Full Name: Gian Paolo Jakeway (known as Jake)
Age: 64
Occupation: Retired Art Teacher
Hometown: Born in Florence Italy. Father was a soldier with the 8th Army, met my Mother – a local girl – and the rest is history.
Current Location: Rhoose Point, near Barry, South Wales

When did you start surfing?
In Spring 1972 on a home made surf board at a beach called Southerndown, South Wales.

Can you tell me where and when you caught your best wave?
Westward Ho, North Devon, England in the Summer of ’79. One Sunday there was a huge swell and I just managed to make it out the once, caught one wave which was about 8 feet high. I rode it for a few seconds before being pummelled.

Where do you surf now? Can you reveal a hidden strip on that coast?

My local spot is a beach called Southerndown which is only a 20 minute drive away, where coincidentally I first started nearly 40 years ago.

Who’s your surfing hero?

My surf hero has always been PJ (Pete Jones) who runs the surf shop at Llangennith, Gower. I have surfed at Llangennith since I started and PJ has always been the local hero. He was the Welsh, British and European surf champion. I bought my current board, a 9 foot Robert August (Wingnut) copy from him.

My fictional surf hero has to be Matt Johnson from the film Big Wednesday. When I’m surfing I often think of the lines from the film “That is Matt Johnson, that is Matt Johnson!”

Funniest Memory?

I was a teacher in ’72 and there were others like us, we all made boards and went to Lacanau in West Coast of France. Bruce Brown – an early pioneer of the surf film – was down there filming, so Christine (my wife) went off to Athena to buy a life size bikini babe poster and Dave Moseley made an amazing board out of it! So when Bruce Brown spotted it and filmed it, we hoped it had made his film Endless Summer. I don’t think it did.

Where in the world would you most likely to spend a week/month/year surfing?

I would love to spend a year revisiting some wonderful places where I have surfed. In the mid 70′s I made two surfboards and with friends who had done the same we headed off for the South West coast of France and spent an unforgettable Summer at Vieux-Boucau, North of Biarritz. Here we met Rodney Sumpter who was making a surf film and also hiring local venues and showing Bruce Brown’s ‘Goin’ Surfin’.

One day another guy was filming two of us surfing, and we ended up on the film titles for the TV programme ‘Holiday’ which was hosted by Cliff Michelmore. Coco Beach, Florida comes to mind too, as does one day on The Emerald Isle in North Carolina when two dolphins were ‘playing’ with me in the surf. Llangennith alos holds so many wonderful memories and a good swell there would be high on the list.

I now only surf in the summer, but at the age of 50 discovered snowboarding and am now also hooked on that. On the mountain, when the conditions are right, it’s easy to get stoked!