Twenty-five years ago this fall, I was a last minute replacement on a Surfer Magazine trip to Scotland that turned out to be one of the most enjoyable and eye-opening of my life.
When I heard photographer Rob Gilley was planning the trip, I asked if I could join him and surfers Justin Poston and Brad Gerlach. Rob said he wanted to keep the group at three, but after Brad pulled out I was able to go.
In 1996 B.G. (before Google) I could find very little information about the surf in Scotland. I heard faint rumors of it having good waves while on a trip to France, and from my large collection of magazines going back decades, I found one short article in a 90’s Australian Surfing World with a few pulled back photos of breaks, but with no surfers in lineup. This was all I knew of the surf in Scotland when I asked Rob if I could tag along.
At the time, going on a surf trip somewhere cold was considered odd and risky. It was not a popular thing to do yet, even for the frequent traveler. With Scotland’s reputation for gloomy weather we wondered if we’d be sitting in the rain the whole time, and with the country being so far north, would the wetsuits of the day would keep us warm enough.
Rob had a feeling that a certain stretch of coast held quality reefs breaks and perhaps the world’s most northerly surfed point break. He had something called The Surf Report, which were relatively obscure four-page surf guides published by Surfer Magazine, that had no photos just brief descriptions of surf spots, written by various contributors. Some of the info helpful, some of it inaccurate and dated.
We did find great waves at a variety of breaks, thanks in part to the Surf Report, but also the small crew of friendly local surfers we met who pointed us in the right direction. We also had multiple days of sunshine, the water wasn’t as cold as we expected thanks to the Gulf Stream, and we saw beautiful landscapes and historical sites.
For many reasons I look back on this trip with nostalgia. It was the tail end of a time when calling cards and post cards were the most common way to reach home. This made it feel like you really were away. With the lack of information and forecasting tools – the daily newspaper satellite image all we had – it felt like an adventure. Scotland made me look at the globe differently, and inspired me to make further travels to places off the beaten path.
Photo: Rob Gilley
All photos were taken with the one single-use point-and-shoot film camera that I brought, except the last surf photo is of me taken by Rob Gilley. On a side note, it’s interesting how few photos I took in this era, especially before I pursued professional photography a few years later.