Still Stoked Longboard Skates For Surfers

Mar 07, 2009 :: February bores 2009

I had some good rides last month on the Severn bore in the mid horseshoe bend, including a good solo ride. It's a rare event nowadays to get a wave to yourself and even rarer to get a good wave, so a ride of over a mile on the Severn bore without anyone else out brings a lot of stoke. There's nothing better though than to surf uncluttered waves with your buddies. To do that in the UK the spot has got to be just far enough away so that people can't realistically get there in numbers and you've got to surf at 1st light.

The Thursday bore was the day after the new moon and although the three day prediction was the same, this was the one most likely to be the most powerful and so it proved to be. A few guys turned out to surf the Saturday bore but it had none of the size or power of Thursday's and did'nt connect through for a long ride.



Severn bore whirlpool
Don't get caught in one of these after the bore has gone through. This whirlpool was after an 8.3 metre tide. I've seen them with 4ft holes after 10 metre plus tides!

I paddled downstream for a mile or so to meet the bore head on below boats. I cut it a bit fine and could have probably got a couple of hundred yards more, but then I might have been too far down and not caught the wave building of the sandbank. As it was I got a good waist to chest high wave to the mixer and proned through to the channel with constant fin dragging in the super low water, which you can sometimes get in February. The old saying "February fill dyke" does not read as generally understood full dyke, but fill the dyke and despite the rain and snow this month the river was really low and had dropped off 2 feet since the main february tides two weeks earlier. Getting back to my feet I finished the ride with a good 100 yards of clean wave to allow a fair bit of board walking. It was a memorable ride.



A medium sized severn bore through the Newnham channel.check out this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpbSIbH6dKA&fmt=18

The main tides of the month were fun with a large turnout of bore riders at Boats all coming in from the east bank. I concentrated my efforts in the Newnham channel and had two good rides on consecutive days. The first day when Mark Humpage's microlight was flying above was a reasonably powerful wave, and I got caught on camera. Steve was dropped from the boat for the shoulder and a couple of guys came through from lower down including Ben, who told me the next day that he had ridden to Epney, one of the long rides in the upper horseshoe. Tom did this ride a few years ago at some four and a half miles. I caught a rail in the turbulence at the ford, which did'nt really matter as I was about to bail anyway to avoid too long a walk back. The next day I had a good mile ride from the fish house upto the lower end of the strand ending with a lovely clean section when I managed to get a real nice 10 nose ride with the eleven six locked in steady as a rock. A great end to a good ride but a pretty long walk back. I reckon there were 8 rideable days this month in the horseshoe bend for local guys with plenty of time to spare, but man you have got to be really fit. Stay stoked, Donny.

This entry relates to: [ Surfing ] [ Travel ] [ Videos ]

Posted on Mar 07, 2009 at 17:08:28

Oct 17, 2007 :: Severn Bore threatened

By midsummer the age old proposals, running for something like half a century, to build a Severn Barrage seemed once again dead. The central issue in development terms is always profitibility and viability. Build an effectual dam across the Severn estuary below the Severn Bridges and the first effect will be to create a vast silt trap allowing the whole upriver lake to accumulate mud sufficient to build a swamp before our very eyes within years. No longer would the barrage be capable of generating energy, no longer would the sea even be able to flow up the Severn, no longer would the largest discharge of freshwater in the British Isles be able to flow to the sea down the Severn estuary. Instead it would spill over the banks and find its way to the sea via previously dry land.

The summer floods of 2007 at Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Upton and elsewhere will pale into insignificance against this causal effect of a Severn Barrage. Every hydrologist knows this so why do politicians and developers keep demanding it should be built? Any right minded person knows the reason.

Due to politicians ever trying to promote their parties it seems that again, now summer is over the Barrage is back on the soap boxes.What I can't understand is why the Green Energy Groups keep proposing it when they know it will destroy every part of a unique ecological habitat of undoubted world importance. I have heard that one latest viewpoint is that the ecological disaster can be traded off by relocating the habitat.

What an absolute lie and disgraceful suggestion. How will these people relocate the Severn Bore?

The unique nature of the Severn estuary is caused by one single elemental fact. That fact is the diurnal tide which flows up the river Severn and the moving cycle between Neap and Spring tides, culminating in the fortnightly Severn Bores.

Oh did you think the bore only happened a few times a year and in springtime? It happens twice a month for upto five days, twice a day. In the lower estuary the Severn bore appears to some degree virtually every day.

Check out Longwave

The life histories of every creature and every part of the natural world of the Severn estuary is driven by the diurnal tide and the effects of the Severn bore. Stop this nonsence and sign the petition

This entry relates to: [ Surfing ] [ Travel ] [ Videos ]

Posted on Oct 17, 2007 at 12:50:54

Nov 22, 2006 :: A New Wave Rising on DVD

Well it's taken us a while, but finally A New Wave Rising; Longboarding UK2K is out on DVD. It's such a atmospheric film which brings back good memories of summer and being out on the road. With Old Red now in the great scrapheap in the sky (although he may very well be reincarnated in the not too distant future) it's almost a tearjerker!! Donny will continue to cruise on in Mole, and who knows with Still Stoked's 10 year Anniversary coming up next year and 6 years on from making UK2K maybe we'll see a newer New Wave Rising on the horizon!
Meanwhile we've got some fab offers on with almost 25% off Uk2K and Longwave and a fantastic double pack of DVD's, so we hope they will keep you amused this Christmas time!
Stay Stoked.

