a magazine to inspire surfing females

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An online magazine. Pushing against surfing stereotypes.

The Slideshow intends to give something new to female surfers who don’t get caught up with the commercial surfing hype. For those of us that spend most of our days surfing COLD WATER - IN WETSUITS, rather

than bikinis, surf IN CHALLENGING AND INCONSISTENT CONDITIONS and when our BUSY LIVES permit.

Read, laugh, learn, get excited, inspired, and enjoy!

The Slideshow depends on reader submitted content!!!

theslideshow.mag@gmail.com Please send ANYTHING you think the surfing ladies out there would like

to see/hear about.

- Gemma Chalmers, Editor

I got an email asking if I would I like to go on a university fieldtrip to Anglet, near Biarritz at

the end of September? Who wouldn’t? Sign me up.

Excited by the prospect of autumn swell and some sunshine, we were greeted with 4ft clean waves

on our arrival and had a whole day before the onset of students. Included in our party was an ex

European surfing champion, big wave charger, south Devon styler, a gung-ho northerner, and cau-

tious but keen longboarder. Having been to southwest France on several occasions, I remembered

that 4ft here was not the same as 4ft at home. It packs a punch. As I paddled

out the sound of the low tide closeouts made me disheartened at the arduous task of getting the

magic carpet through the impact zone. It took me some time to roll my way out the back, and even

less for me to turn tail after a heavy pounding on the sandbar. Catching waves out the back is

overrated – it’s all about inside reforms!

I have no scruples about being honest of my unease of heavy, powerfully solid waves. I just don’t

enjoy it and surfing for me is all about enjoyment. Maybe it’s my equipment choice, a 7’4”x 23” x

3” single fin probably isn’t the best for French waves, but a bad workman always blames his tools

right? It’s psychological; once hesitation and trepidation waltz into my mind, I’m done. A few waves on the inside made me happy, but the paddling, popping and

rolling turned into a constant battle, so I swapped board for fins and handplane and pulled into the

fun shorebreak!

FRENCH FANCIES

A couple of days later the waves were perfect; mid tide, chest high, and peeling all the way in to

the shore. That’s all I needed.

For our last two days the swell was pumping. Monster sets were rolling in double overhead and

a few hardcore surfers were out including some of our team. I was perfectly content to sit on the

beach watching the show, and as it was hot and sunny, I was absolutely loving the front row seat.

I love heading to France for a surf trip, the French way of life is rather civilised, but it makes me realise my limits in terms of surfing. Do I need to acquire a shortboard,

confront my anxieties and grow some balls? Or do I just keep enjoying myself by staying within my

comfort zone? Either way, I had an awesome time in France and hope to go back next year.Words: Ellie Woodward

Flyin’ faston a flip flop

Sunday afternoon. High tide, sunshine, 3-4ft light onshores, clear blue sea, hot. Surfed out from the last 2 days, I just fancied a swim in the ocean. I ran down the hill to the beach with my swim fins and swam out the back where I was greeted by a bunch of friends surfing on all manner of craft – short, long, foam, retro, rescue, and bodies. There was a really fun vibe in the water, yells and yews and a hell of a lot of hooting.

Dave and his son were also out with just a pair of fins on. I swam over to say hello. He waved at me with a flip flop. Perplexed, I asked him why he had a flip flop, had it just washed in? He then got all excited and told me it was his hand plane then threw it over to me for a go. Hilarious! Nothing for it but to give the size 11 a go.

The next wave that rolled in I kicked hard and trimmed left. The flip flop lifted me up on the water and I was flying down the line right in the curl all the way in to the inside. Best lefthander all day. I paddled back out to Dave where I proclaimed the flip flop a roaring success. A few waves later we were all totally buzzing and as we paddled back out for more, Dave’s son pulled his flip flop into an epic little barrel. That’s the best thing I’ve seen all week says Dave.

Words: Ellie Woodward

Flyin’ fast11” x 4”

on a flip flop

How does that ripper out there always seem to be on the best wave in each set? The jammy bugger always seems to be in the right spot!

On most sandy beaches waves will start to break when they reach a water depth that is roughly one third deeper than the

wave is tall. Following this logic, areas where waves can be seen consistently breaking are slightly shallower than the surrounding water, shallower because there’s a large pile of sand that’s built up there as a result of waves stirring up the sand, and undercurrents moving it around.

Surf Science: get your beach bearings.

Sandbars can therefore be spotted by the fact that waves will break over that area more consistently than other parts of the beach. Sounds obvious, but it can some-times look like a chaotic mess out there, so looking for patterns in where the best waves are breaking is a good way to get your bearings.

This photo shows a time lapse image of Porthtowan, the areas of intense white colour are white-water, indicating where the waves have been consistently break-ing over the bars. Areas where no waves are breaking are deeper channels, where the water brought in by breaking waves returns back out to sea (a.k.a. channels or rip currents). Watching a few sets break will normally reveal the where-abouts of those illusive sandbars.

The best waves will tend to be the ones peeling along the edge of a sandbar, wall-ing up rather than closing out when the angle of the wave to the sandbar is greater than about 30°.

Making a mental note of where the chan-nel/bar is in relation to a landmark on the beach is a good tactic for getting back into position after each wave, and unless a storm hits the beach sandbars tend to stick around for a little while, so you can go back to the same position another day (bear in mind that on a different tide the waves are likely to be breaking on a different part of the beach). Sandbars form slowly (maybe a week or so) under the action of gentle swell conditions, but get eroded quickly (e.g. a day or less) by storms, so they do change considerably throughout a year. That’s why it’s good to keep a beady eye on the sandbars at your local beach; you’ll have the spot sussed in no time.

Words: Kit Stokes

Sun22

OctNorthCoast

8ft swell

Offshore winds

Gemma Chalmers

Gemma Chalmers

You know things are good when you are sat in a deck chair, on a cliff top watching ‘Point break’ on an outdoor cinema screen under the stars. The summer has seen surf films being shown in different beachside locations around Cornwall and Devon, (Godrevy, Bedruthen and Bude) as part of the National Trust’s Outdoor Screening Season.

Sat amongst friends and strangers, the atmosphere at the Point Break showing was buzzing and people were hyped for a bit of classic cheese. Even though many people had probably seen the 1991 bank robber action/surf film Point Break a thousand times, the familiarity of the CLASSIC one-liners made it all the better and all the more funny. Keanu Reeves’ brilliantly wooden acting and outpour of cliché ‘surfer speak’ is what endears the Hollywood film to many a genuine surfer.

As we all know, Bodhi - wasn’t coming back… but let’s hope the Surf Series does with more classic outdoor cinematic treats next summer!

Words: Gemma Chalmers

Cult classic on Cornish clifftop