The Art Of Surf Posters

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Surf posters lend themselves perfectly to graphic design. Clean lines, block patterns and citrus colours capture the warm essence of tropical surfing. Here are a few of my recent favourites poster finds...

How To Make Your Own Adventure In The City: The Urban Hike

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I used to think hikes were for boring old people with green anoraks, bird-watching books and ugly boots. People like my parents. No fourteen year old wants to spend a Sunday traipsing around the Chilterns with their parents.

I could never have imagined a decade on I’d go hiking myself – for fun – without even the promise of two Scotch pancakes sandwiched together with Nutella (a family favourite) at the end of it.

When my friend Chloe came up with the idea of an Urban Hike, it was hard to say no. The idea was she would plan a route from Notting Hill in West London to Tower Hill in East London, stopping off at unusual, lesser known attractions along the way.

We started off at a cute Italian coffee shop – La Caffettiera on Kensington Church Street with pastries and coffee, toured through Kensington to Brompton Cemetery where Emmeline Pankhurst is buried. Here we also met a man who walks his blue parrots here every day. They even sit outside on lamp posts waiting for him when he goes to Sainsburys!

Then down through Chelsea onto the King’s Road where we were shouted at by taxi drivers, spotted food critic AA Gill and drank prosecco at a local food market near Sloane Square.

Next up past the swanky shops on Sloane Street to Hyde Park where we collided with the finals of an international triathlon competition.

This was followed by a jaunt past the Ritz, through the famous Burlington Arcade towards Soho where we ate a lunch of fried chicken washed down with American craft beer at Jackson & Rye.

Feeling a little drowsy after all the food and beer, we stopped off at the famous Algerian Coffee Store for a latte (it only costs £1.20 and is home to hundreds of types of coffee) – before hurrying down towards Hatchard’s, the oldest bookshop in the UK.

Then on to Fleet Street to climb up Monument before it closed. The view from the top is pretty spectacular. We finished by strolling along past to Tower Hill to our final stop, Wilton’s the oldest surviving grand music hall in the world, dating back to 1859. They still have gigs and music nights on here today.

For someone who calls herself a Londoner, the Urban Hike was a total eye opener. I saw places in the London that I never knew existed. Armed with water bottles and rucksacks, it felt like a real expedition – passing council estates and cemeteries, glamorous shop fronts, gay bars and office blocks on the way.

We met a few characters, argued with angry taxi drivers, ate doughnuts in Sloane Square, (nearly) went for a swim in the Serpentine and got a certificate for climbing the 311 stairs to the top of Monument. Three of us even bumped into acquaintances we hadn’t seen in ages. Who says you need countryside to have an adventure?

It took us around eight hours round trip to walk from Notting Hill to Tower Hill (with lots of long leisurely stops in between). Here’s the (rough) route in case you want to copy us… I’d highly recommend it!

Surfing In New York: Three Women's Experiences

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For many people, surfing isn’t about tropical beaches, warm water, bikinis and perfect waves. It’s about numb fingers, neoprene hoods and fighting for scrappy waves in the North Atlantic.

This mini surf film, Away by Elisa Bates, is probably about as far away from California as you can get. It’s shot in Rockaway Beach in New York, just an hour from downtown Manhattan. A cold, east coast break with inconsistent waves but a core community of regular surfers

Bates interviews three very different women who all surf. Not your stereotypical surfers, these woman have high-pressure jobs, kids, a life in the city that involves nothing to do with surfing.

It’s shows a lesser seen side to surfing – but one Brits will definitely empathise with. Worth a watch!

Book: Wild By Cheryl Strayed

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There are two things I can’t resist in a new book: an adventure and a strong female character. Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling memoir, Wild, has both.

It was published back in 2012, a memoir by a relatively unknown writer. Now it’s being released as a Hollywood movie starring Reese Witherspoon. But it was the book that I was far more interested in…

Strayed is just 22 when she suddenly loses her mother to cancer. Within four years, her marriage has disintegrated and she finds herself  battling with her relationships and a serious drug addiction. Then, after  a spur of the moment decision in an outdoor shop, Strayed decides to get her life back on track – by walking 1,100 miles from the Mojave Desert to Washington State along the Pacific Crest Trail – completely alone.

As Strayed sets off on her epic hike through the wilderness, we see flashbacks to her former life – the heartbreaking decline as her mother is ravaged by cancer, the helpless attempts to mend her broken marriage and a downwards spiral into cheating, poverty and drug abuse.

A journalist from the Scotsman described how Wild “pretty much obliterated me”. Twenty pages in, I was already wiping tears away on my commute into work. But it’s not a sad tale. Well, at least not all of it.

It’s Strayed’s personality that interested me more – a strong, independent woman taking on a challenge most would steer away from for fear of travelling alone. Aside from a couple of odd characters, Strayed notes how she was struck by the kindness of strangers. Those who left food for her, invited her in when she was down to her last 69 cents or gave her a lift when she was nearly caving under the weight of her backpack.

It’s no surprise this book topped the New York Times Bestseller list. But it does have its critics – from people angry at Strayed for bringing unwanted attention to the PCT to others who think Strayed’s tale is ‘nothing special’. If you’re a hardcore hiker, then this isn’t for you. It’s not detailing every step of the landscape. Strayed is simply writing about what she knows.

For me, it was a book that’s beautifully written, painfully sad and captures what it’s like to heal and ultimately forgive yourself. By doing something as simple as hiking through America.

Buy Wild on Wordery for £6.27. Photo via. Cheryl Strayed

Morgan Maassen's Water

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This mini-film by Morgan Maassen is one of the most beautiful things on the internet. The Californian surf photographer is only 24-years-old but he’s already producing iconic shots (and mini films) combining art and surfing. There’s a great interview with him here on The Inertia. Flick to full-screen HD and whack up the volume. It’s four and a half minutes of hypnotic bliss.

Oh, and he’s definitely one to follow on Instagram: @morganmaassen