From Tim and Christina ...

Hi Paul,

I hope you are well.

It has been a while since my last mail. My wife Christina and I just returned from some weeks of vacation in the southwest of France. We had beautiful weather and I surfed every day, most of the time on a mat and occasionally on a paipo. The waves ranged from almost to small to ride to solid 7 feet swell with on- or offshore wind and all combinations thereof.

This year Christina and I spend more time together surfing mats. She has progressed quite a bit and the surfing with her are my favourite memories of this vacation. After one ride on the OMNI she told me how “shocked” she was about the speed that she got. I just replied: “I told you :-)”

 Here is a little story that I would like to share with you: On a day with a particularly nice morning surf, I decided to test a new water housing that I had got for one of my cameras. As we returned to the beach in the afternoon I was really disappointed. The wind was now strong onshore and turned the surf into a week mess with murky water due to the low tide. I didn’t even want to even bother with the camera.

Christina however, positive as she always is, encouraged me try it anyway and so I did. On top of the really bad surf conditions it was super bright and I couldn’t see a thing on the display. I had no clue where the focus was and most of the time I had to guess if I was recording or not. When I left the water I thought that it was a total disaster. However, I managed to salvage some of the mostly blurry video material and edit a short and dreamy little video that I call “Rêverie d’été” (a hopefully correct Google translation of “Summer daydream”).

Again and again I am surprised how much fun a surfmat can be in bad surf. You can see it in Christina’s face. It’s real. I don’t know about you but these moments touch me and that fun and joy is the reason I am surfing too.

With kind regards,
Tim