DIVING IN HEAD FIRST

Just study the intro photo for a while.
Can you imagine being in Jadson Andre’s shoes?
Knowing things have gone oh-so-very wrong, and you’re milliseconds from a comprehensive beating at one of the world’s heaviest, shallowest, most notorious ass-whupping spots with the entire WSL fanbase staring at you. The world tour has had a pretty average year so far but the Box session, during the Margie’s event, restored some faith. Pro surfing can still excite, surprise and deliver ‘Whoa! What the actual hell!’ moments, see Italo’s impossible keg from the same day for reference. The line between heaven and hell is a fine one at the cutting edge of the surf world.
Now most of us won’t ever find ourselves in a similar situation, although it might feel like it in your mind. For an awful lot of British surfers, the ideal waves are head-high runners, hell, anything that’s not a closeout basically, which is more than fine. Surfing is whatever you want it to be. Riding whatever you fancy sliding around on. As long as you’re having fun and not pissing anybody off then crack on there pard.
Of course, if you want to emulate Jaddie, there are slabs in Scotland and Ireland which will more than satisfy your death wish to dive headfirst into two-foot-deep water over very unforgiving rocks as the angry Atlantic tears you a new one. But we suggest you leave that to the locals and professional tube hounds until you’ve sharpened your game. Wherever you are in your surfing life, it’s good to set goals. To dive in. To progress. Maybe this summer is the one where you evolve from whitewater rides on the inside to paddling into green waves for the first time. A huge, proud moment, the tipping point between beginner and intermediate. We’ve all been there. Even John John was a nervous little grom being pushed into waves by his mom once. Admittedly he was about two years old, so that explains why he’s so much better than the rest of us. If you’re still right at the beginning, even the heady day where you manage to pop up every time is a total achievement — another step in the path of progress.
For those further along the track, it’s working on turns, wondering how the hell you do airs and trying to remember to not instinctively close your eyes when you pull into a barrel. You can take your surfing as far as you like, if it’s just trimming on green walls that’s your jam then that’s more than okay. There’s no obligation to be pulling rodeo flips. Surfing is fun. Interpret that however the hell you damn like. Now go do fun.

Sharpy
Editor

BLACK DOG DAYS

As we are going to print on this issue of Carve the news of Sunny Garcia’s intensive care hospitalisation spread around the world.

It’s no secret the black dog has hounded the Hawaiian legend throughout his life. Most of us live us with a form of depression, encounter it at some point or have friends and family that suffer.

Seeking escape from depression through a suicide attempt is a path that is sadly far too common, especially in men of a certain age.

We’re still reeling from the loss of the Prodigy’s Keith Flint, another 49-year old, with seemingly everything to live for, who took his own life. No matter that he has the adoration of a legion of fans around the world, had a successful motorbike racing team and was in a band still blowing the bloody doors off packed arenas and festivals.

There’s no knowing what folks are going through, no matter the veneer they present to the world unless we take the time to find out and talk to each other.

Some info:

• Two in five men in Britain aged 20-59 do not seek support when they need to, because they prefer to solve their own problems. The survey also showed that men often don’t want to feel like a burden and don’t feel their problems will be understood.

• In the UK men remain three times as likely to take their own lives than women. In 2017, the male suicide rate was more than three times higher than the female rate. Middle-aged men are at greatest risk of suicide. Men aged 45-59 years have the highest rate of suicide, followed by men aged 30-44.

–Samaritans

Being British we’re taught to man up, to project the stiff upper lip and channel the Blitz spirit. We’re not trained to share and care. Which if you’re in a place where you think suicidal thoughts isn’t beneficial.

I’ll admit it, I’ve had suicidal thoughts in my time, wondered if a quick leap off a cliff edge would be a good idea. But it’s the thought, for me at least, of disappointing those left behind and making a scene that flashes up the ‘whoa there pard!’ signs.

