Woah, long time no writing

Well, sorry we haven't been writing anything for like....2 years.... but it doesn't mean we haven't been surfing! There have been many epic trips to the Baltic, Sweden and all over the world for the Midnight Runners' crew...we just haven't talked about it.
But last night we went for an evening surf in 2-3 deg water and +2 deg out...It was really nice and we now welcome the warmer season for 2014..
I will try to keep the site up to date from now on...LOVE RAT

Can you believe it? a whole week of surf!

check this out from saturday and onwards...yeeoooow..

http://www.smhi.se/vadret/vadret-i-varlden/ortsvader/hourByHourTable.do?starttime=2012-12-13%2014%3A00%3A00&endtime=2012-12-22%2021%3A59%3A00&geonameid=3041732

Winter surf Swedish Style!!!

An epic session went down today in minus 7 deg and a raging snowstorm!!
While we were in the Balmy +4 degree water (about 2hrs surfing) it snowed about 30cms..hahaha.
Here's a few pics for ya's

Pretty crappy pic because it was much much better than this garbage pic shows but I couldn't stand and wait for the sets! It was -7 degs out and snowing buckets and I didn't have any gloves on!!

This was the road out from the surf..this was the vision from the car!



 

This was a little one when we arrived, It got much much better when we paddled out, the wind shifted and went offshore and the sets snuck in and IT SNOWED like 30cms while we were in the surf!!



The boys before going out, -7 degs out and +4 in the water!



Check the 2cm rim of ice on my hood's visor! hahaha



David stumbling thru the rocks in the dark on the way in!



This is what ya call 'RIM FROST' HAHAHA

Jimmy surrounded by a universe of snow stars!





Woodsy super happy to be back in real surf temps after just getting back from 7 weeks in Bali!






It was a classic surf and our coldest one yet...We got lucky to be able to change into our wetty's at Jimmy's place and do the same when we got out..it was totally ok in the water though but you couldn't sit still for more than a minute or two, you had to paddle or keep moving in some way all the time..I often lay in the water because it was at least +4 and not -6!! HAHAHA
The Runners are back on line!

CUTTS IS BACK

Heath 'tha sheath' Cutts Cutting Cutter has returned to sunny Sweden hahahaha...
And to celebrate his return a week ago we took off from Östersund a few days ago in a raging snowstorm and literally PLOWED our way to the coast 200kms away behind trucks, snowplows doing 35km/h for 30kms, jackknifed trucks, cars in ditches having spun out in the snow and slid off the road...we ripped the protection plate of the underneath of my car jusr BULLZOZING through the 30cm deep 'first snowfall of the year' SLUSH!!
BUT WE WERE ON A MISSION AND WE KEPT ON BULLDOZING..
It took nearly 3 1/2 hrs but it was worth it cause when we got there we drove around the point and were met with this sight!! It was craaaaaankin'!
YEOOOOOOWWW..

 It was absolutely pissing down rain when we arrived and I tried to get a couple of shots of the sets (these photos are of the waves between the sets) but it was raining so hard my iphone got drenched in like 1 minute so I gave up and put my wetty on instead!! See Heath squinting from the rain hahaha

It was about +3 degs air temps and about 9 degs in the water so it was warmer in the water than out!!
We got some bombs...Jimmy Shibata, a fella from the coast had been out surfing by himself for like 3 hrs before we got there and he said that it was even bigger earlier...wish we hadn't got stuck in the nowstorm!! but we got a few anyway..yeeeooooooww
Welcome home Cutts!!
Peace from Da Rat

Yehooo it was PUMPIN' in Norway,,pics and story comin soon!! ;-)

Jay,Woodsy and I took a little respite from the slowly emerging spring weather in Sweden and pissed off for a looong weekend in Norway for some surf..


It was pumping the whole time..We got perfect waves from 3ft up to 10ft! it was great..here's some pics for yas.

Surfing Swedish Winter Style

(Ratty)
A taste of what we sometimes do just to get wet...
This surf was solid 5-6ft but the only problem was that it was snowing sideways straight into our eyes and it hurt sooo much! It was like small ice needles hitting you in the eyeballs ALL the time so it made it incredibly hard to see the waves approaching. Once you were up and riding it was totally ok to surf..
Although it looks unbearably cold it actually isn't that bad..you are actually quite warm inside the thermos effect of the neoprene.....it's only bad AFTER you have surfed and you have to take your wetty OFF.....THEN IT'S BAD.....
Because you're already wet, even if you do it in stages and get dressed in stages along the way you still freeze immediately once you have taken whatever part of your wetsuit gear off. eg wetty gloves off.....fingers frozen in 10 secs flat! etc..Even if you put normal gloves on asap it's already too late so by the time you've 'section by section' changed and dressed you're still a total iceblock by the time you get to getting your feet out of your 6/5/4 wetty..it's AGONY..HAHAHAHA but still heaps of fun and a total adventure!! enjoy the pics..R.I.P AI.

One man down

The Midnight runners crew

From left, Woodsy (alias Postman Pat (and his black and white cat), Grant Ratman, Jay Han Solo, Heath Sheath (alias cutts cutter)..Johan (alias kojak, not in pic)..

As of last week the guy on the right Heath Sheath bailed out and headed home to Oz..boohoo..we are now one man down and have to try harder to motivate each other to go surfing in 4 deg water and howling snowstorms..it was fun will it lasted mate.. ;-) peace from the midnight runners!

some old time photos of a life before crowds

solomon islands

little narrabeen firing on all cylinders

have dreads will travel

south oz me and mick mendoza ..... no-one else out anywhere, 86

henio (on the left) on the way to Lisbon airport 91, coyt and sappy... darkness

our van, note the plastic doll parts) we collected them off the beaches and then tied them onto other surfers cars.. eurotrip 89-91

secret sydney, 4 days straight no-one out

secret sydney as above

glassing the board i made in england...lacanau 89 with the french guy coyt and sappy

my surf shop manly oz 91

rat, dreads and filthy slab death pits@ 86-87

one of the early boards i made

monkey on shoulder,bali 85

rat and kids, oz '06

van life eurotrip with coyt 89-90-91

view of nats shop @84

huge ulu's, that's me paddling in the circle!

have didge will travel, coyt playing my didge somewhere in asia, 87-89

rat at nats shop @84-85

mundaca 89 with coyt

nats shop, the final chapter 89 before leaving for europe, note the jah board on the ground to the right..one of my shapes and one of my favourite boards ever

one of the first ever simon anderson 'thrusters' bought from the man himself

the 'chiba surf team' chiba japan 87

proudly holding a gun i shaped in newquay england '89, i wrapped it in a blanket and took it to lacanau and glassed it in the first ever surfboard shop there, a small shed. We couldn't communicate at all 'cause he couldn't speak english and we couldn't speak one word of french so we drank wine and had a blast together. the pic of us standing in his shed is further up in the earlier pics.

biiig ulus, it was an epic day with just me and a few brave,(stupid) souls out..It got bigger and bigger and bigger as the day went on with no breaks at all in the waves..just one continuous never ending, ever growing SET..when the tide came up it made it extremely dificult,with the 30km/hr sweep happening, to time the return into the cave to get out of the water..if you missed the cave you were well and truly stuffed!!