Sam Smart - and a big old East Anglian wedge

A few days ago, I played 5-a-side with Greg Martin, the recently installed editor of core Brit surf mag PIT PILOT. Greg made a few strange sounds, and not all of them were connected to his left-foot volley. He vouchsafed (great word) that there would be swell in... East Anglia. Lo and behold, Greg's in East Anglia, and guess who's with him? None other than the Smart Surfer himself, young Sam. Sam has a decent left-foot volley too, better than Greg's, and almost as good as mine, but now we're getting surreal. Fact is: the boys scored. Way ahead of the worthy old authorities, a couple of Kernow surfers checked the charts, and saw it right. And by another of surfing's most excellent miracles, there was someone there to record, witness and capture. Step forward, Neil Watson - long-time surfer, long-time writer/snapper, all-time decent and honourable bloke. Here's Neil's (short and sweet) account of what went down.

When Greg Martin, newly installed editor/photographer of Pit Pilot magazine, saw the charts, he knew swell would be heading down the North Sea.  He knew that might give him a chance to cover the often-ignored breaks of East Anglia, and he knew if he took Sennen pro Sam Smart along (just in case) there'd be high-performance surfing to shoot.

What Greg didn't know was that spring tides and a storm surge would add up to the area's worst flood threat for 50 years. By the time the enterprising pair reached Suffolk roads were flooding, diversions were taking them nowhere - and the local crew at Gorleston had already been surfing since daybreak against police advice.

Sightseers hoping for high drama lined the seafront as Sam paddled out into leftovers from a rough 4ft rebounding from the pier.  Greg fired away, unaware that his Pit Pilot exclusive - and his surf star - were about to be hijacked.  A discreet word to one of the media pack in search of flood stories had alerted them to Sam's status. (Sorry, Greg.)  Before he left the water, news and pics of Sam's east coast experience were heading back to the west country. The Daily Mail scored a beach interview and Sky News, who had a helicopter overhead, grabbed him for a live chat which failed to happen despite an hour's wait.

Sam was still fielding press calls as the pair headed south to Lowestoft, where cleaner 3ft lines gave him an almost empty canvas.

As far as I know,  Sam was the first pro surfer to paddle out at Lowestoft in the town's 40 year surfing history.  No surprise then, that one local leaving the sea after what he thought had been a good session, glanced back at the Sennen star popping airs, spraying cutbacks, landing floaters and getting covered.  "He's a bit good, isn't he !" he said.

I had to agree.

Footnote for Pit Pilot readers.
While Greg was diligently shooting away on the beach, a clearly embarassed lady inquired "Excuse me, is that your tripod over there?" 
"Yes, why?" replied the editor of the least politically-correct surf mag in Britain.
"Because my dog has just relieved himself all over it".
Give him his due, the editor was as amused as I was.

Comments

[samsmart]

come on !
my left foot is better than yours Alex ? im left footed.
By the way, i was just browsing your alexwade.com site and stumbled across a pretty radical photo of you skating.....the shoes,the shorts,the top,the pose....How radical can you get?oh and the odd socks...MUST of been from the 80s?
Anyway, enough of the Tomfoolery,Great Yarmouth was a GREAT trip, looking forward to the December issue of Pit Pilot mag!
See you in the water soon(if the surf picks up)!

[Alex Wade]

Evening Sam,

OK, I admit it! Your left foot has got the edge over mine... And yep, that photo was from the late 80s - a time of immense radicalism. It was taken at the University of East Anglia outside the main union building. Inside, more sensible students were voting for the next university student union president. Unbeknown to me, I'd been entered as a candidate, under an anarcho-skate mandate and with the slogan 'Universal suffrage is the counter-revolution.' As someone who had no idea he was standing for election, and was happily ollieing onto the wall and enjoying the skate heaven of UEA, I polled 17 votes.

The winner, though - proving just how radical life was back then - was a gerbil. Sadly, the national media were outraged and the gerbil was not allowed to be the president.

Catch you in the water soon,
Alex

[samsmart]

Classic stuff Alex.
Thanks for that explanation.

Speaking of being in the water,you and Harry are quite a force in the line -up these days,

Speaking of being radical, id better be carefull what i say as it was me.....sporting that bright GREEN and PINK wetsuit last summer joining the late 80s revolution.
ha ha