Raves & Rants . . from Penzance

The Ocean-Image site will be changing in the near future ! Development work has been underway for some time now, and the IT droids processors are overheating as the upgrade work progresses. So what's happening? Well, there will be a lot more surfing, seascapes, waves and ocean-related imagery to have a look at, in an online slide library fashion, as well as other extreme sports, windsurfing, climbing, Cornwall, travel, etc etc. This will be a searchable database, and include uploads from guest photographers, with images downloadable full size for commercial use, or as small microstock images for websites or personal use. A (free) subsciption allows use of a lighbox feature, picture rating, free screensaver downloads, and more. Keep an eye on www.ocean-image.com for exciting picture developments!

So we planned a trip to try out this crazy new type of surfing - Brush Boarding. Designed to try and replicate a skate-surf-snowboard sort of feel, it's essentially a metal quarter-pipe skate ramp with holes cut into it, through which brushes rotate at high speed. You stand on a foam board and try and surf against the upthrust of the brushes. Am I making sense? Pretty much like surfing or skating, you can drop in from the top, do bottom turns and cutbacks, trim down the line, as well as kick-flips (not me) off the tops (maybe after a bit more practice) and wipeout (definitely me). The wipeouts are OK though, with loads of padding around, and instaed of being mullered by the rest of the set, as in surfing, the guy on the controls simply shuts the machine down, so you can dust yourself off, and get right back into it. Which, it turns out, is what everybody wanted to do. It was definitely fun to do, and with further developments in the pipeline, I can see this becoming a great traini...