Friday 27 May 2011

Stunning!

Lucked out on that one. Took Libby for a walk and happened to have my camera on me. I love taking photos! I don't pretend to be any good, digital can make anyone look okay. Might have to book myself onto some photographic course - learn about f stops, apertures and shutter speeds. I think that'd be pretty cool.


It's Kooky Time!

Kooky's here! And don't we know it! I have this feeling that he's going to take over our lives! Phew, he's exhausting.. and quite demanding. He knows what he wants that's for sure. As he keeps saying, "I've got big fish to fry!" He's only been here five minutes and he's on the internet checking his Beakbook....

...... he's been spotted doing a bit of retail therapy in the Surf's Up! Emporium......

.... he's been for a surf.....

.. and now he's outside having a nice kip in the sun! Are we supposed to keep him moist? What would you do with a baked penguin?

Kooky's Arrived

"Phew some journey! Developed a leak in me Satnav and turned right at Gibraltar! Man, me flippers nearly wore out! Good to be here now though - hey, you've got a good set up, and the view's pretty cool too. Reckon I can find myself a nice little spot on that island over there, and no rent. Let me introduce myself - the name's Kooky. Kooky by name, Kooky by nature. The nickname's got something to do with my 'big bottom' turn. Hey enough of that, settle down. So what am I doing here? Well I'm gonna be hooking up with the Surf's Up! Kids Academy this summer - and I can't wait. Teach 'em a few of my tricks.

Lots to talk about, but I need to get my dreads down. Get some nap time after my journey. Let's catch up soon. This is Kooky signing out."

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Surf's Up! Team Riders Max and Rhys


Comp Report (from JP) Last Saturday, 21st May, Elite Boardriders Max Payne and Rhys Barfield had standout performances at the National Trust Boarder Series comp at Crantock, Newquay. In exciting overhead fast clean waves Max took the under 16 title and Rhys the under 14s. Rhys also won the prize for best performance over the whole series. Max also won an extra award - receiving the honour of coach Kellys quote of the day. Having reached both finals, Max stepped on a Weaver fish as he went in for the first one but carried on. Hinting he was in too much pain to do the next one, he was offered some soothing advice from Kelly, "Max, Paynes yer name. Get in the water!".


Gabi Rowe and Harry T compete for GB in Peru.

Gabi Rowe with the blonde locks

Two of our Surf's Up! Elite Riders, are in Peru right now representing GB competing at the ISA World Games. If you want keep up to date with what Gabi's Mum has to say (she's over there and completely mad - my guess is her blog will be mainly about the quality of the wine!) - then this is where to go...


Go Gabi and Harry, go! Tom Goode is also there, he comes training with Kelly now and again - good luck to all of them.

Big Sam - Big Ear

"Make sure you don't capture my big ear!" said Sam. Sorry mate. Introducing another potential guest blogger, Big Sam, many of you will know him, he's been at Surf's Up! for many ears. Sorry, years. Part-time Wrestler who fights under the moniker of 'The Great Pinnar' (lol that works on so many levels). (ps note to self. Do not use lol, omg etc have some self respect). He's Beach Manager on Wailin's day's off. On the other days he's a PE teacher up at St. Minver School.

Great surfer, solid bloke, very well respected as a coach.

Went for a lovely walk last night with Libby, our beautiful black Lab. That's me on the right. I say walk, I took the mountain bike. It's naughty I know, but the track from Pentire back to the beach is balls out, great fun. Took this photo up at the Rumps (if you haven't been there, then you need to - it's stunning). Funny how dogs just fit into your lifestyle. When there's no dog ban, I take Libster into the field first thing to do her business and then she comes down to the beach. People take her for walks, she goes off herself for hours and comes back when she's hungry. What a life. Bit more tricky when the bans in place, but we support it, got to take the ruff (get it) with the smooth.

