I was born and bred in a small village in Cornwall, a unique county in Great Britain. Not ones for travelling, the communities are both contented and insular. I learnt to surf in Sennen Cove and it's sister beach Gwenver, where there is a very healthy local scene. I started longboarding around 10 years ago on a 9ft backyard shaped board and soon fell in love with the style and glide that this type of board has to offer.

Married for 12 years to Hwe have spent every day of our married life as if it was a new day. Still when I remember the decision we had come to do, I feel a sense of panic. My wife and I had been pretty settled, both with jobs and a nice flat in the village of Sennen (a small surf village at the very edge of the county of Cornwall) BUT SOMETHING WAS MISSING!! I'd been bitten by the bug some ten years earlier and now it seemed to dictate my daily life.

We had just sold our flat and were in the middle of buying a house (mortgage, bills the whole damn deal) and all of a sudden we stopped, looked at ourselves and realized it was time we did something just for us, NOT what others expected us to do.

So we did just that, sold everything and bought 2 tickets to ride. We chose our route according to the surf, first stop would be California then Australia, New Zealand and finally Hawaii.The deal was a 12 month ticket with as little or as long in each country as our visa's allowed, as long as we were back in the U.K. in 12 months the rest was up to us.

If you could bottle the feeling we had getting on that jet from Heathrow to L.A.you could make a fortune. The world really was our oyster. Arriving in L.A. we made our way up the coast toSan Luis Obispo, driving past Malibu and other fabled breaks, and still not believing we were there. My first surf was at Monticito's in Cayucos, a lovely wave ideal for my first Pacific dip, and after renting a small beach front apartement and getting a couple of jobs, we settled into the Californian lifestyle. It wasn't long before we realized how much we had fallen in love with California (as you read this you may well be there, I hpoe you realize how lucky you are) We travelled all over the state and had an absolute blast surfing Trestles, Malibu, Rincon, County Line, Morro Rock, names that I'd only ever read about in surf mags were now at my fingertips

So far the gamble was paying off, back in Cornwall our frinds were still doing the same things as before, whereas every day was different and unique to us.

The friends we made in California both in and out of the water will be with us forever, (we have infact been back 3 times since our return) It was becoming apparent to us that it didn't matter what you did, what color you were or anything else, If you're a surfer on the road you were always made welcome.
NEXT STOP AUSTRALIA...........