Thursday 21 May 2009

Emma Skinner's top beauty tips

Pro Surfer Emma Skinner provides some top tips for using Spiezia's products to keep you looking healthy and beautiful this summer - especially at the beach. Take a look at her 'Travels with my Longboard' piece to see what shes been up to recently.

Emma’s top beauty tips...
• After a day in the sun use lots of moisturiser to restore and repair your skin over night. I use Spiezia Organics Intensive Moisturizer for the face and the Spiezia Organics After Sun Body Oil, it’s really soothing, leaves skin really lovely and soft and it smells amazing.

• Don’t forget your hair. If you are in and out of the sea or pool like me your hair will also suffer from the effects of the sun and water so use a protective moisturizer on your hair. This is my favourite trick because I have discovered that the Spiezia Organics Intensive Moisturizer also doubles as a perfect protective balm on my hair. I massage a little into the ends of my hair throughout the day or just before I go surfing and then just wash it out in the shower at the end of the day. For an extra treat I use the Spiezia Hair and Scalp oil every now and then.

• I often end up hitting the reef when surfing and end up with little cuts all over me and I have learnt the hard way how important it is to treat those little cuts, especially if you are somewhere hot and humid. I always treat and little cuts and grazes with Spiezia Organics Propolis Ointment, it has great healing properties, I also use it to sooth insect bites. I wouldn’t go away without it.

TRAVELS WITH MY LONGBOARD...
Oli and I arrived in Hawaii in early December for a winter of training on the North Shore full of excitement and nerves, knowing very well how notoriously heavy and crowded the waves would be. I met with Oli in Hawaii straight from an amazing trip in Argentina, where I had been with my sponsor, Fat face, to shoot their summer catalogue. We hadn’t got much surf in Argentina so I was especially apprehensive as the only board I had with me was my favourite 9’1 longboard.
Was I going to be able to find suitable longboard waves on the North Shore?.. .And was my beloved longboard going to make it through a heavy North shore winter?
Everything in Hawaii is extra large, even our rental truck was bigger than any truck I have ever seen on the roads in the UK. Our first stop was the Oakley house, Oli had told me we would be staying right on the beach but nothing had quite prepared me for how in the thick of it we really were going to be. The Pipe Masters had just begun so when we arrived at the house it was full to the brim with a host of some of the best surfing talent in the world. The house was positioned on the beach with Pipeline and Off the Wall in the back garden. It was the prime spot for watching Pipe so everyday it filled up with surfers all trying to get the best view of the comp trying avoid the crowds of spectators on the beach. We watched in ore from the garden as Slater won in the finals, a huge party erupted in the house and kept going all weekend.
As soon as the WCT guys had left town and there was less pressure in the line-up and it was time for me to get stuck in. To my surprise there were plenty of waves to be had on my longboard, even when the swell was big. One of my favourite places was Holsten’s , a lovely long peeling right between Haliewa and Waimea bay and Cami’s, a faster but super fun wave near Sunset beach. Surfing the slightly lesser know spots meant that the crowd was less intense. Hawaii is notorious for hassle in the water and its aggressive locals but in my experience they were all very friendly, even at the more famous spots. There was a huge cross section of people in the water and one thing that struck me was the amount of women of all ages getting out there; it was really nice to see.
There were a couple of other British girls out there flying the flag, Newquay girl Krisha (not sure of her surname) and Kathleen Spears from Croyde were both out there ripping with the best of them.
UK photographer and friend of mine, Lucia Griggi, was also in Hawaii for the winter which was great for me because it meant I had a partner in crime and someone to have a good girly chat with from time to time, which can be a welcome relief amongst so much pumped up testosterone!
When Lucia and I got the opportunity to go to Maui for a couple of days to meet newly crowned Women’s World Champion, Stephanie Gilmore, and WCT surfer Jessi Miley-Dyer, we jumped at the chance. The surf wasn’t great whilst we were there so unfortunately I didn’t get chance to surf with the girls but it meant they had a couple of days off from the final competition on the tour to hang out with us. They were so laid back and friendly, we had a really good time with lots of laughter and they gave us a good insight into life on the tour.
One of my favourite days was one afternoon myself, Oli, Lucia and Jersey surfer Mark Durbano took a trip down to Waikiki. Waikiki is one of those places that you either love or hate. Amongst the high rises and shopping malls there is an amazing beach scene where every type of surf craft imaginable is available to play with in the long playful waves.
Lucia wanted to get some surfing shots of me whilst we were surfing alongside each other...not as easy as it sounds! Lucia had hired a colossal 12 foot board which was near impossible to manoeuvre, but she did pretty well and we got the shot in the end and in nearly every one I am literally laughing out loud. Even Oli and Mark had a go at cruising the Waikiki waves and we all left the beach that day grinning from ear to ear.
It was an eye opening couple of months, huge trucks, heavy waves, famous faces, friendly locals, longboard friendly North shore waves and although I had to take my longboard straight to Mitch at Dingoes Dings for some TLC when I got home to Newquay my board did make it back in one piece.

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