New Polzeath - whilst the Atlantic House Hotel is being transformed you can get a bite to eat out of this caravan. Nice. Always fancied an Airstream. There's another trailer up there but it's a crepe one. Too easy! The Crepe one has been there a couple of years, and I'm assured does fine fair.

Hey Fever!

Boardriders last night - that all seems to be going well. It's no mean task to run an after school surf club for 150 kids. Big up to the team. I turned up last night to take a few photos of the Tuesday night session, Billy and Fin went in too. What a great bunch of kids. Loads of energy. Here's Wailin walking one of the younger ones to the water's edge. I love this photo.

I feel mighty heady this morning. Must be this early pollen season. I suffered really badly from hayfever as a kid, used to get me in the eyes. They'd go all puffy and black like I'd been in a fight. Not the look you're after when you're sixteen and chasing ladies! But ever since moving to the coast some twenty years ago, it's not been a problem. So my headiness last night was caused by a lack of sleep last night - a combo of hayfever and worrying that Wailin, my guest editor, had deleted the whole blog! Noo, my baby!

Surf this morning - 3ft, "bang offshore" quote Big Sam.

Monday 23 May 2011

Initiative Surf

We had a young man work for us for a few years, called Alex Espir. Some of our older clients will remember him well, no doubt. If I had to list our top instructors, he would be right up there. Anyway, he's done a bit of travelling and surf coaching around the world since leaving us, what five years ago? Something like that. Anyway I've just seen that he's started his own surf coaching business - http://www.initiativesurf.com/ - looks like he organises trips, ..... all around the globe!

Al is one of life's good guys (his family too - they pop into the shop sometimes to say hello) and I'm pretty sure he'll make a great success of this. Tough times to start any new venture - but as someone famous once said, "I'm not going to wish you luck. Whether you make it now, is just down to putting in the hours." I think the same person also said, "I put in ten thousand hours before achieving overnight success!" but I'm not sure how that's at all relevant. I'm going off message. I'm not sure we believe in luck - definitely believe in making the most of your opportunities though. Yeah, in our seventeenth year now, I'm going to stick with that one. God, I've aged well!

There's a lot of past employees who've gone onto set up their own businesses. I'd like to think that's because our recruitment policy picks out the good ones. I fear, however, that it could be down to the fact that they think that if me and Janey can run a business, anyone can! It's nice to be inspirational.

One other past instructor deserves a mention. Callum joined the army and has been on the front line in Afghanistan. From what I hear, it's pretty full on, not very nice. These are ever so brave young men. I hope we bring them back soon.

Ash cloud - I see a silver lining coming up. Flights being cancelled and all, we know what that means. Everyone comes to Cornwall. I don't know how everyone's going to fit in, as it's already looking mighty busy.

Kooky's coming!

The Chocolate Factory

I'd like to urge you to buy Browne's Chocolates. Why? Because friends of ours have just bought the company! Joe and Geraldine, two very unassuming and inspirational characters have the golden touch. They did an amazing job at Sharp's Brewery and now they'll do an amazing job at the choccy factory in Okehampton. You read it here first!

Great Results from the Surf's Up! Elite

The weekend saw some spectacular performances by the Surf's Up! Elite crew - Rhys winning the under 14s, Max the under 16s. More to come on this - might even be able to tickle in some video footage.

Hot Cakes

Introducing the all new long sleeve tee! Came in on the weekend and they've been flying off the shelf. This year's top seller? I'd put money on it (we have.. stock!). Price point is perfect - £14! Fourteen pounds! Let me just run that past you one more time - ten pounds plus four more. I grabbed one from the box when they came in and I've not taken it off since. Here's Luke (new instructor started today - Wail will run through the crew all in good time).


Sarah - Shop Honcho!

