Have been trying for a long time to work out how self professed uber eco dudes Howies are so eco friendly...

Even wrote to them to ask - no reply.

I mean, if they are so eco friendly why do they bring out a fresh bunch of kit every season when there's nothing wrong with the stuff they already produce? Cos I have to admit it is nice stuff.

But think of the huge carbon footprint a new clothing range creates.

The view in this part of Wales (St David's) is that they're a bunch of London types who moved down here a few years ago and are now trying to pass themselves off as cool eco dudes without much to really back it up apart from a load of sanctimonious stuff about how green and trendy they and their mates are in their catalogue(why a new one of those twice a year too?).

Never seen 'em in the surf round here...

Don't see 'em listed as members of One Per Cent either...how very odd for such eco warriors. 

I recently pitched a story idea to the Sunday Telegraph -  a travel feature on the Faroe Islands.

Back came a quick response politely declining my offer since they were already doing a piece in which the Faroes featured - 50 Top UK Islands...

Leaving aside the utter tedium of the lists which seem to bedevil every travel section and magazine these days (like readers can really decideon visiting a destination on the basis of a 50 word description and a website address - oh sorry, it's up to the readers to get off their fat arses and check out the website is it? Sorry, and there's me thinking that's what we read travel sections for, to give us all that info...) how on earth do the Faroes, a Danish protectorate several hundred miles north of the UK, feature in a list of best British islands?

Travel writing is surely on its last legs if national broadsheets are churning out this kind if thing - and if the editor of the travel section on a London daily has to ask me "Where is Kamchatka, exactly?"

Well I've seen it all now. French outdoor gear manufacturers Millet are running a competition with the first prize being the chance to summit Everest.

To be honest there will be requirements of the winner that they do possess the potential to get to the top of the world (one wonders what these may be - getting to the top of your stairs without a tea break, perhaps?) but egad, how the mighty have fallen (by which I mean Everest).

Who could have imagined that one day the summit of the world's highest mountain would become the prize in a competition? Whatever shine was left on this once great prize in mountaineering has now, surely, faded and died. 

What next? Big Brother on Denali? Xtreme-Factor on K2?

God almighty, I wish I'd been born in the days of Whymper and co. - at least the mountains had some mystery and dignity about them then... 

SURFING AND SHOPPING AT BOURNEMOUTH REEF

News reaches me of late that Bournemouth reef now has the ‘official' go-ahead (I thought it had had this long ago, but ‘officialdom' moves in exceeding slow and mysterious ways) and we can expect to be surfing pristine south coast waves next October.

Well, well...

Its many moons since I last surfed the Bournemoutharea, with hot local kneeboarder Martin Corr (are you still out there Martin?). I had made the unwise decision to spend some time forging a career in London (I lasted less than a year with that ill-conceived project...) and Bournemouth was one of the best options for getting a wave if you had the great misfortune to be based in that over-crowded, over-priced corner of the country.

But it wasn't much cop to be honest - crowded, mushy and pretty shapeless, on all but two occasions when I surfed there it really was a case of making the best of a bad job as you slalomed your way through fishing lines dangling from the pier and boogie boarders and kooks clogging up the inside.

But this is all set to change. The Bournemouth Tourism press release promises a doubling in the size and consistency of the waves on the new reef, to be built 225 metres offshore at Boscombe - so good will it be that the waves will be ramped up to a ‘grade 5' on a good swell (apparently Pipeline is a ‘grade 8', but I'm not sure where this grading system comes from). Indeed Paul Clarke of Bournemouth Surfing Centre says it will be "...the nearest thing to an Atlantic roller this side of Cornwall" (what about Kimmeridge, I can't help but ask...?). Whatever...

This is all going ahead thanks to the input of Dr. Kerry Black, an expert in artificial reef design and development who has also been involved in similar surf reefs in New Zealand and Australia.

And on top of the super new break at Bournemouth, surfers visiting the area will also, after emerging from a sesh on their grade 5 peaks, enjoy a veritable surf cornucopia of designer surf pods (don't ask me...), a surf ‘academy' (no mere surf school for Bournemouth), and a ‘surf-themed retail outlet'. I have to say that latter phrase sent a cold shiver down my spine - Top Shop meets Pipeline. Lord help us...

