Where to start…? My name is Sophie Hellyer, age 20. I’ve been surfing for 7 or 8 years now, and I’ve been on the Roxy team for almost 6 years. I live in a little village called Westward Ho! (spelt with an exclamation mark…) in north Devon, UK, where it is currently freezing cold, snowing and the waves are LAME! I’ve just returned from 2 months drifting through Indonesia, which was, as you can imagine, incredible.

The day prior to evacuating from winter climates I met up with the crew at ‘Cooler’ for the cover shoot of the magazine. After dumping my boards at Paddington station, Michelle (our superhero Roxy marketing manager) and I made our way to the location, a lemonade factory in London, which we only found thanks to ‘Babs’, our trusty satellite navigation system. As we arrived we were greeted with chocolate croissants and lots of other delights, but promptly got along with work.

The shoot was pretty different to typical Roxy shoots, where it’s all natural, with smiles and swimming. The make up artist started by giving me neon orange lipstick and lashings of mascara, which was insane and very different to the median of everyday life in Devonshire, and my hair was even more extreme, but I loved it!

I changed outfits a couple of times and spent most frames making silly faces and jumping around, which is one of my better skills. This went on for a couple of hours until the camera broke, I seem to have a curse on cameras as every photo shoot I have ever done the camera has broken, or drowned… Soon lunch arrived, some extra large pizzas, and as we ate I did an interview with Sam for the magazine. When it was all over I was back on my way, first stop Paddington station to collect my poor neglected surfboards, then on to Heathrow for the long haul to Denpassar, Bali.

It was a really enjoyable day, however brief my stopover in London, and the vibe was playful throughout the shoot. Hopefully in my next blog I can tell you all about my adventures in Indonesia, adopting puppies whilst chasing swells and living on boats. But for now I’m heading back to London for a party at the Roxy offices for the launch of the new CD, and this weekend I’m heading off to the Maldives for a 7-day boat trip with some British girls. Feel free to {encode=”[email protected]” title=”email me”} if you have any questions about surfing or anything related. Anyhow, thanks for stopping by, and in the words of my hero, (Ron Burgundy) Stay Classy.