It's not unusual for us to take on staff who are over qualified for positions that we have available. Look at the management level and what you see is a group of very capable people. People having been at the sharp end looking either for a permanent lifestyle change or maybe a breather from the fast lane. This can work well for both of us. I'm not too sure which of the above categories Sarah falls into - but it's to our advantage that here we have a person who can get her teeth into the 'retail arm' of the Surf's Up! empire. "There's the shop. Imagine it's yours!" is a pretty accurate summary of the brief we gave her and already we can see a more controlled, driven, structured approach to how it's run. Customer feedback has been fantastic as has feedback from senior team members who appreciate strength in all departments.

So in summary, three main divisions of Surf's Up! - Beach, where we have Wailin supported by Sam and Kelly. Office, Rach has full control and then the shop, Sarah. Make no mistake, that is the dream team right there. Spirits are high - they should be. And as for me and Janey - it's great arriving in the morning just knowing that the team are on top of everything.

Rach - Master of all that is Admin

Here she is - Rach (a blogger to be) - in action! Rach runs the office. If you've come into contact with her on either the phone or in person you'll already know that she's very friendly, very efficient and very capable. She joined us a few months ago and has proved an inspired appointment. Her experience in running her own business means two things to us - she has a great work ethic (she just comes in a gets on) and she understands the bigger picture. She's also very calm and level headed - essential in a busy workplace. We're loving having her on the team and the team have really taken to her. The office is in very good hands.

Dee, who's started today as an instructor. Welcome to the team.

"Wailin, this year mate, it's your team. You choose." That's what we said. In the past although Wailin has been Beach Manager for a while, we've probably taken away some of his grunt by overseeing recruitment. He's a good judge of character, so we trust him to build a team that will do the best job. And have people around that are fun to work with. Wearing the yellow vest should be something to aspire to, something to be proud of. As a company we have more history than most and a philosophy to aspire to. Making it onto the team should be seen as something pretty cool on the the CV. I know it's helped others secure employment.

Guest Blogger makes his mark

Hey, that's cool. The guest blogger has made his mark, brilliant - and yes, Saturday night did kick off. Whilst I was held aloft by a sea of hands, nose three inches from the beams singing Foxy Lady - at no time did I feel "I'm too old for all this!" What had began as a 'loose' Mahoustic performance (practice, practice, practice) went a bit crazy with half an hour left on the clock. I'm still buzzing today. Feedback has been quite touching - as were the crowd (why did they keep stroking the veins on my arms, whilst I was playing the guitar?). We need some crowd control out there. Great times - thanks to all.

I'm glad Wail has made his mark as a guest blogger - means you don't have to ever read about me banging on about my boys, ever again!

ps Fin's footie team won the League and Cup double on Sunday morning, and then in the afternoon Billy won the St. Minver Fun Run (four miles, beating allcomers - men,
women, dogs etc - they lined up to take his scalp this year, but were sadly left somewhere on Porthilly Hill, they should have know better!). Fin came fourteenth overall and third out of the school, good work for an 8 year old. Janey finished too, official time and place to be verified!

Billy with new St. Minver Head, Big Dave. "Sorry Sir. Next time I'll wait for you on the corners!"

We seem to be in some purple patch - long may it continue.

Sunday 22 May 2011

Craskey's told me that if i start blogging in no time at all i will have a legion of fans, become an overnight internet sensation and before i know it the royalties will start rolling in! I' ve been led to believe that i should report on big celebrity parties and write cutting yet humourus reports on fashion and who' s wearing who! Well last night Polzeath rolled out the blue slightly faded smelling of beer carpet for Will to set his drum kit up on at the Oystercatcher where Mahoustic preceded to play a tightish set (due to the amount of practices we had) of classic rock covers. The pub was packed, the girls looked very fashionably, the boys slightly less and the last half hour went off... you know it' s a good gig when you turn round mid song and all you can see of Pete is his feet disappearing in a sea of hands...kudos! Thanks to everyone that came along and jumped up and down...good times. Right then i guess i just sit back and wait for the advertising agencies to make contact! Signing out, Wailin Perez