The whole idea of this project is to go to the remotest and most out there places in the surfing world, here and abroad. Trouble is that costs money and EOE has precisely zero budget, so sacrifices have to be made. Reckon being a surf mag editor is glamorous? Think again, this small space in the back seat of a Ford Focus has been home for many a travelling hour. What's more the bag on the floor is usualy piled on top of me too. It wasn't much better for Timmy Turner in the front seat either as he too was piled high with gear, even the driver had limited space. But no pain no gain, we've been scoring on a mental adventure for part one, in search of total isolation. Part two kicks off in England next week.

Been a couple of pretty tough days. Hiking into wind ravaged beach breaks, sleeping under trucks because it was raining too heavy to pitch our tests, to actually scoring a couple of waves. 

It's a frigid morning. It rained all night, in fact it snowed for the first part of the night before the temperature climbed to around three degrees. The constant pitter patter of rain on the tent lulls you off to sleep then wakes you again, as it increases, on and off, on and off, it's torture. It's not all bad though, camped behind a ridge of volcanic rock, just thirty meters from the sea I could hear sets slowly build through the night. It was flat at dusk, there are now a couple of shoulder high sets at dawn. It's just so cold. On the plus side we did run into an erupting volcano, always wanted to see something like this. Why the balaclava? Simple, we had ash raining on us, the ash and particles in the air made your eyes water after just a minute of exposure. Swelll coming so may actually be some surf to report, in the meantime off to see some lava.

I’ve got those nervous butterfly feelings going on, worried and not too sure what to do? A sort of guilt and frustration rolled in to one and in the back of my mind the thought that I could and should have been able to avoid this. I’ve got protection and even opted for the more expensive ‘upgrade’ just for peace of mind. In my defence it has been a long 2 weeks with not a lot to do, it started off controlled but as times gone on the habit has got worse. Minutes rolled into hours and hours into days which has now turned into a serious problem, just trawling aimlessly with nowhere to go, not knowing exactly what I’m doing or looking for just clicking link after link. It’s that addictive personality kicking in again as I pretty much hit the 5 day mark on this wreck less internet bender. Run down suffering from sleep deprivation, big bird’s even developed a twitch; she tried to stop me at first but soon turned into my partner in crime even egging me on at some stages. The problem is it’s not just myself and big bird that our behaviour has affected, my lap top is ill in fact seems to be more infected than an OAP sex tourist in Bangkok with nothing to lose. I just hope it’s not terminal and we can find a cure.

for more of Cotton's antics go to www.andrewcottonsurfer.blogspot.com

60 hours on from leaving Truro and I'm sat in a bus station. The outside temperature is struggling to climb above freezing, it's grey with a sharp northerly breeze. The journey the length of the island by bus was grinding. 800 Ks non stop, with very little sleep, the only blessing was a sunset over the northern snow fields like no other. Now we are just waiting for the hire car to arrive and then it is to the surf.

So it's now been 24 hours, 24 long hours in Gatwick airport. The island I am flying to is ash bound, it seems there may be some hope on the horizon though.My destination actually has three international airports for an area roughly the size of Britain. One of them in the north looks as though it will be open tomorrow and we have been reliably informed that we will be going. Here's hoping as there is a lot of swell on the way and it would be a shame to see it all go to waste.