Right then. This being a blog forthright opinion is clearly called for on this new development in the world of UK surfing, so here's what I think...

I'm resolutely old school, and whilst that leave me unsure about the wisdom of tinkering with Nature to create waves, I'm all for more quality surf on wave-starved areas of coastline like the English Channel. Although I have to say that it does take quite a stretch of the imagination to see Bournemouth's surf suddenly doubling in consistency and size - it seems to me a pretty common scenario on the south coast is two-foot, gutless and onshore; well four-foot is better but gutless and onshore is still gutless and onshore...we shall see, and as the author of the upcoming third edition of Surf UK I will certainly be making the journey to the reef when it opens to see what comments it's worthy of in ‘the definitive guide to surfing in Britain' (ahem...).

But I seriously do wish all involved in it the best of luck.

However, we then we come to the associated onshore developments in conjunction with the reef. I'm sorry, but for us old schoolers this simply has nothing - I repeat nothing - to do with the surf experience. I'm sure I won't be alone when I say surfing is about enjoying quality, QUIET waves with just a few mates, chilling out on a lovely beach afterwards, then popping into a nice pub for a pint before heading home, thoroughly stoked and surfed out.

The idea of designer beach huts (the ‘surf pods'), a surf ‘academy' and God help us a surf retail outlet is truly hideous. Why not just call it Kooksville and have done with it? The ‘real' surfers who are making the most of the reef will be lost amidst a sea of wannabes and poseurs in the shallows, the ‘pods' and the ‘surf-themed retail outlets' convincing themselves that yes, I've hired the gear and bought the t-shirt so now I'm a surfer.

I could go on - I already have for too long - but in a nutshell the reef idea is innovative and deserves to work. But what a shame it has to come with all that's worst about 21^st century surfing and living tacked on to it. ‘Surf-themed retail outlet'? - as Father Ted would have said: "Feck off!"

Enough of the regular (ahem) ACL updates - who cares other than me?

Of far more importance is the recent loss of a new and rather dapper titfer (hat) purchased on the mean streets of London last week. Within 24 hours of said purchase I'd lost the damned thing.

Perhaps the brief spell of time it was off my head led to excess chilling, consequent forgetfullness and the resultantloss of hat...

Either way, it's of no great consequence for a swift perusal of the various corners of my home revealed no less than 16 baseball caps, six ski hats, a rather extravagant furry number from the Appalachian Mountains and a couple of old school flat caps.

Clearly I am a man with a titfer fetish. For as we all know, humans have but one head on which to wear our choice of headgear (unless you come from Port Talbot) so why the need for twenty-plus hats?

Whatever...I'm off to the gentlemen's outfitters in Haverfordwest post haste to purchase a replacement for the lost titfer, and maybe rearrange a few books in the local book store (see The Times Online Surf Nation blog for more on that...)

Rather than meaningless rants here's a  blog with a reason...

Back in March I blew my ACL skiing in Canada; operation to reconstruct it was in July; and I'm now 15 weeks in to the rehab programme.

So from here on I'll be posting occasional reports on how it's going so that other poor buggers in the same situation can (should they wish) compare and contrast theirown progress.

Today's report will be short as the sun is shining and I'm just about to go and put on my custom made and very expensive knee brace and take the dog for our longest walk since the operation, which may be around three miles.

My knee still aches and doesn't have a full range of movement, with full flexion and extension being very painful, but I can get around without too bad a limp (although yesterday's session in the gym has flared things up somewhat). Apparently this is all quite normal at this stage - there's still at least another three months of rehab ahead, if not more, and fun activities such as surfing and skiing are totally out of bounds until the new year at the earliest (later for the skiing).

But as I said the sun is shining and I must dash, so one last piece of advice for now. Don't blow your ACL!! It really is NO FUN at all... 

It's not as if I know a great deal about rugby but I do know that it's extremely satisfying to see those loud mouthed, up-themselves prats in green and gold made to eat humble pie last weekend.

 A tough Aussie battler weeps by the side of the pitch - swing low you sweet chariot and hand him a tissue.

 HahahahahahahahahahahahahHA!