Sam Bleakley

Sam Bleakley is a British surfer, travel writer, filmmaker, presenter and longboard contest commentator who learned to surf in Cornwall at the age of five and rode shortboards until he was fifteen. He won the European Longboard Championship while studying at Cambridge, at Praia Grande in Portugal in 1999, and retained it at Le Penon in France in 2001, and has gone on to win national, European and international longboard events as well as paddle race titles. He commentates on live broadcasts of world longboard events for the International Surfing Association and the World Surf League. His books include Surfing Brilliant Corners, The Longboard Travel Guide and Mindfulness and Surfing, and his Brilliant Corners film series covers emerging surf cultures from Haiti to Senegal. He holds a master's degree in geography from Cambridge and a doctorate on surfing in Haiti.