SURFING. 14 октомври в 21:18 --A small taste of surf conditions and culture encountered in the Black and Caspian seas--

CESME-- The 14-day trip filming in the Wild East with professional surfers Gary Saavedra, Perth Standlick and Ian Walsh was a success in adventure, finding new surf and exploring foreign culture.
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Our crew capture footage never seen in the surf world, and in the end we're stoked to put this documentary together. This film will show the world that, with the right amount of wind, direction and timing, surfing the Black and Caspian seas is no problem.

But that doesn't mean it's easy. The trick is to catch the right forecast, and get ready for a whole new style of surfing. Ever changing waves, short swell intervals, different water salinity and density -- even our pros were taken by surprise.

Here's a wrap up of the surf conditions we found, and in what stage the surf culture is in around sports in Bulgaria, Turkey, and Azerbaijan.

BULGARIA

Bulgaria was a good start, we had two days of surf on arrival that left us with a good taste in our mouths for the sweet but salty Black Sea.

The spots we checked out -- Lozenedz, Sozopol and Hvara -- were north of the industrial city Burgas, insanely cheap, and all within a 30- to 45- minute drive of one another. Strong winds coming from the northeast gave us solid surf, and there were plenty of point breaks. We found waves head high, but locals say come winter conditions easily get to overhead barrels... if you can take the cold temps.

Overall, surf culture in Bulgaria was the most developed out of the three countries we went to -- but still small and slow to bubble up from the windsurfer and summer holiday scene. Thanks to their local crew and guys like Bulgarian board shaper Tony Gogov, things are growing.

TURKEY

Turkey was our lull and deflation in conditions and confidence in finding surf, but it enabled our crew to get their hands dirty in Istanbul and immerse ourselves in the coastal culture and heartfelt Turkish hospitality.

While the rest of the crew went to Azerbaijan, Saavedra stayed to hit a swell bringing shoulder to head high waves to the shores north of Istanbul, around beach towns Kerpe and Sile. Again, locals say that in winter waves break at three meters with offshore winds... at around six degree Celsius.

Surfing in Turkey is still just beginning and pretty much untapped. Danube Surf Boards have done a lot to encourage surfing with their camps and board shaping, while BlackSeaSurfers.com are committed to get a scene growing in Istanbul.

AZERBAIJAN

Azerbaijan was our wild card, and we all felt a little strange, but excited, showing up to a country foreign to the surf scene. Our crew had studied wind patterns in the Caspian Sea, and we thought our best bet for hitting the right conditions was just north of the peninsula that Baku sits on.

Standlick and Walsh found surf just ten kilometers shy of the Russian border. We hit sideshore, windswept surf; not the best swell direction but bigger than we thought. We couldn't spot a bend in the coastline, so the surfers picked a spot where a river ran out and made a transition at the bottom. Ideal conditions were still further north, but Standlick and Walsh managed to surf waves shoulder to head high.

From what our research shows, and from what we gathered after spending time there as a surf crew, the oldest boardsport around is still waiting to be discovered in Azerbaijan. The few passersby we saw had no idea what two dudes with boards and no sail were trying to pull out in the water. Local athletes were amazed surfing in their country was even possible. But we planted the seed, it just needs some tending to.

Stay tuned for side stories, behind the scenes, photos, clips and updates as we go into production to create the first surf documentary every to have captured professional surfers ripping in Bulgaria, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. - A. Sykes

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