Date of Birth: February 11, 1983

Best Known For: Finding waves where there shouldn’t be any

Local Spot: Deerfield Pier

My Crew: Roman, Sinese, Skeet, Brian Noel, Hines, Strange, Solomonie, Timmy Tampon and all the groms

Board of Choice: For Florida: 6'1” x 19" x 2.5" epoxy commander model by Bird Surfboards

Dream Wave: Boca Inlet, if it only broke

My Top Five Places to Surf:

1.) South Africa 2.) Nicaragua 3.) West Oz 4.) Outer Banks 5.) Portugal

I can't sleep.. and i think i know why.

I'm sitting here at 3 in the morning, jet lagged as ever, and feeling like a 10 year old kid before my first NSSA Contest. I can't sleep. Maybe it's the 24 hour flight that i just got off of a few hours ago. I'm going to the "swell of the year", according to Twiggy Baker, who will be meeting us at the best left i've ever seen, Skeleton Bay.

See in about 1 hour we'll be leaving my Mom's house in Cape Town, to start the 2 day drive, hoping to score Skeleton Bay tues - thurs. Ever since i first moved to cape town when i was 14, i've wanted to head north. north into namib, where i've heard rumors of crazy left points. when the Google Earth Challenge scored there last year, my appetite went to straight starvation. And now a year later, after 8 months of planning, we're off, and with God's timing there's a huge swell meeting us there....

i'll be out of touch with the world for 3-4 weeks, but i'll let you know how it was when i get back!

Well, as some of you know, i was recently diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma. Yesterday i got it all taken care of.

Skin cancer, me. Never. i've worn a fullsuit everyday since i was 14. before that i was surfing in florida and got a little more damage then i was expecting, Malignant Melanoma. i hit up the dermatoligist last month for a wart to be removed. after a once over and a few skin biopsy's later, it was was true. i had skin cancer. Today i'm all good... after twenty something stitches in my back, and a few internal ones underneath my armpit, from where the took the sentinal node biopsy... but let this be a reminder to everyone... wear your sunscreen, and even better a upf shirt.

Cheyne Cottrell checks in from Cocoa Beach

Sadly, today was our last full day of IWS Surf Camp '09. But what a great day it was! We started off with clean waves, surfed with Hurley team riders, and then finally had the No Talent competition, which was at least as funny as everyone hoped.

This morning we woke up (at a reasonable hour this time!) to thigh-high waves, lined up picture perfect right in front of our hotel. These were clean, easy-to-ride waves and everyone had a great time.

After room inspection, the Hurley folks came-- including pro surfer Asher Nolan, who joined us in the water for a surf. After the session and freshly grilled cheeseburgers, the two Hurley team riders (Asher and Cheyne) signed a ton of autographs for the campers and we took group photos. Group photos always kill me because no one knows where to stand and everyone complains because the tall people wish they were shorter and the short people wish they were taller and nobody wants to kneel down in the front row no matter how tall they are, and everyone is going nuts until the photographer says "do something crazy," at which point no one can think of anything.

The afternoon surf was kind of choppy, but fun. Even one of our hotel staff was in the water-- Mr. Mike loaned him a Bird longboard, and it turned out he knew what he was doing out there! And things only got better, because after a storm cleared everyone out of the water, the wind turned offshore again and we were graced with more clean lines. We surfed until the very last moments before dinner.

The night ended with our long-awaited No Talent competition. This year's show featured odd costumes, wild music, dancing, feats of strength, and plenty of good natured ribbing. of our best surf stuff. Their skit was hilarious and I would love to explain it, but you wouldn't understand unless you spent a week surfing and hanging out with us here in Cocoa Beach.

This should be the last of the IWS Surf Camp '09 blogs, because tomorrow will be a blur of surfing, cleaning up, and driving the big vans home. But I'm looking forward to our next event, and I'll spend another 360-some days looking forward to Surf Camp 2010. — Cheyne

Ever since I was a grom, Island Water Sports has been heading up to Cocoa Beach to avoid the yearly summer flat swell. This is Day 4 of this year's camp activities.

Today started very early for most of us -- we woke at 5:30am (yes, A.M.!!!) to see the launch of the space shuttle Endeavor. By the way, did you know it's not even light yet at that hour? So there we were in the dark with our eyes propped open, looking across the water to see the launch at 5:40. At about 5:43 we started getting suspicious. And then we started making a few phone calls. And then we went back to bed. It turns out they scrubbed the mission last night at 2:00am. Why weren't we notified??!!

And the waves turned out to be small again when the sun rose. Those of us just learning to surf did not mind, but the more experienced of our ranks were getting itchy for something a little more substantial to ride. Then in the late afternoon, the wind clocked around and started blowing from the north. It added chop, but gave us a little size to work with. So things are looking up. Here's hoping for six-foot glass tomorrow morning!

Then at night we had the band from University Baptist Church (in Miami) and we saw some hilarious video from No Talent Night 2006. It gave us some ideas for this year's competition, which goes down tomorrow night. Some of us are pretty amped about doing our skit, while others are starting to feel the nervous pinch. It's funny how some folks can stare down the gnarliest surf without blinking, but cower at the thought of getting up in front of people.

This whole experience is winding down, and I myself am going to miss it when it's finished. On the other hand, we still have another day-and-a-half of this year's camp, then I'll have to start counting down to IWS Surf Camp 2010! (That's the year we make contact, I think...) So enough blogging for now-- I'm missing camp! See ya! — Cheyne

Ever since I was a grom, Island Water Sports has been heading up to Cocoa Beach to avoid the yearly summer flat swell. This is what Day 1 of this year's camp activities.

First off, I just realized that this was our THIRD day of Surf Camp-- not the second. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun!

And the waves did not get any bigger today, but I think you can see from the pictures that it did not slow us down. We have plenty of longer boards to ride, including a small fleet of standup paddle boards. So there is always something to do. The soft boards are a lot of fun in the small stuff, too, because we don't have to worry about hurting each other when we go for the same few waves.

Out of the water, many of us are already working on what we will do for No Talent Night this Thursday. It's like a talent show without the talent. Previous years have proven the show to be hilarious, with campers and counselors making fools of themselves for the entertainment of the whole camp-- and also to win prizes! You see, the room that wins the No Talent competition will get huge points toward the room inspection competition that is already raging.

You may not have heard about the room inspection competition yet... Basically, every morning after breakfast we all clean our rooms and then the counselors come by with clipboards and inspect our rooms. Not only do they check the dust on the blinds and the sand on the bathroom floor, we also get judged on our attitude and overall presentation. The guys are at a huge disadvantage in this competition; a counselor walks into a girls' room and is greeted with nice smells, light snacks, and gleaming cleanliness. Then he walks in to a room of 15-year-old boys to find thinly masked odors, soggy towels, and forced smiles. So there will be plenty of boys' rooms trying to get ahead in the No Talent Competition so they can have a chance at winning some Oakley sunglasses or other such fabulous prizes.

That's all for now. We'll keep praying for surf. — Cheyne