Blog

You may have heard on the grapevine that Alastair Humphreys came to Cardigan to see us yesterday. A few of us joined him and spent the night on a Microadventure based out of Cardigan.

Keep an evening or two free in the coming weeks, we've got something we'd like to share with you and will let you all know about it very soon...

Will Jackson rides BMX, and we sponsor him along with We The People.

Here is a video of him talking and riding.

Take 10 minutes to watch.

Since we last blogged about the SAS raffle, the target this year has been set at £25,000 - not £20,000.

SAS are swinging by at the end of the week to drop off some books of tickets and we'll need your help to sell them to friends and family. It's not all hard graft though. I reckon that the final list of prizes should wet your appetite and help make the sales needed to reach our ambitious target.

Prizes include:

A £2000 howies voucher.

A beautiful handmade wooden Otter single fin.

A fantastic custom-made Foffa single speed bike

As well as loads more amazing prizes!

We'll be putting books of tickets in all our parcels (along with some stickers to sweeten the deal) soon.

If you can't wait and want tickets now, get in touch with Pete at peter@sas.org.uk or call him on 01872 555958.

Plus, if the prizes alone don't sway you, the person who sells the most tickets wins a luxury eco-break for two at the fantastic Bedruthan Steps Hotel in Cornwall.

Photographer Jurgen Freund has spent the last 18 months photographing the beautiful underwater world known the Coral triangle (an area covering the Philippines, Malaysia & Indonesia, down to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands) as part of WWF's Blue Mile campaign (-that's the WWF as in the 'panda' one, not the Wrestling one....)

The aim of the campaign is to highlight how beautiful and diverse marine life is, reminding people about the effects climate change and pollution will have on this very vulnerable environment and the creatures that call it home.

There will be a fund raising event held by WWF in North London on september the 4th where people are encouraged to swim or paddle one mile, but they want people all up and down the county to hold their own events too. Click here for more information on that.

SAS (surfers against sewage) are also running their fundraiser too, click here to take a look at Ade's blog from a little while ago and see how you can help on shores a little closer to home.

You may remember the mini ramp from catalogues past. 5ft tall, 16ft wide, tons of fun? Well, sadly the time has come to say goodbye.

It's been skated in a field. It's been skated in a barn. It's now not being skated in our warehouse.

We'll be putting the ramp up for auction on eBay towards the end of August and the winning bid will be donated to Skateistan who are giving kids in Afghanistan and opportunity to escape their daily lives through the outlet of skating.

We've got a few fantastic people on board to help us spread the word who have contributed to a tidy bundle of skating gear.

A signed Girl deck, and bundle from Form Distribution

Shoes from Vans

A custom setup from Shiner

And a years subscription to Sidewalk / Ride magazine from Factory media

Even the local courier will help ship it to the new owner for cost.

This appealing lot will hopefully help raise some money for a fantastic cause.

If you want to pledge something to the auction, please get in touch. Or if you just want to help, spread the word with a tweet. We'll be using the hashtag #howiesminiramp to spread the word.

Life is complicated. Sport is simple.

howies have commissioned a print edition of this fabulous illustration by Lizzy Stewart as part of the Advice to Sink in Slowly scheme.

We've been working together with Advice to Sink in Slowly to help the passing of advice and inspiration to first year illustration students throughout the UK. The ongoing project, a series of posters designed by graduates, is given as a welcoming gift to every student starting a course at participating University.

Our adopted print will be for sale from tomorrow as an A2 lithograph print from Advice to Sink in Slowly, with proceeds helping to keep the scheme running and knowledge flowing.

As our way of sharing the wealth of knowledge, you might spot these words of wisdom on a T-shirt near you.

Watch this space.

A little while ago, Surfers Against Sewage came down to Cardigan to talk about plans for their annual raffle. Their plans are big, and it's no longer just about Surfers and just about Sewage.

This year, howies are helping SAS sell tickets to raise a target of £20,000. We're also giving away the headline prize - £2000 of our clothes.

But what does £2000 worth of clothes look like? Well, something like this...

SAS receive no government grants or funding, so it's up to us (that means you too) to help sell and buy tickets to raise this year's target of £20,000.

Like the video, we thought we'd give you an idea of what £20,000 could do:

£1 Could pay to send an item of identifiable marine litter back to the manufacturer

£10 Could pay for a family to attend a beach clean

£25 Could pay for SAS to attend a local pollution incident

£50 Could pay for a school talk to educate young people about marine litter

£100 Could get SAS in front of policy & decision makers

£250 Could help us train a regional representative to tackle environmental issues in your area

£500 Could contribute towards a campaign action, and help us lobby government and industry

£1000 Could pay for an investigation into the misuse and abuse of combined sewage overflows

£5000 Could pay for a scientific report into the threats facing your local beaches

Tickets will be £1 each, with 90p in every pound raised going to fight their causes.

As well as your pound helping to campaign for cleaner beaches and water your ticket could win you this bundle of howies kit, a hand-made wooden board, a bike, surf sessions and loads more great stuff.

It's almost time to dig deep (we'll let you know exactly when), but in the meantime write a sticky note or tweet this to let your mates know what's to come.

PS. If you can't wait, you can get involved with Surfers Against Sewage online now!

You've might've read Ade's writeup of Rob Penn's visit to howies last month as he set off to ride from Cardigan to the Hay Festival.

This great video captures the essence of the Beach to Border ride. Taking in 120 miles of quiet Welsh roads, Rob and Co ride from the Irish Sea through the Teifi Valley, over the Cambrian Mountains and south to Hay-on-Wye.

Sometimes life's about taking things slow and filling your day with laughter. Sometimes it's about adventure and pushing yourself further and harder than before. Either way, It's All About the Bike.

Le Tour

Le passion
Le drive
Le speed
Le chase
Le jersey
Le glory

Le T-shirt*

* Made without the use of
le performance-enhancing drugs.

Here's Mark Cavendish gunning it for the line. (you might want to mute it though)