SALTDAYS- EUROPE

French Photographer Stephane Salerno has some of the best photos of bodyboarding in Europe. He has an amazing site with lots of frenchie photos including the beautifull spot Vanthrax(photo) and the latest tow out session in France. Dont miss it.

It's a surfing site.. but the truth is only boogies drop this waves. Check out some other photos of the power sessions that went in fronton lately in el gran surf site.

Australian Rush mag is doing its anual pool to elect the international bodyboarder of the year. Some euros are on the race so let's show some support.
best bodyboarder: Cedric Dufaure, David Perez, Hugo Pinheiro, Ernesto Evana, Yeray Martinez, Amaury Laverhne, Porkito, Rui Ferreira, Aritz Larrinaga, Pierre Louis Costes...
Best Rookie: Pierre Louis Costes, Diego Cabrera, Nelson Mora, Joao Barciela, Jonan Bengoetxea...
Best female: Eloise Burroux, Rita Pires, Eunate Aguirre, Catarina Sousa...
Best Dropknee: Ardiel Jimenez, Fred Compagnon, Nuno Leitao..
Legend: Nicolas capdeville, Goncalo Faria, Airam Cabrera, Paulo Costa, Ardiel Jimenez, Yeray Martinez..
Soulman: Ivan Fonte "sito", Nicolas Richard, Ricardo Faustino, Eric Gamez, Joao Oliveira, Danny wall..
..and many others!..suggestions?
Have your vote and send your answers for nofriendsaus@hotmail.com

Mythical lisbon spot carcavelos has come to life with the large swells that hit the Portuguese coast these past weeks. On ocasion carcavelos proved why it is one of the best beachbreaks in Europe. As usual all the boogies were present to score the epic conditions, including this lucky man Nuno Cardoso(photo) who scored one of the bombs of the day. Photo MTN, you can check some other amazing photos of this day at MTNphoto site.

Portuguese bodyboarders Manuel Centeno(photo) and Ricardo Rico had their trip to Mexico featured in Brazillian site abbctour. You can find details on the same puerto season in the latest Vert mag. Manuel Centeno, former WQT world champ returned this year in force after a year retirement for school. He and Rico are both sponsored by deeply who sponsored this trip.

Guilherme Tamega the multi world champion has joined forces with Onda wetsuits, perhaps the biggest wetsuit company working in Europe. Guilherme visited the factory in Portugal and signed a contract that will put him wearing onda products and spread the word around the globe. This was also a chance to check out Tamega's new high end board, that seems to be coming with slick graphics and all new materials.

Straight from the Canary Islands comes challenge gravity, bodyboardng clothing for everyone. They allready have a solid team that includes Igor Sanchez(photo), Ivan Gouveia and Abian Perdomo and promise to keep supporting bodyboard. check some killer designs at challengegravity.com

The dragon psico tour is a new project featuring portuguese hotshot Ricardo Faustino(photo) and big rider Nuno Trovão. They will visit a lot of heavy waves including europe's own "psico waves" and also teahupoo and sharkisland, hoping to produce some media attention for europe bodyboarding. Guests will include Portuguese top bajolo, Alvaro Padron, Airam Cabrera among others.

If you havent saw the movie "a blank canvas" yet, let me tell you it's a must. Produced by English Director Mickey Smith this film features a trip around Europe(and its islands) showing its huge diversity. There are some well known waves featured like super spot Quemao(photo) and others less known, so get your pack and find them, it's not even that difficult. Thanks to Antonio Prado's invertair for the frames section.

How classic can fronton get? check out this gallery by photoman Richard Aleman, starring locals Ruben "king" Redondo(sorry) Alejandro Barbosa, Ardiel Jimenez, Igor Sanchez, Ivan "sito" Fonte and Dave Winchester, and find out.

Kpaloa must have one of the widest ranges of colors of any fin manufacturer. This year they will introduce another couple of new ones(photo) so with all the options there is a good chance to look original. Amongst other riders Kpaloa is sponsoring 6x world champion Tamega (here at the Jenks Pro) photo: Follz

Tom Boyle(photo), a legend bodyboarder and pioneer producer of bodyboarding videos like Killer Days (1991), The Ultimate Wave Riding Vehicle(1994) and indonesian experience(1990) among many other trully classic titles of the bodyboarding history anounced that will be re-releasing all the collection again in DVD by a strong request fom bodyboarders. A nice oportunity for all to check bodyboarding's history and some of its notable characters. Photo Neal Myiake

How about these two secret spots around the coruna area? Seems like the locals are getting it nicely without making noise.

