Alan Stokes » Music & Art

StRaNGe Beautiful LIFE – Episode 4: Je m’ appelle ALAN

Stokesy — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:32:58 +0000

I’ve been travelling around this globe we call home for the best part of my life now, spending summers in Europe and winters where ever the waves have led me. I have had the opportunity to immerse myself in different cultures and ways of life all around the world.

Thats the beautiful thing about travel it opens your eyes to the possibilities and teaches you things about the simplest necessities of life, when you leave the confides and sanctuary of home your perception of things shifts you become vulnerable and lost to the new.

Im so used to this experience now that after a few weeks at home I find myself craving it all over again.

France is one of these places I have been lucky enough to visit travelling there for the European summer for as long as I can remember.

Sunshine, endless sand banks, powerful waves, beautiful woman, red wine and cakes to die for are just a few of the reasons why the south west of France ticks all the boxes for us surfers.

We had a real mix of conditions for this episode, one day it was glassy and 42 degrees and the next its pouring down with rain and howling onshore, filming these little shorts is great fun and you really appreciate the things around you, looking at everything as if it were a picture perfect ideal. After two weeks the weather and waves had tested us and by watching the video you can see we really started to loose the plot but we had a great time indulging in the French way of life and they really know how to live it well. So here’s to France

Knobbly Knees

Stokesy — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:06:23 +0000

Yew finally had a chance to update the website it took an knee injury to slow me down so here i am with some time on my hands and my leg up in the air.
Its been a crazy couple of months the StRaNGe Beautiful LIFE series has gone down really well and episode 4 is looking really cool. Check out all of the episodes just uploaded to this site.
I had the chance to compete in the European surfing championships held in Bundoran Ireland and came away with a 3rd place finish, over the moon, it was a great team and we had us a blast.
Just got back from seeing the doc yesterday and he told me that my knee will be fine and that i should make a speedy recovery so that was one hell of a relief i can tell you.
Episode 4 is out real soon so stay tuned and stay Stoked, ha ha that was so cheesy love it.

StRaNGe Beautiful LIFE – A weekend in London

Stokesy — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:55:33 +0000

Bar airports in not very often us boys spend much time in cities so when one of our films got selected to be in the London surf film festival we had an excuse to take the trip.

Stopped off at the flowhouse at bedford on the way to get schooled by the local groms. Great fun though.

Some real surfing coming soon in episode 4!

StRaNGe Beautiful LIFE ep:3 Summer Lovin

Stokesy — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:45:05 +0000

Summer Lovin

I travel for the best part of the year looking for waves to ride, trying to keep that burning flame of surf addiction alight.
The last surf trip i went on was to Indonesia where i was woken in the middle of the night by my first earthquake, it was merely a tremor mind and the bed that i was laying on hardly moved, but i felt it and i was awake in the middle of the night in a strange dark place, my brain was telling me to raise the alarm save the world but i was rigid with fear and all i could do was lay there and think of what i should be doing.
Eventually i came to my senses and walked down to the waters edge to see if the sea was still there, it was but that didn’t help me go back to sleep.

Traveling the world and surfing is such an eye opener for me, I learn so much from watching other people live from day to day, people, culture, waves and long days in the sun and then just like that I’m home again.
Home for me doesn’t change and i love that, its what i know so well, its where i grew up, its where my best mates live and its where i know every nook and cranny of the Cornish coast like it was the back of my hand. Home will always be there but for now there is a whole world to see.

Summer time, we saw this little two day chart and got cracking, swells don’t last for long at this time of the year, the waves didn’t get that big but it was sunny and fun and that for me is a great summer’s day at home. Welcome to episode 3 Summer Lovin.

StRaNGe Beautiful LIFE – ep:2 The land of the rubber tracksuit

Stokesy — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:40:55 +0000

Wetsuits boots and gloves but when the surfs pumping its all good, we ended up driving all the way to the end of the road chasing a swell that had us on dawn patrol for ten days straight, man we lost track of time, but up there time seems like something worth loosing.
Welcome to episode 2 – The land of the rubber tracksuit.

(A Tim Davies Production)

Music by Parov Stelar track – Coco. feat Lilja Bloom remixed and original
itunes.apple.com/us/artist/parov-stelar/id62288424

StRaNGe Beautiful LIFE

Stokesy — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:26:50 +0000

Hello and welcome to StRaNGe Beautiful LIFE these words have been banging around in my head for some time now don’t know why, I just like the the way it provokes meaning I guess, these have been the words I have lived life by for the last year or so, seemed a fitting title to the project at hand and the only way I could get them to stop banging.
Me and Tim go way back he’s a classic Welshie wears his hart on his sleeve and lives life to the full.
I like to surf a lot, he does too but he also likes to make films.
StRaNGe Beautiful LIFE is an ongoing project.
I hope you enjoy watching, I hope it makes you feel like surfing.
Stokesy

Welcome to episode one of an ongoing series titled StRaNGe Beautiful LIFE we hope to have fun, entertain and get you stoked on surfing.
This first episode features my winter escape from freezing Newquay in Cornwall to the warmer waters of Central America.
Me and Tim spent two months making this and had an absolute blast in the process.
I hope you all enjoy and stay tuned for each episode.
thanks
Stokesy