathetic offshore breezes.

A clasic Sunday in Pembrokeshire

04 January 2009
It's back to work tomorrow after a great Christmas holiday. We managed to say farewell to the holidays in style today with a great surf in Newgale this morning and a gentle stroll on Foel Drygarn in the Preselis this afternoon. I suppose 2009 had to start at some point.
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Freshwater West in the sun part 2

03 January 2009
Yours truly looking for some shade from the winter sun. Happy days.
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Freshwater West in the sun part 1

03 January 2009
Heres Timmy G on a right hander. Trying a cross step? Three days in a row in the surf, hope the Pembs buoy can do us one more day.
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Big swell hits Pembrokeshire

14 December 2008
Pembrokeshire took a big hit of swell over the weekend. We surfed a spot on the West coast south of Newgale. Waves were in the 4-6ft region. The 9/10s period was creating some nice sets!
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'Tubos fumos' repair job

14 December 2008
With 700 euros excess on the hire car we took it upon ourselves to do some repairs. Here we're executing the classic jack-on-stone-to-bend-back-exhaust manoeuvre.
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West coast surf exploration

14 December 2008
We'd been told that the Westcoast of Fuerte had some good breaks... heres a picture of us not finding one!
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Holidays are over

09 December 2008
I got back from my surf trip to Fuerteventura on Sunday. We had an amazing time out there, being educated by the heavy reef breaks. I havent gone through all my snaps yet, but this one i took of Andy by the El Cotillo lighthouse is my favourite so far.
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Whitesands surf

14 October 2008
Whitesands beach was a mellow 3-4ft on Sunday. Light offshores and sunshine... could almost have been summer.
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Freshwater West

04 July 2008
Yvonne, Timmy G and me took a jaunt down to a 'private beach' near Freshwater west today. The surf wasn't great, but with a beach all to yourself and as alternative to being in work it was really good. Hers a snap Yvonne took of me and timmy on the same wave. (Tim, maybe we should swap sides in the future, we're both backside!)
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Summer Days

11 June 2008
Surfed in Newgale last night after work. Drove straight down from Swansea after work. The waves were sweet, 3ft and super clean. Its such an amazing feeling sitting in the water as the sun sets. Took this snap on my way home by hanging my phone out of the window.
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Cardboard Surfboard - The Shredder!

23 May 2008
Check out this amazing board. Made from laticed cardboard and clear res. Check out this link for more info.
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Manchester Tart - Snowdrop Bakery

08 May 2008
This is a Manchester tart. These can be bought from Snowdrop Bakery, on snowdrop lane in Haverfordwest. This little beauty is the finest cake known to man and is the ultimate post surf snack. It houses everything that’s good in a cake, coconut, custard, jam, sugar and pastry. Whenever i go into the bakery they only ever have two for sale. There are usually three of us.
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FW again!

08 May 2008
Twice in two days! hit FW again last night. It was a bit smaller than Tuesday, about 3ft and still super clean. Took this snap after getting out, watched the sun disappear over the headland out back then caught one in.
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For Sale

14 March 2008
Currently for sale in Fiji is an Island. It's about £3,000,000 and is sitting next to one of the finest and most consistent breaks in Fiji. Check out the surf and island information.
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Pembrokeshire Buoy

11 March 2008
The Pembs buoy peaked at 24 foot and 11 seconds yesterday. Basically it was massive, should the wind have been suitable for surfing, there wouldnt have been many breaks capeable of holding such a swell. Would have been good to have a go though!
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Super Sunday

11 February 2008
With some hefty swell and light Easteries, the surf looked promosing. Newgale was pretty much maxed out, the paddle out was very hard (20 minutes worth!), once out back i was met with some overhead faces.
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Shedlife

04 February 2008
Here is the current scene in my dads shed. Three boards are under the knife, being repaired after months of neglect. The one on the big white bag is Yvonnes, it has 11 dings in it after a nasty car crash last year.
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Booger Badness

15 January 2008
The surfer and the booger rarely see eye to eye, but in the instance of these headers from Cornwall i have nothing but respect. More details here.
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Sunnier times

13 January 2008
In contrast with the previous entry, heres a snap of us in at Freshwater West last summer. Blue skies, blue seas and warm water...
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New breaks

13 January 2008
Having been on every beach in Pembrokeshire many times, its not very often that you discover a new break, but on patrol in North Pembs today i discovered that this beach actually holds a wave in bigger swell. Good news!
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Meanwhile in Devon...

08 January 2008
The 3ft we scored on Sunday seems a little small compared with the 8ft Devon was having. Snap from croyde-surf-cam.com/
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Swell Swell

18 December 2007
There has been plenty of swell around recently. Some off-the-beaten-track breaks have been working. Some of these are only surfable once or twice a year. Heres one such break in south Pembs.
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Surfboard rack... for a bike"

12 December 2007
Im into anything surfy or bikey... so imagine my delight when i spotted this little gem. A bike with a surfboard rack! Come on! More info here
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Super Sunday

10 December 2007
Well it came!. The swell peaked out at 27ft and 11seconds. That’s the biggest swell I’ve ever seen. For those not sure what these figures mean (and if you care!)... take a look here .

The swell was so big, lines could be seen rolling into Saundersfoot and towards Pendine. There were breaks all along from Tenby North Beach towards Amroth and beyond. The biggest holdback for us Surfers was the wind, but there were sheltered spots to be found!

This snap was sent to me by a mate, I think it piked it off a climbing site.
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Big Sunday Cometh

07 December 2007
Big Sunday is coming!!!
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Ireland gets nasty!

04 December 2007
Just as we were surfing the 3ft of Amroth, this insane wave was being surfed in Ireland.

Ireland is building a big reputation for big surf with a few Hawaians coming over for a look.

Check out orcasurf.co.uk for more snaps (click on the next arrow at the bottom right).
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Autumn swell at last!

03 December 2007
Well at last some autumn swell has hit! Its taken long enough but the large swells pushing through from the Atlantic allowed some ‘twice a year’ beaches to be surfed. This beach, believe it or not, is Amroth! Skilfully taken by Yvonne, the top snap shows the two Tims in action and the bottom one of Jaime getting swamped in.

We later moved on to a secret spot to surf until it got dark.

Plenty of swell out to sea at the moment, so looks like next weekend could be just as good with 20ft swell predicted for next Saturday.
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Dawn Patrol

19 November 2007
A few of us took on the lumpy lumps at Fresh on sunday morning. In the water by 7:30. It was a bit of a battle getting out but once out there were some overhead sets to contend with.

We moved over to BHS for our gower exile Andy Begjew to have a crack at the wedgy offerings. Heres a snap I took watching Andy from the weird hut thats been built out of driftwood on the dunes.
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Be strong

16 November 2007
During this time of shit swell (particularly bad for the Autumn), heres a snap of the surf a month ago. Clean and Fresh!
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Irsh surf DVD

16 November 2007
New Irish big surf DVD coming out soon, looks awesome. Reminds me of Fresh about a month ago... well not quite but it was big. Anyhoo... Heres SeaFever
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About Me

This blog is not written in the hope that anyone will find it interesting; it's a visual record of my life which I will be referring to it when I'm old and decrepit. I will not be swearing in my blogs in case my grandkids read it.

I am a graphic designer who lives in Pembrokeshire. I like living in Pembrokeshire because the landscape and culture allow me to do all the things I enjoy, surfing, biking, playing rugby, climbing and boozing with my mates..
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