Broke down and dirty Bude blues

Believe it or not "blues man" Seasick Steve broke down in his bus just down the road from Gul Bude today.

Just saying, so you all know... even mechanical failure is cool round here.

But just like the last time a famous celeb was in and around the shop (Vic Reeves), we unfortunately have no hard photographic evidence to prove it. But we like to think he'll remember his experience in our friendly little town and there might even be "Bude breakdown blues" on his next album? Oh yeah... then you'll all see...

T

Roots suits me

Here's a few pictures from the day of the mini surf contest mentioned below (no shots, you'll be sad to hear, of my very exaggerated soul arch that I think secured my win. I'm kind of glad - it was more like an accidental pelvic pump.)
I guess what stood out most from this contest were the people who attended. Some are already my very close friends, some I barely met before but got to know better. Good people, all. Just imagine participating in an event like this with strangers who had no interest in talking to each other or hooting as another caught a choppy sloppy wave or just laughing and smiling and putting the good vibe out there. It wouldn't work would it?
Events like these - small, familiar, fun. They're all about the person you're paddling out with, or watching it with from the cliff tops.
Long live homegrown surf contests.
C

hhhhmmmm...?

It gets hard to keep all this blogging up you know.... I've been out of the loop.

I promise I'll try harder next time. x T

The Smell of a WIN

I'm quite stoked this morning. I won a surf competition yesterday. Ok, it was no ASP tour, it was a little contest amongst friends and locals at the beach I've surfed my whole life. But still, after a pretty horrible weekend with little sleep and big blues, I managed to pull off 1st place in the 12 person longboard division. So I'm better at it than at least 11 people in the world. Cool.

The organisers, a couple of RNLI lifeguards, had made some great trophies from driftwood and assorted beach treasures. Mine now adorns the spot above the woodburner, right where it was always meant to be. It was so sweet - scoring was on a scrappy piece of paper with an unforgiving biro and heats were thrown together around peoples Sunday schedule. Contestants were judges. It was rounded off with an intense curry, plus naan, poppadoms and (as befits and compliments every good indian meal) lots of pizza. Beers were half price. Everyone was exhausted and smiling for the prize giving, just as the sun set. All as it should be. Ace. C

Discombobulated!

It's been a strange old day... We've been attacked by knife wielding Mannequins (It's true! Don't worry, we wrestled it to the floor and disarmed it - we'll never see or hear of him again). The weather appears to be more akin to January than September and Bude appears to have been deserted!

It really is quite a Topsy Turvy day, enjoy your discombobulation... we have!

R

Irish Dogs

Friend of the shop and author of the Camper Van Cookbook, Martin Dorey, had a little break to Ireland recently. He took this snap of this cute little canine something at Easkey, and it left us wondering whether he'd caught her in the midst of quite a private moment dealing with, ahem, 'doggy business' or whether he'd just snuck up and taken her by suprise. Asked, he replied, "Both. A fine comedy dog moment catching a dainty dogette in the act."

We agree. If you fancy giving us a funny catchphrase to go with the shot, we'd be mightily amused to hear them. We'll even publish it if it's good.

Meantime, check out what we reckon is a clean, 3-4ft swell in the background. We were so busy chuckling we almost didn't notice... C

StringerBessant

We've mentioned Stringerbessant a few times before. We'd choose them to serenade any of you beautiful readers, every time.
Here's a chance to see them live on Glastonbury FM, playing a track from their album 'Yard'. C

Gul Winter Wetsuits

Following on from the post yesterday regarding the lovely big discounts on our Summer wetsuit range, well, guess what came in the post today... the rest of our WINTER RANGE!
Of course, we've already had Lewis in. He pretty much drooled over the new Vortex 5/3. We asked him to clean it up before he left. Can't be too careful these days. All it takes is some unfortunate member of the public to slip in drool and we're liable for it. So no drool on the shop floor - it's a rule.
You'll find it hard though. Even writing this, I'm over-salivating a little. C

20% OFF Gul Summer Wetsuits

Bude!

You asked for a discount on Summer wetsuits, so we obliged. Come and see us for bargain Summer steamers, shorties, shortjohns and cake (n.b. we have no cake.) C

Sunset Surf Classic - Team Gul dominates!

I can fill you in now on how Lewis did at the final of the BLU championships in Gwithian last weekend.
I've left this a bit late but I was waiting to hear the final word from Lewis on what happened. Turns out, he was popped for a little interference call, thus denying him the top spot in the Under 18's that he'd been tipped for. Still, overall he came a very respectable 2nd in England and 3rd in the UK. No bad result at all, and we're stoked more than ever that he's riding for us! Good work Lewis! Great work also from all the others on the Gul team who placed high including James Parry (the winner, doesn't get much better than that really...) Ben Haworth, Becky Stanhope and Matt Travis. All placed great. What a team. Here's a couple of shots of Lewis in action. C