For many time people wandered how it would be like to see a water photo from cave in Portugal. Specially because the land pictures never seemed to show the real power of the wave. well, the wait is over, here are some frames thanks to the bossitup crew.(if u ever go to portugal and need shooting contact them). Sequence: one - two - three

The Iba manages great things, like proclaiming a dropknee regional-world champion (isnt this a paradox?). Anyway there were big efforts in 2005 to put a tour that hopefully will follow this year. There were 4 events put up by Clayton Pickworth in Australia, Ken Nakatsugawa in Japan, Paul Cooper and Bob Thomas in Hawaii(2). Congratulations to the much expected champion Dave Hubbard, and to the relatevely unknown Grant Maloney from Aus(2). Best european was Simone Romano from Italy. Dropknee is all about having fun so enjoy.

The big swell has allready created some great bigsurfing conditions. Reports in Spain tell us waves up to 4m in some places, and others like mundaka, la galea or brusco cranking. Bretagne in France was also one of the first regions to catch the swell and had reefs going up to 3m. In Portugal the mythical spot carcavelos wich requires a big push to break has allready showed some classy conditions. (photo: MTNphoto)

The big storm is coming, it's the result of the joining forces of two big depressions, something that dint happened a for some time. This is the biggest swell spot i found so far. 12 solid meters in Doninos Spain. What the? Anyone found bigger?

A huge swell will hit the shores of Europe in the next couple of days. According to Windguru the height of the swell should reach more than 8mts in some countries like Ireland and Portugal. England and France will also get their share of pumping swell, but spain is on top with a prediction of a 10 mts plus for places like Coruna...Should be something worth seeing. Unfortunately there will be stormy conditions accompaning this swell but it will get some "once in a year" spots working for sure.

Bodyboard legend Kavan Okumura from Hawaii is currently serving time at a state prison. In a letter released to the community Kavan urges boogers to take care when chosing wich way in life, specially dealing with drugs, that can become a nasty addiction that takes control of your life. Kavan Okumura was one of the best in the 80's and is regarded to be one of the first bodyboarders to do no hand spins(yes, there was such a time) and owner of a great fluid style. Kavan is still passionate at bodyboarding so we wish him all the best and that we can see him in the water as soon as possible. Photo: Tom Boyle

Take a look at this preview from a brazillian movie. The video will be released soon, and is the result of a project by some Braz pro riders. Altough the waves are not totally classic the level of riding is shocking and the fun is all there. Featuring: uri Valadão, Fabio Pinheiro, Bernardo Puertas... Source: Waves

The new Vert bodyboard mag is out! Inside find an exclusive story on this year's Portugal champ Hugo Pinheiro, plus what went on in Mexico this season with all the pros, the portuguese readers pool, and some shocking action in Portuguese reefs. Avaiable soon here at saltdays.

Pierre Louis Costes was definitely one of the standouts this season in Hawaii. Pierre showed fearless and got the crowds attention for his skills and guts.. many people are allready regarding him as future world champion! Let's hope the pressure doesnt get to him, just have fun Pierre. In this picture from a coming australian video Pierre inverts it like rubber man.

Portuguese online mag insidebb has launched another issue. Amongst other relevant stuff you have to check the new portuguese generation hitting Portugal's death wave "Cave". That's Gastão Entrudo(photo) on this solid one. photo: Marcos Guerra

While many people were dealing with crowds and harassment in Hawaii, Spanish hot shot Jon Ander seems to be scoring big in his trip to Mexico. Just check out this photo it says all. source :arritituki.com

The world class wave in Spain, Mundaka has come to life again, after a year of damaged sand bottom due to the draggings in the port. Altough not classic, the left is breaking again thanks to the heavy rainning this season, that pushed more sand into the spot. Looks like nature is putting things straight much to the delight of bodyboarders like Portugal's Rui Ferreira(photo) now living in Spain. photo: Larri

There's more twisting going in David's life than just his inverts. he was just recently crowned 6x champion of Canary Islands, a feat we have to say is pretty hard to accomplish, specially with all the talent in Canaries. Dominguez is also working with wr-rider on his new pro-model, wich looks sick. Alf has just opened a surf shop in Punta Blanca (Tenerife island) just near the famous break of Alcala. It is the first shop owned by a bodyboarder so we can only expect good stuff from it. So if you happen to be around the Canary islands or you life in Tenerife, please stop by alf's new shop and he will take good care of you. photo: Grimon/lpsurf