To go through life without any darkness is an admirable feat. Very few people live life unscathed. Everyone gets low; we all suffer the slings and arrows. It’s good mates and family that are the safety net if you let them be.

Surfing world-wide has a streak of machismo, thankfully not so much in the mellow lineups of Britain and Ireland, but it definitely exists. Being the big man alpha male isn’t any use if you can’t talk about your darker thoughts with your mates.

One of the joys of surfing is your crew are the guys you can talk to. About anything. If you don’t feel equipped to help just listen. Getting concerns out in the open is a little victory. We don’t need to handle it solo, to retreat to our man caves to figure troubling things out, even though that’s our male programming. We need to take a leaf out of the ladies book. Talk. You never know what mental doors a discussion with someone who has your back will open. And to labour the metaphor: you’ve got to open some doors to let in the light.

I’ll finish with this text from Sunny’s Instagram just over four years ago:

‘Depression is no joke, waking up feeling like you’re ready to take on the world then a couple of hours later feeling down on life and wondering what’s wrong with you. Well I know I’m not alone and I’m not sure what’s wrong with me because I have no reason to feel the way I do and it’s been happening for about two years and would love to hear from any of you who suffer these feelings so I can figure out what I should do  #fuckdepression #needhelp  #whatswrongwithme’

@sunnygarcia

There’s a lot more awareness these days that things aren’t OK and that it is OK not to be OK. So don’t internalise. If mates are the new family unit, then they’re there for you. Trust me on this.

Sharpy

Editor

If anything raised in this editorial rings a bell with you, there’s advice and ways to get help through the Samaritans 24/7 free on 116123 or Samaritans.org and CALM at thecalmzone.net

Sharpy
Editor

I’VE GOT ISSUES

Welcome to another issue of Carve.
Hi there. All good?
You might be aware the magazine is celebrating its 25th anniversary this season which is impressive in a lot of ways. We’re still flying the banner for print where so many have given up the ghost.
While working on features for this grand event, I figured out this issue you’re holding now will be my eightieth in the editor’s chair. Yep, I was blown away too. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been here since 2010 to me either. It’s been, ‘Err, six or seven years, ish?’ Since, well, 2017.
I can still remember that first issue, with an absolute banger of Fergal at the Cliffs shot from the said cliff by Mick on P1. If you piled up all 80 issues, they’d come up to your arse or so, which would make a handy, if not somewhat unstable seat. Ironically, back in 2010, I’d just called time on being a freelance surf photog as the arse had dropped out of the industry and I’d moved to London to get a real job. One short meeting in a weird Spanish cellar bar somewhere off the back of Tottenham Court Road with Ed-in-Chief Steve and I was reeled back into the surfing fold.
Along with work for other now-defunct titles, I’ve somehow edited well over 100 issues of magazines in my career and contributed to countless many others. It’s not always been easy.
Burn out happens. You lose your mojo, get writer’s block, or just plain run out of steam. It’s happened to me a few times. But every time you fall off the horse you’ve just got to get back on the horse. Every time you think ‘I’ve written all I’m ever going to write about surfing’ something piques your interest, and off you go again: new people, new places, new ideas.
Sometimes all that’s needed is a break. Something that is hard to do these days with the constant ‘bing!’ and notification dopamine hit your phone is trying to hook you on.
Going away and just getting off the grid is essential. It turns out the key to writing is reading. If you’re ever stuck on something and struggling with ideas or just getting something down drop it and read. Not internet bullshit or social media arguments. But a book. An actual novel. Or non-fiction if that’s your jam. Turning everything off and reading books is magical.
The dedication of time is delightful. No email. No distractions. Just lose yourself for hours in a book. Or six. I had a holiday before this season started as last year was hectic AF, and the winter break was full of photo shoots. In that week I barely looked at my phone. I didn’t even open my email app. I read six whole books. Six books which catalysed my ‘oh man, I can’t write another word, my brains frazzled’ mindset into…

*cracks knuckles and unleashes on the keyboard*

It turns out I just needed to let my mind wander in long form. The short bursts of information we’re conditioned to these days aren’t good for creativity. They’re not good for your mind palace at all unless you like your mind palace to be more of a junkie squat with some tramps having an orgy.
I’ve written 5000 words in the last two days and deadlines not for ages. Which never happens.
Still, it is handy as it looks like the surf is going to get proper nuts.
So, I best get out there and shoot some stuff for this issue eh?
Cheers n’gone.

