br – sounded like the sort of crash I'm unlikely to have. Fast uphill, a bit of a wuss downhill!

I guess Litespeed and similar are alternative options?

It's sexy and flattering on ladies, yet utterly disgusting on men.

Agree 400%

br – how is the Ti 456? Gets rave reviews but I think it's a bit OTT for me – I have a 22ish lbs Stumpy HT (alu but spent plenty lightening it) and love whippety light kit but there doesn't seem to be much available that's similar. I'd always get ti over carbon.

I spent three years doing Materials Engineering and believe me, ti is far more suited to MTB frames than carbon. Doesn't mean I don't have a silly number of carbon bits on the bike though – nice to have principles then throw them all away when the bling monkey taps you on the shoulder.

Forge – I know, I have a quick diesel car which replaced a fairly quick one. Before that I was a petrol head through and through and thought diesel was the fuel of the devil.

If you do brake hard ("braked" hard BTW), prepare to wrestle with the wheel a bit and watch the light back end – it gets a bit lively.

Have you done a proper emergency brake in it? Honestly it's not a thing you want to do often – dives and weaves badly.

They are brilliant vans – the best by far. But they are vans. You seem to realise that but many don't and try and tailgate everyone and do silly overtaking. I've had T5s being really lairy behind me several times seeming to think they are 911s. They take over 12s to get to 60 – that's similar to a base spec Focus. Yes there's a fair whack of torque that helps a lot but it's still not anywhere near being a performance car.

Great gearshift though – makes all other vans look prehistoric. We very nearly got a California 174 earlier this year but decided to stick to hotels and cottages for now.

Budget? Just did a national search on 130s under 60k miles and 52 came up. They start at around £8k.

How low mileage? My bro in law has the 130 and it's very good. There were plenty to choose from when he got his.

I think the 174 is bordering on OTT for a Transporter – wheels scrabble all over the place, the brakes barely cope and the chassis is way off a performance one! Good in a straight, dry line but not fun on corners. They also spin all over the place anywhere even remotely off road (like a grassy car park) unless the 4Motion version.

Talk – most G Shocks are easy to set. This one has the most stupid manual ever. Other than that, it shares the same movement as the £900 (comically names) Oceanus watch and is ultra reliable and as accurate as a watch can ever be.

Mr Nutt – tbh the other functions are a PITA. I use my digi G shock if I need a stopwatch or alarm!

It's s great watch for timekeeping and looks nice too but other G Shocks do a much better job of most other functions.

Just gone for XT (whole chainset) after a year and a half of SLX – the reason being is that XT now has a steel middle ring as well so should last better. And is shinier ;-)

Blower – yep – early 2004 onwards.

The 1.9s do struggle a bit – it's a lot of weight to shift. Get the 102PS at the very least or you'll hate it.

130 and 174 are much quicker and mpg is actually similar because they don't have to work as hard.

174s are nippy for vans but they are still vans that weigh around two tonnes and roll all over the place. I like them – they are the best vans around, but I do find they are often driven as if they are some kind of performance car. They aren't. Even a modest car can outdrag a 174PS T5, and many down here (there are HUNDREDS of them!) have silly massive alloys to make the ride much worse.

Decent vehicles but being taken over by slightly chav surfers.

Bintang – did the Nationals one year (2nd) but after Nick stopped running it, the club became run by kooks and so I surfed for the Institute instead! We won that year but much more thanks to people like Rhino Thomas and a couple of others. Also did the SW champs which was just the top 5 Unis – again did okay but nothing all that special.

Got to know quite a few Langland boys which helped when surfing Crab.

I was at Hendrefoilan, then Uplands then Brynmill – had a cracking time!

The MX5 doesn't have enough power to make the RWD scary – they just handle brilliantly and are well made.

Image aside, they are very decent cars.

As is the last (mk3) and sadly missed MR2. One of the best handling little cars I've driven. A bit more power and they would have been much more reliable alternatives to Elises.

Bintang – now way! I used to know Nick L quite well back in the Uni days. He was very good then (ex Billabong Pro). Surfed Porthcawl a few times (got a pic of it firing a while back) but mostly stuck to north end of Gennith, Crab Island and the Reefs too. I bet we know each other…!

Mat, when were you at Swansea ? I was there until 97 and still live in South Wales. Evening surfs round Porthcawl are the order the day soon….

Good memories of the Wreck from about 12 years ago – perfect peaks, super easy to surf and nice and hollow. Scared myself thinking the big grey suits out at Tallows though!

Same here! Did Materials Engineering for three years. Where did you tend to surf?

What if the only way of seeing your house is from an aircraft? Bungalows aren't always surrounded by other houses.

Moss are always worth a look – pretty good suits and always in a sale. Avoid M&S and most big chains like Next unless you are a fat bar steward.

£350 should get you something perfectly decent.

If that fails, check http://www.ctshirts.com when they have a sale on – their stuff is top notch quality and often half price. Just bought two of their shirts and they are very well made and (in slim fit) very "tailored."

Highly recommend Teac's little system or if you can go a bit bigger, their Reference 300 mini separates system – I've got this with Bose 301s, decent speaker cable and interconnects – it really does sound good. Speakers were pricey but Teac do decent ones in some of their bundles.

To my ears, Teac are better than Denon or any other similar mini system.

My Stylo wore out – silly LBS fitted a new cassette and chain but insisted that the chainrings were fine. First ride and it slipped everywhere. Went back, looked at option and it was cheaper to get a new SLX chainset (including BB) – a really good unit although I've just worn that out (middle and big ring + BB) and again it was cheaper to buy a whole crankset – XT this time. So I have two SLX crank arms that are still fine! The XT is shinier though.

