DISTORTED REALITY: TIMO MULLEN

DISTORTED REALITY: TIMO MULLEN

Timo Mullen reflects on yesterdays mission to Gwithian, where he joined the likes of Lucas Meldrum, Ian Black, Steve Thorp, Joe Vernon and Lee ‘Pasty’ Harvey as they battled in frustrating light winds, but perfect waves in hope of that one moment that might make all the effort worthwhile!

Photos: John Carter

Timo Mullen

“A photo says 1000 words they say, but in today’s crazy world of Social Media’s bragging rights does a photo capture the true essence of a session?

Distorted Reality is when someone’s perception of the world differs from what is actually happening.

To be honest I try my best on my social media and in ‘reality’ to call it as it is, I’m not a guy to say “You should have been here earlier” or “It was epic mate, I know it looks shit but it was epic!” Maybe it is because I am from a completely different generation, where talking shit got you a beat down from your mates. Fast forward to 2025 and talking shit and distorting reality is a magnet to the LIKE button on Insta’.

Is Duotone going to repost my Instagram Post with the following caption,

“I Drove for 7 hours today, spent £85 on fuel, broke my no-sugar diet, floated around in 5 knots of wind, missed every set wave, and caught three average waves, in hindsight a complete waste of time and money”. Inspiring? No!! Reality? Yes!

That age-old saying goes, “Don’t believe everything you read or see,” as reality might be somewhat manipulated.

Is that a bad thing? Fake news around ‘World Affairs’ I would say yes, but for something that maybe motivates people and maybe improves their day slightly well then maybe?

Unless of course, you are the guy who decided to not go to the beach that day, feeling smug having watched the webcams, which re-enforced their decision to not go, to then open up a post to see epic photos from that day!! Personally, that destroys me, I am such a FOMO type of guy!!

My friend Andy Bubble Chambers, actually messaged me after my session as he could see on the webcam that I had finished. “Worth the drive….?” (please say no , please say no) My reply was “Yes it was epic!!” I left it two minutes to let his heart sink, then followed up with “..if you were 40KG!!” His sigh of relief could be felt in Cornwall and produced more wind than any of the 8 knot gusts that wafted through that day!

To sum up the day, full transparency.

Waves were pumping, tide was a bit low, but still pumping, I rigged my trusty Duotone 107 and D/Lab and 5.3m Super_Hero, this set-up is so epic for float and ride in 8-10 knots,. I can float out and generally catch anything that is catchable, but it was lighter wind than we all thought. Typically, the gusts that were 10-12 knots (more than enough wind) all coincided with the smaller sets, and all the bigger waves coincided with total glass, great if you were surfing but not so great if you wanted to belt out a massive air! I caught about 3-4 waves and got a couple of good aerials, but I had to watch some amazing waves pass me by while I stood in no wind!

Was it worth it? Of course it was, my saying is, it only takes one good wave to be better than no waves at all. Would I do it again? 100%. Would I distort reality in my Instagram Post, possibly….