Leith exhibition to celebrate Scottish surfing and surf photography

A wide-ranging exhibition of Scottish surf photography will open in Leith next month, showcasing world-famous surf spots like Thurso East alongside lesser-known wave-riding destinations including Edinburgh’s Wardie Bay.

Finn MacDonald, somewhere in northern Scotland, February 2025 | Mike Guest

​The show opens on 25 July at the Staunch Industries showroom and design studio on Bernard Street, and will feature work by Malcolm Anderson, Janeanne Gilchrist, Mike Guest, Sam Howard, Oscar James and Christian Perez.

Jacob Mellish, Wardie Bay, Edinburgh, 2020 | Oscar James

Curated by Staunch Industries founder and creative director Will Beeslaar, the exhibition aims to capture the raw beauty of Scotland’s surf spots and the diverse ways surfers connect with them.

It also marks the launch of The View From the Shoulder: A Portrait of Scottish Surfing – a new book of Scottish surf journalism by Scotsman Magazine columnist Roger Cox, with some of the images in the book also featuring in the show.

The Joxy Girls all-female surf collective at Seacliff, East Lothian | Janeanne Gilchrist

Beeslaar says: “The View from the Shoulder is a photographic exhibition that offers a rare and intimate look at the spirit of Scottish surfing. Drawing from Roger Cox’s new book of the same name, it brings together a curated collection of images that not only trace the evolution of the sport, but also evoke the deep, wild energy of the sea itself.

“These are not just images of surf; they are portraits of place, of people, and of those unridden waves that stir something elemental within us all.”

The View From the Shoulder: A Portrait of Scottish Surfing | Arena Sport

The show runs until 31 August. Author royalties from sales of the book, and proceeds from prints sold in the exhibition, will be donated to the environmental campaign group Surfers Against Sewage.

The View From the Shoulder exhibition is at Staunch Industries, 19 Bernard Street, Leith, from 25 July until 31 August, www.staunchindustries.com. The View From the Shoulder: A Portrait of Scottish Surfing, by Roger Cox, is published today by Arena Sport, price £12.99, www.birlinn.co.uk/arena-sport. For more on Surfers Against Sewage, see www.sas.org.uk

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