Arrived in Dublin saturday night – only one thing to do when you get here – boost your B vitamins and iron in an old fashioned bar – like Fallons which has been serving pints to passing surf bums since the 17th century! Heading to Dingle and Ballydavid the long way round – via Donegal hoping to catch a few waves in Bundoran on my way….
Categories: Photos, surf mama • Tags: bundoran, donegal, dublin, Guinness, surfmama, surftrip
Twilight meets Point Break at Vout-O-Reenees tonight….. Surf Session in the crypt 11th July 7.00 Vout-O-Reenees 30 Prescot Street London E1 8AZ FREE. Signed copies of Surf Mama and awesome cocktails mixed by Carson . Discover your inner surf bunny at Vout O Reenees, tips from Surf Mama training scheme, take-off practise on the bar, how to stay zen in a wipeout, why beer and surf are the perfect combination… Unless you prefer a Pink Flamingo….
Categories: events, surf mama • Tags: Surf Session
On the road with the Art Car Boot Fair last weekend – would have loved to sling a surf board on top of the beautiful vintage Vauxhall Firenza and drive it away ….. but I was daytripping it on the train, and didn’t have time for much except the Boot Fair and a quick Full Brazilian in the bar afterwards. Next year I’ll take my dancing shoes and stay for the weekend. Art Car Boot Fair Hunt and Darton Café
Categories: events, Photos, surf mama • Tags: Art Car Boot Fair, Liverpool, Liverpool Biennale, surf mama, vauxhall firenza, wilma johnson
SURF MAMA Wilma Johnson, Summersdale £8.99 Artist mother and wife Wilma Johnson was living a seemingly contented life on the west coast of Ireland when, in her mid forties , she was overwhelmed by the desire to seize the moment and move to the French resort of Biarritz to take up surfing in the Atlantic Ocean. However, Wilma’s dreams soon turned sour, with her marriage starting to suffer and her children speaking no French. Her first attempt at surfing was […]
Categories: press, surf mama • Tags: beach reads, Biarritz, France, Living in France, surf, wilma johnson
SURF MAMA Wilma Johnson Summersdale £8.99 An autobiographical novel by a self-professed earth mother turned surf babe, who after ten years living on the remote west coast of Ireland had three children, a few chickens, a failing marriage and the beginnings of a mid-life crisis to show for it. The answer, relocate to Biarritz and defy the male-dominated surf scene by learning to surf. Though narcissistic at times,Wilma’s tongue-in-cheek humour makes it okay to re-invent yourself post-40, post children and […]
Categories: press, surf mama • Tags: Biarritz, French Entree, Living in France, surf mama, wilma johnson
How the Beach Changed Our Lives. Something incredible happened to these readers when they headed on to the sand. Could I really learn to surf ? Sitting on a lonely stretch of beach I gazed out to sea and asked myself where it had all gone wrong ? I was 45, living in a coastal village near Biarritz, France, and my marriage had ended. Nick and I had three gorgeous children and had tried so hard to make it work, even […]
Categories: press, surf mama • Tags: beach, change your life, mamas surf club, surf, surfbooks, woman's own
I arrived in London at my mother’s house and there by the door were these two wooden bellyboards, they brought back vague memories of childhood holidays in Lyme Regis. Stormy days when the whole family would pack a picnic and head off to Charmouth beach to catch the waves under the cliffs, Mary Anning’s dinosaurs embedded in the mud. The children were only allowed waist deep half terrified by threats of currents that would whisk us away, half ecstatic to […]
Categories: Blog, Photos, surf mama • Tags: 80 something, surfing, women surfing
The flat spell continues, soon surfers will start to lose their religion and make the ultimate sacrifice to the pagan sea gods by burning surfboards, while manically beating on their bongo drums to summon up a swell. Partly to remember what a wave looked like Florence and I headed over to Jazz the Glass in Biarritz last night for the opening of Sylvain Cazenave‘s exhibition of surf photos from four corners of the ocean. I have a running joke with Sylvain after I […]
Categories: Blog, surf mama • Tags: Biarritz, surf, surfbooks, surfphotos
After a crazy week in London launching the book it was quite calming to get back home and back to my roots with the Mamas Surf Club on friday. A bit too calm in fact – we had the sort of waves I dreamt of when we first started in 2005, tiny to non-existent. For a while we had another motto alongside ‘Out of the kitchen and into the Surf’. ‘Never too small for the Mamas.’ But I’ll say the […]
Categories: Blog, letter form Olatua, surf mama • Tags: Biarritz, mamas surf club, surf, surf mama, wilma johnson, women surfing
Surf Mama