If you've followed our journey for any length of time you'll know that we use Instagram as the main artery for pumping out, dare we say 'content.' It's with no shame, nor surprise, that yet again this one involves our old pal James Rafferty. Rather relevantly to this particular story too as he is, excuse the pun, the chief breadwinner at the South West Surf House. One of the Basque regions finer surf-holiday establishments.
When the winter rolls around after a summer of waves rolling in, Raff tends to close his surfboard bag along with the window shutters of the surf-house and bids farewell to the H2O. That would be when the tradition of 'running to the hills' to quench a particular thirst to ride the colder version of H2O would take place. Snow. The call of the French Alps beckon. This year however, like an unwelcome scratch in a record, an equally unwelcome text appears on his phone mid December and mid digging out the snowboard gear. The text read 'I've bought the turkey, you bring the eggnog, get a flight to London ASAP...oh and don't forget your steelies. (steelies not to be confused with steel-wheels, referring here to the steel-toe capped boot variety of; steelies).
The message was from us and while we were delighted to host a few other chums from the Southern Hemisphere who also needed presents, parents and to indulge in the festivities of the giving season, little did they know that much of the giving was about to be from them. The main reason for the call and the consequent invite (along with the need for steelies) was in leu of the physical actioning of a plan that was nearing its inception. We planted the seeds to this particular project a while back, and the timing and need for a few extra hands couldn't have been better.
We can't elaborate too much on the particular one, however we can divulge that S+S is getting very close to moving into its new home.
Once we'd dusted off and retired the sherry back to the drinks cabinet for another year we let onto our predicament and our plan of perhaps needing some some help renovating our newly acquired diggs. An excited Raff declared himself as 'Foreman' and while the title was self appointed we knew (hence the invite) that he could in-fact actually wield a hammer.
We liked the idea of Raff coming purely to help us however, his visit did have hints of self indulgence too. While the idea of a season surrounded by mountains and snow was about to be put on the back burner in favour of a slightly less attractive 'winter in good ol' England' as he referred to it, he was also here to take advantage of our Volkswagen T5 knowledge and hopefully obtain the dream surf bus while he settled down for his stay.
The Atlantic Ocean, being bountifully rich with wave riding opportunity in the Summer shows her crueller side as Winter sets in. Her penchant and thirst for eating older steel her diet. The current fleet of SWSH vans get worked to the bone during the summer, the lack of rain and weather not hurting them too badly. It's when winter tightens her grip and stagnated movements lend to a fate many 'surf-vans' succumb.
As they lie dormant, battered by the winter storms, engulfed by the thick mists the decaying and dissolving sets in, moving fast through the tin.
Rusty and hole ridden may strike a cord with the insider-cool, the visual and practical needs of the surf house's rep along with shifting boards and guests though, deserved the incoming upgrade and as far as upgrades go you couldn't have dreamt up a more fitting wagon.
We're not quite finished, perhaps 'barely started' might be more fitting for what we have in store for this one however, we bid farewell to Raff as he head down to Dover, to board the ferry and follow the road SE towards the Alps for a quick dance with the snow. It wont be long before he and 'Lord Dorrington' do the final side of their triangle, heading West to reopen the shutters for another summer of SWSH.
Our mates over at GoPro threw us a swanky new camera and while the quality of the footage is obviously great the content certainly isn't quite there. If you do find a moment though, perhaps look past the awful Vlogging (we're working on it) and admire the new van in all her majesty.
'Bakers of crusty bread and other good things to eat' Does it really get any better?