Not sure if it worried anyone else but I do hate it when it's cheaper to buy a whole unit rather than the item you need – new chainrings and BB – get a new chainset. New rear hub needed (mine died badly) – cheaper to get a whole new Hope Hoop than just the hub. Bit wasteful.

leggy – assume you are on the left?! That board looks handy for UK conditions!

lb – nice one! Mine quad is a "bat tail"- the board behind is an old Rod Sumpter longboard that weighs about three tonnes:

SM, Byron has got a lot busier it seems since then. I take it that's Julian Rocks in the first pic and it's a right from The Pass?

Yep – just near The Wreck. There was a bigger peak where locals like Danny Wills were surfing so well, it made my jaw fall off – I'd get a barrel, come out, be very chuffed but also get battered a lot. They'd cruise out of a barrel, bust a big air, cruise back into the barrel, etc – best "live" surfing I have ever seen by miles.

Too Tall – Sam Lamiroy lives in Perranporth now. We are the same age and I competed against him in the semis of a reasonable sized comp when at Uni – funnily enough, he won! He still rips and makes me feel like I should try a bit harder! His backhand is especially strong – proper power surfer.

Sponging Machine – also got a very skinny (18") 6'3" for biggish stuff and a wider (18.5") 6'2" that I should probably sell = both Bunty, both squashtail thrusters. Bunty's been making my boards since I was 15! Really like them.

Great to see a decent number of fellow surfers here!

SM – I hastily edited (got the wrong person)! Too busy with work tomorrow so very pleased to have got in.

By 7pm it was pure glass and the crowds even naffed off too.

Bill – these pics are all Byron Bay in 1999 – we only had a non digi camera so I scanned some pics that my wife took (not realising that it's best to be able to see the person you photograph! Only full visible in the second pic.

Tell me about Porthtowan – I'm planning a week there with the family in September.

The actual village is a bit scabby but the Blue Bar is nice. The beach is smallish at high tide and massive at low – very dramatic. Surf is a bit fickle – sometimes it doesn't work properly, other times it's one of the best beach breaks in the UK. There's a decent village shop and stunning coastal paths around.

Is that the sort of info you were after?!

Creg – nice! Must surf up that way soon. Ouch about the ACL. My shoulder has dislocated many times duckdiving. Also got a big scar just below my nose from slicing it with a fin!

Sponging Machine – cool. My current favourite board is a 6ft Bunty Quad. Pretty thin but it does everything and snaps off the top soooo well!

Tonight was great – proper "stunt" surf with some hollow sections just right for some tail out action. Been flat for ages so it was extra fun!

Andy – very nic. Did SW Ireland for a week earlier this year, paid £45 extra for the board, winds onshore and howling the whole time – doh! Got home (flew into Newquay airport) and it was firing – double doh! Some amazing spots your way though – Easkey, Bundoran, etc looking superb!

Silly o'clock is the best time to go – wind often light, crowds usually non existent. It's just hard getting up!

Johnny – a guy I vaguely know who is often on the beach with about £3ks worth of camera kit! He takes pics and hopes people will buy them – I think he's doing alright out of it.

Had similar a while back at Godrevy except I didn't know the guy was taking pics – my wife spotted him and got the prints as a surprise for a present. I was rather chuffed!

Hells Mouth can be nice – surfed a couple of semi secret spots that way. Went to Uni in Swansea too – more for the surf than the degree!

C Skins make good kit and well priced too.

I learned the first two paras in Italian as the bride is fluent and half her friends speak it. The content was okayish I think but that really seemed to lift it. Took some practise but it worked.

Xcels are miles ahead of anyone else – see those pics? Xcel 5mm suit and I was the only one with no hood. Stayed in for 1.5 hours and lived. In a poor wetsuit I would have needed a hood and still half died. And I'm a bit of a cold poof too.

Exercise – lots of it. Helped immensely when we lost a baby at 37 weeks in 2007. If anyone was vulnerable to depression, we were yet we both ran, cycled and circuit trained our butts off – really helped as did our lovely dog.

However if you can't fit it in, it might be tough. Sounds like circumstances need to change JtH

Porthtowan and Perranporth are the same distance away but grew up in Polzeath. How about you Johnny?

Most recent pics – small but fun clean waves in February this year – yes it was a bit nippy (beach was frozen, howling NErly) in Polzeath:

PT just now was head high and utterly lush!

Take a very capable but slightly over luxury Range Rover, stick it in a hot wash, add stupid alloys that can't even go up a kerb, trim the price slightly, cover in chrome, sell it to well off chavs.

At least the X6 drives well – amazingly so given it's size. Pointless and hateful but like the Cayenne, actually quite good.

Oh and they often come with no charge (if solar) – give it a day to get charged up otherwise hardly anything works.

It's a bit of a pain.

Set to "home" settings so it zeros itself. Set it roughly to the right time. Leave it to sync at night – once done it's brilliant – I have almost the same watch.

Ignore the manual – it says the right things but in the wrong order!

MF – from a security point of view – yes. From a "looking like a big scout hut with faded wooden bits and a scabby plastic roofed garage" PoV – no :wink:

Nice one! Would love to do something like that. Did some mountain running in SW Ireland and loved it.

We sleep with windows open all year round. Black labrador = alarm if needed, 1 in 3 100 yard long driveway and no other access points other than by helicopter = secure as it can possibly be.

Pixel – I was admiring a 2.0D R Design yesterday (yes I'm sad!). Very nice indeed. Based on the Focus floorpan/chassis which is a good thing too.