SUMMER 2012

Now that we are into september and summer is all but done i made a little video of some of the things i got up to in 2012 with my tachyon camera around the coast, from the R,N,L,I to cycling along the coastline on my surly pugsley to cruising along the high tide line on my stand up paddle boards or riding the waves on my surf boards, people moan and complain endlessly about the wet summer, well mine has been wetter than most and i love it, soon the nights will draw in and it will be dark at four in the afternoon, the wetsuit size will increase from a 3mm to 6mm and the cycling gloves and thermals will replace shorts and tee shirts, i can't speak for everyone but i can't wait as i love the seasons, soon the autumn swell's will arrive which is great if you live local, but its to late for all the people that live in edinburgh and glasgow to grab a surf after work, as a result of this the crowds thin out and leave more waves for me and my mates, roll on autumn.

SURLY LHT

 For some time now i have been looking at getting a surly long haul trucker, and almost ordered it at the start of the summer but decided to wait, however i went into my local bike shop and spoke to colin at belhaven bikes and ended up ordering a LHT disc frame and fork in british racing green, so now i have the task of scouring the internet for parts, so far i have ordered a chris king headset, a brooks saddle and the wheels which are 26'' xc 717 disks on SLX hubs, so the next few weeks should see the start of the build which i plan to post every time i add a new component, at this time the only thing to arrive is the brooks saddle which i was lucky to get from evans cycles for 65 pounds as they have all brooks seats on sale at the moment heres a picture or two of the saddle.

The saddle came very well packaged.

                                                                 

And looks stunning in dark brown, people say these saddles are very comfy once you break them in so i can't wait to get it on the bike and get rolling, but it will all depend on the pennies as to how quickly i can get the parts, next purchase will be the gears, i'll post more pictures of the frame soon.

JET SKI FUN

A nice evening in Dunbar to take out my red air sup, the westerly wind died to a very light breeze, and we were blessed by a very interesting sky and some heavy showers, Gordon and laura where out with there new toy,  so we had a little play around, the red air paddle board was not designed as a water ski but good fun all the same, gordons jet ski is capable of speeds up to 47 knots all great fun and a great way to spend a sunday evening, I'm glad i decided to take the tachyon camera with me as the light conditions where fantastic.

GO PRO SURF HERO CAMERAS

This guy makes some great little films with his go pro camera, this one is called a beautiful day off, the go pro cameras are probably the best cam around at the moment and although i own two HD cameras a tachyon HD and a bullet HD wide head cam the quality isn't anywhere near as good as the go pro,  plus getting mounts for the tachyon is proving a little difficult, where as the the go pro has a lot of different mounts to chose from, so come pay day i may have a new camera to play with, we will just have to wait and see.

3 DOORS DOWN

This is one of my favorite bands of the 90s, this song was the theme music for the movie american pie 2

 a great time to be young, the band are still going strong with a new album due out shortly, and the new american pie film the reunion is out soon on DVD.

With the sea winds not showing any sign of letting up and my shoulders and back muscles aching from constant paddling i decided to head out on the pugsley for a ride along the coast and give the surfing a rest for a couple of days, i also decided to have a play with my tachyon micro hd camera, the weather was quite pleasant with the sun making the odd appearance through light broken cloud warming me nicely as i cycled along the beach, the light northeast wind was a little cool and kept the overall temp around 12 degrees just nice for a bike ride, i headed west towards the tyne and out towards the boundaries of john muir country park, i made a quick film of the ride along the beach and stopped for a quick paddle in the cold north sea, before heading home for a shower and a rinse down for the bike, a quick ride of about an 1hr 30 min.

Wet weather, typical for my day off work, the surf forecast was 2ft with a light north wind which made the surf a little gutless and mushy, but a day in the house is a day wasted, so i fitted the carver surf rack to my surly pugsley and put on my wetsuit and headed to belhaven beach, and at the last minute i decided to grab the tachyon HD micro camera as i have always wanted to make a surf clip, the mount i used was a delkin suction model which i must admit i was a little worried about its ability to keep my camera in place, but it did its job and the cam never budged from the front of the board, as i predicted the surf was less than perfect and i didn't get many good waves.