Finally developed my B&W film from Amsterdam

Oh yeah

And could somebody or something help me decide what course to do at uni please. Sooner rather than later.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday

Saturday had an awesome 5 hour surf, quite a few nice rides. Even got a complement from another surfer!

Sunday I actually got up at dark to go and surf the messy, stormy 6-7ft conditions at Polzeath. Managed to brave it for 3 and 1/2 hours. It was brutal. Had a few gnarly wipeouts (and I think its safe to say, a few near death experiences!) Think my best ride was the wave in!

Monday. Conditions were amazing at Polzeath, Clean and slow breaking waves... Unfortunately I was pretty exhausted from the previous 2 days! However, I had a few good rides; and was lucky enough to experience close up dolphins!!! Surfing with dolphins! Once in a lifetime chance I think! It was amazing being within 20 or so metres of such awesome creatures. After seeing the dolphins I had a good ride. Quite a few bomb sets as it got darker!

Tuesday. Clean, clean conditions again! I think I'm safe to say that there were some mini barrels at Polzeath aswell (with photos to prove!). Despite the good conditions I decided to sit out and photograph some material for my project (which if you havn't seen yet look here! http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Surf/315790).

Managed toget a shot of a bit of a barrel; over on the right hand side near the rocks (low-mid tide). Unkown surfer.

Job WANTED: Enquire within

I'm a mature 18 year old college student with an unconditional university offer looking for work on Mondays, Tuesdays and one weekend day. I have 11 A* to C grade GCSEs, 3 A Levels (A,A,C grades) and 2 half A Levels (A,B), all key skill certificates and have nearly completed the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.
Previous work experience and employment includes Assistant Surfing Instructor, Kitchen Porter and Manual Labourer.
I am trying to save money to go to Canada to do 4 weeks of volunteering work at a National Park in the British Columbia region.
I have been looking and applying for jobs for the past few months and havn't had much luck. All I want is a shitty supermarket or cleaning job or similar. I think I need to drink water from a lead tank though before I can get one of those jobs.

Being content with a dead-end life; it would make life so much easier. As it happens I'm not content with such a lifestyle, and am hence posed with loads of hard decisions. I'm pretty sure these decisions are meant to be part of the excitment of pre-adulthood but they've been really fucking frustrating for me! I think my broad range of interests and passions are to blame; and of course, me being indecisive.

Back from Reading Festival Monday evening. Dumped the camping gear at home. Nevermind a shower after 4 days of the same set of muddy, dusty and reeking clothes. Nevermind a rest after the journey back from Reading. Pack the car with the shorty and the wetsuit and off to Polzeath!

Was quiet a pleasent session despite being depleted of energy. Nice 5-6ft sets. The catch to wipeout ratio was more in favour of the wipepouts though! However, it was great to get back into the sea again.

Went out to Haryln earlier in effort to evade the messy swell at Polzeath. Arrived to nice clean sets at high tide; 4-6ft. Wasn't catching much in terms nice waves. Two and a half hours in I spotted a seal outback; then in comes a nice set. Got a good paddle going. Got into the wave quickly. Got a couple of front turns in. Re-entering from the third front turn. See someone paddling out and perform the most ridiculous shitty bail. Get quick spinned in the white water. Get to the surface after several seconds to find a huge chunk of fibreglass hacked out of the nose of my board. Ankle is bleeding slightly. Paddled back in effort to prevent my board flooding. Once on tyhe beach I Observe the damage; pulling out a few of my leg hairs from the fibreglass... What a bitch.

Stamina

I found out yesterday evening that getting out back in 6-7ft wave after a day of labouring is hard work! The arms and back were worn down from shifting breeze blocks all day but I remained optimistic and determined and eventually suceeded on my third attempt. Alas, it took the best part of an hour to catch my first wave. However, as the evening started to get dark, I had an unexpected energy boost and managed to catch a few nice green waves before heading back in; making all the effort from earlier on seem worthwhile. Definetly the biggest waves I've had a chance to ride on with my new shortboard. I think it's gonna take some time adjusting to controlling the board on such powerful swell; I got chucked off several times whilst attempting re-entries after front turns on the lip!

In general I think my stamina and fitness has increased a fair amount lately, mainly because of the length of time I've been spending in the sea and getting extra gym sessions squeezed in to my routine. As soon as I've finished moving house I'm going to try and get a few hours swimming lengths in at the local pool once week aswell; get those arms pumping!