Sharpy
Editor

25 YEARS

Twenty-five years is a long time.
Hell, a fair few of you reading this won’t have been on this good earth that long. But the mag is officially 25 years young this season.
When Chris Power started the mag, with Louise and Mike Searle, things were a tad different out there.
Sure the basics of boards, fins, leashes, surfer plus wave equals fun applied. Boards you’d recognise, although they’d probably be a bit skinny and rockered for modern tastes, that and the fins were glass-on which was a pain in the derriere for travel. But surfing was basically as it is now, just less air based.
Kelly Slater was of course in the ascendant, he had his first title under his belt in ’92 and nailed his second in the year Carve started: 1994, which is absolutely redonkulous when you think about it. How many sportsmen that aren’t golf batters stay at the sharp end of their sports for over a quarter of a century? Lisa Andersen was starting her rewriting of women’s surfing, and surfing, in general, was transitioning from the old school to the new school.
Taylor Steele’s classic Momentum came out in ’92, but the beloved Focus hit in 1994. Another epoch-changing time as surf films went from lovingly crafted, shot on 16mm, expensive film projects to punk Hi8 edited at home jobs viewed on VHS. The Momentum generation has shaped surfing ever since.
The WSL, then known as the ASP, had just settled on the Dream Tour concept, prioritising the best waves at the right time of year as opposed to crowded, shitty city beaches of the ‘80s and early ‘90s.
In short, the mid-90s was a hell of a time. Surfing was on the up, surf magazines were how we got our dose of surf culture, the surf co’s were coining it in, the web was starting as a concept, and social networks were a decade from beginning to exist. Hell even having your own computer was a bit of an odd thing in those days. Apple was just a niche supplier of computers to publishers, printers and photographic sorts. No iAnything until ’98 and the smartphone revolution ushered in by the iPhone was a long way off.
Mad to see how far we’ve come.
From manual focus cameras shooting film, typing articles on typewriters to the instant live broadcast of surf sessions as they happen. 25 years of change. Twenty-five years of British surfing.
It has been a hell of a ride.
As for this kid? I was finishing uni in ’94. Got my first shot in Carve in ’96 (a half page line up of Raglan in NZ) and did my first gig for them in ’97 and after being around the blocks for the opposition, I’ve been the editor since the start of 2010. Where the hell did that time go?
Anyhoose. It’s been a rough time for journalism in all forms recently. The surf media has been decimated along with a lot of other genres. There aren’t many print mags left worldwide, but we’re still here, giving you the tactile, joyous experience of photos you can see without squinting. Photos that deserve your attention. Not just a cursory glance as you swipe past. A surf mag is a thing of beauty, a bundle of paper designed to make you dream, to form your own plans for travel. To inspire you to experience all the salty world has to offer. We can but try. Glad you’re along for the ride.
Lastly:
Thank you to all our readers and subscribers past and present.
Thank you to all the scribes and photographers whose work we’ve featured over the decades, without you, we are nothing.
Thank you to all the staff who’ve designed, produced and sweated to get this mag out on time issue after issue.
Thank you to all the surfers who have featured in the pages of the mag.
Thank you to Mama Nature for keeping the waves flowing.
Twenty-five years is a long time. The world is a very different place to when the mag started. All we know is we still love surfing as much as we did back in ’94.
Read the mag, get inspired, now go get wet.

Sharpy
Editor