Megs - like a daughter

We are very proud of the two people in the photo here with yellow vests. On the left we have Paddy, who's an assistant instructor and on the right we have Megs, who's a fully fledged surf coach. Both were original members of the Surf's Up! Boardriders Club - both have been to France, Portugal and Bali with us and now both are working on the beach for us. It's a fantastic story. We began the Club six years ago to encourage the local kids to get in the surf - before then there was only a handful of keen locals taking it on regularly. Now there's loads of them, all of who've been through the club. Harriet is another great example - she too came on our trips abroad, achieved the heady distinction of being club captain accompanying me up to London to receive the Access Sport Club of the Year trophy, worked on the beach for us and then when leaving school last year travelled abroad ending up in Oz as a surf instructor. It's all good news.

Billyman is back - he went, a boy, and returned, a man! Great to have him home. He obviously has had a fantastic time - so a big thanks to Mr. Lane and his team.

Taking responsibility

If there was one message that I tried to get across last night to the team, it was about taking responsibility. Let's not wait to be told, let's just get stuck in. So this morning, couldn't get the trailer back on the beach as the tide was so high - but what did we see? The instructors unloading the boards from the back of the trailer parked on the road, and they were doing it in the pouring rain! Fantastic. Couldn't have asked for more.

Pre-season chat

Always good to have a pre-summer season chat as a team. And tonight was the night. Incredibly difficult to get everyone together but we managed it. I basically put a load of stuff on a white board and we covered as much as we could in an hour and a half! You know we've got a good team - some really great characters. I've got my eye on one or two who I think could become the best of the best if they get their heads down. Let's watch this space.

It's much harder for me to get to know some of them as my role is not directly on the beach all the time like it used to be. And I can see that some of them are unsure about me. That's no bad thing. But I've got a good feeling that this team will be just that - a team. A team that will work for each other and get stuck in.

This is the longest we've ever been apart from the Billyman - man, we miss him so much! Fin said he really missed him too, which I thought was really sweet. Not too cool. It's only been two nights! Can't wait to pick him up tomorrow and hear about his adventure.

Calm before the Storm

Big high tide this morning, half way into the car park. No worries - it's tomorrow we're keeping a close eye on. With 16ft surf forecast, a 7.4m spring tide and onshore winds we could see the water over the road. Definitely time to move the trailer! It won't be quite like the one we

had back on the 10th March 2008! On that day everything came together to produce something quite astonishing! If you haven't seen it before, take a look.

No ones impressed that the County Champs have been cancelled. It was set to be run on an all weather track. That's a waste of money then. Never mind, Billy got to stay away with his mates - and it was really quiet at home without the constant din of fighting boys!

Some sunsets are sweeter than others - tonight's was sweeter than most.

Findog enjoying some Dad time whilst the curly one's away!

Women: 10 ways to impress your man

Yes, it's true - on MSN news today was this fantastic title - Women: 10 ways to impress your man. Listed just after 'matching underwear' came this photo above and then a reference to adrenalin sports. Nice one.

Billy's race has been cancelled - something to do with thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow. Do we not run in rain? No big deal, he's away on a three day school trip and was planning to come back for the comp. He'll have a load of fun with his mates instead.

It's all still gone Larry Grayson

8am this morning - sweet little wave - 2ft, clean as. High tide can be great fun, especially if the left off the rocks is working. Very muggy again - not much wind. Check the forecast out for tomorrow - it's going massiff!

The Surf's Up! Elite crew had some spectacular results last weekend at the Rip Curl event down at Fistral - full report to follow. Here's Liam ripping it up!

Rhys finished 4th in the U16 boys

Sophie finished 3rd in the U16 girls

Angus finished 4th in the U12 and U14 boys

Max came 3rd in U14 boys and 1st U12 boys

Liam came 3rd in U12 boys and 1st U14 boys

It's all gone Larry Grayson

What a grey day! Super muggy on the beach, not much of a fresh sea breeze going down. I blame the Dutch - oh, they were nasty! Thought the ref had a tough one there.

My recession report for Polzeath and Cornwall continues as follows. Bumped into a local bank manager on the weekend, he reckons there's a lot of businesses out there really hurting! First signs of big cracks. Now we've been lucky so far, it's been a good one and the last couple of weeks have been exceptional - but that's down to what's pre-booked, school groups etc. That goes against the trend. Actual numbers of people on the beach has been quieter than normal. We saw the first signs of proper holiday traffic this weekend, but my observation is that it's still pretty quiet around. The beach car park is nearly full, but when you come off the beach there's no traffic.... at all! It's as if everyone is either staying locally and has walked in, or made it to the beach early by car. There's a air of calm - none of the manicness that we get. Manicness, is that a word? I'm going to claim it and stick it on Wiki!

Billy's got the County Champs this week. The race isn't until Wednesday but already you can sense that he's gearing up for it. He just wants to win. He's gets much less tolerant of his younger brother and bit more thoughtful leading up to race day. An old head on young shoulders. I wonder how many more years we've got of this!

Note to self - idiot! Staff meeting on Wednesday, made copious notes, lost notes. Looked everywhere! Can rewrite but don't want to miss any golden nuggets! now think Pete, where have you put them.......

Still haven't had much rain. A shower on Friday night and a few spits and spots, but nothing to write home about. And I've noticed that the hayfever season is dragging on... I wonder what the science is behind that. It's been a funny old year!

Started the day with a list of jobs too long for my brain to comprehend - and that can mean total shut down. But surprisingly, have managed to clear a few and my brain feels like it has more room to move!

Just a Loosener

So Mahoustic took to the stage for the first time this year. A bit of a loosener! Started losing my voice after, well after the first song really! Bit gutting - good job we had Lisa, an Amy Winehouse tribute singer, who came up and helped with some backing harmonies. Note to self - Craskie, do some practice fool!