This entry relates to: [ Skating ] [ Surfing ] [ Travel ] [ Videos ]

Posted on Nov 22, 2006 at 12:07:47

Jan 17, 2006 :: LONGWAVE Tidal Bore Surfing Film

I said on the news desk entry for this date that I'd been slotted away editing and working on the post production of LONGWAVE for eight months. Well the last weblog was about the time when the new and upgraded editing suite arrived last June!
LONGWAVE has been a long time coming and a long time making, the best part of 10 years.

Carrying on from the news desk item of this date for "LONGWAVE buy now", I've got a few things to say that I hope all who read this will take in the vein that it is intended.

It's pretty obvious that the Still Stoked Lifestyle is about living in that way which brings an inner glow of well being, as a result of having fun in ways that do no harm to others. The concept of being stoked is that feeling we all get from the satisfaction of doing something well. To me its based on the view that the best things in life are free.

It's also pretty obvious that Still Stoked is a pretty underground business. That's because I come from a time when a lot of guys despised the Corporation and I have'nt changed much.If I could duplicate LONGWAVE and get it to every surf shop in the world, I would. I'd like every surfer on the globe to watch this film and that's the line I take on thelongwave web site.

This is because every surfer comes to dream of surfing the longest wave for the longest time. Apart for the few this will always remain a dream. Many will make compromises and many will live on in ignorance, resigned to sit out in the lineup with woeful faces.

LONGWAVE demonstrates once and for all that surfing on tidal bores is the ultimate longwave surfing experience. Better bore surfing films will no doubt follow but none are likely to make the point better than the footages to be found on the LONGWAVE DVD. The reason being that no commercial film maker or the surfing industry will tolerate the film making format that I pursue at STILL STOKED PRODUCTIONS. I enjoy the privilege and indulgence of doing my thing my way. The products either float or flounder but they never drown.

The stoke of making something from an original thought and sharing it with the world in a way that brings some money back, is the circle that makes me still stoked. Danny Cartwright coined the words "still stoked" in 1997, they say it all.

I believe totally that LONGWAVE will show surfers worldwide that the ultimate longwave surfing experience is out there, always available for the intrepid, always there for the dreamers and always there for the few that live for it and do it for the rest of us. To surf a wave for as long and as far as possible, that is tidal bore surfing. I hope that surfers everywhere buy it watch it and are thrilled by it!

This entry relates to: [ Surfing ] [ Travel ] [ Videos ]

Posted on Jan 17, 2006 at 18:36:38

Apr 21, 2005 :: Keeping it going

Blogging always seems to start with the best intentions then those intentions evaporate. Or is it just me?
Anyway Spring is in the air, Rainbow has sold to Lauren who says it is the best thing she's ever bought and enthusiasm IS back in the air.
Restoration to Mole, new editing suite, new surfsk8travel plans– and I am going to be more regular!!??*******
catch you all later
donny

This entry relates to: [ Skating ] [ Surfing ] [ Travel ] [ Videos ]

Posted on Apr 21, 2005 at 19:34:27

Jan 01, 2005 :: Happy New Year!

To all surfsk8ers, explorers, vanlivers and vanlifers, happy people from this and the other side of life, nature lovers and dreamers et al.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, may 2005 bring you endless stoke!
Stay Stoked, Stay Happy, Keep Cruising the tarmac wave and gliding the blue

From all at Still Stoked and The Seedling Leaf.

This entry relates to: [ Skating ] [ Surfing ] [ Travel ] [ Videos ]

Posted on Jan 01, 2005 at 12:39:46

Aug 24, 2004 :: Summer at Hells Mouth

Such a good time was had at Porth Neigwl by Katie and I this summer. We'd gone up to Hells Mouth, as we do, to sell boards, videos, Katie's artwork and our new range of jewellery. Plus, of course, always hoping for perfect peelers and calm seas, for surfing and snorkelling.

Neigwl is our secret spot, we got waves after we arrived and then the sea went flat and we had the most fabulous snorkelling which Katie introduced me to. Fortunately I didn't see the massive eel that Katie met the first time she was out, but the amazing clarity amongst the bladder wrack and maiden's hair allowed us to see shoals of fish, crabs and lobsters. Towards the end of our stay, the hurricane swell came through, clean and glassy around head high and nobody else was out!! There are still secret spots.
Every weekend and a couple of days in the week we set up stall at the Middle car park of Hells Mouth, right on the pathway. Made loads of new friends and sold a load of skates to the local guys and girls and holiday makers. The new range of jewellery went better than expected, in fact we sold out only a few days into our stay and spent the rest of the time making coconut surfboard necklaces in the evenings!!

Rainbow at the Car Park (Photo courtesy of Richard)

We've got to mention Tim(Smeg) and all his mates, who bought boards from us and Paul who absolutely raved about UK2K A New Wave Rising, thanks Guys and Girls for showing us such a welcome, which we always find at this wonderful spot.

The Blue Moon over Cilan Head

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Posted on Aug 24, 2004 at 16:10:01

Apr 29, 2004 :: The Severn Bore

At Last — 8 years on from start of filming, the long awaited Severn Bore footage is in the cutting room.

No promises on release date yet but will keep you all posted with the trials and tribulations of making what I aim to be the best bore surfing film ever made (ok so its the first feature length bore film and should not be too difficult to make it the best!)

Seriously though this film is going to be awesome and will tell the story of the bore riders, the record holders, the myth, magic and history of the bore and surfing since the 1950s, with fabulous scenery great waves and an in depth at the unique sub culture of tidal bore surfing on the river Severn, Britain and Europes most powerful river.

This entry relates to: [ Surfing ] [ Videos ]

Posted on Apr 29, 2004 at 21:17:49