Suitably inspired, we thought we’d take a look at a different kind of professionalism than is usually to be found on these pages. Those featured in our magnificent seven of alternative professionals may not wear suits for a living, still less spend their time in the boardroom, but they couldn’t do what they do if they weren’t every bit as dedicated, focused, driven and downright professional as those at the helm of a City law firm, finance house or PR company.

1. Laird Hamilton

Hamilton is the star of The Wave, and no wonder. Based on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the man is a force of nature, a 6″3′ powerhouse who makes big wave surfing look like a walk in the park. But it isn’t. The wave known as Teahupoo, surfed by Hamilton in Tim McKenna’s picture below, is a killer. Only years of focus, training and preparation make Hamilton able to ride this wave with such aplomb.

2. Danny Way

Warning: do not watch this footage if you are afraid of heights (and squeamish). American skateboarding star Danny Way has been rebuilt more times than the bionic man. He’s also made a small fortune from a sport so often wrongly derided as ‘for kids’. Definitely not one for a suit and tie, Way nevertheless deserves respect – as much as he would appear to need a permanent personal medical staff.

3. Shane McConkey

Professional skier Shane McConkey died in March 2009 while skiing in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. His death robbed the world of extreme sports of an athlete known for combining BASE jumping with skiing, as seen in such feats as skiing into a BASE jump off the Eiger. RIP.

4. Shaun White

There are those who say that White, snowboarder extraordinaire, has the kind of hair that is inimical to success. We say, like Forbes magazine, that if White earned $9 million from his endorsements in 2008 alone, what’s he worth now? We also say: don’t try what White does at home. Or anywhere, really.

5. DannyMacaskill

If BMX riding is jejune, does it matter? Not to Macaskill, a man who’s worth a lot of money thanks to his remarkable ability on a bike.

6. Lynn Hill

There are rock climbers, and there’s Detroit-born Lynn Hill, the woman who made the first free ascent of the infamous Nose Route on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. Currently sponsored by the Patagonia gear and clothing company, Hill has done it all, taking phenomenal risks in the pursuit of her calling. Take a look at the intensity of her gaze: this woman would have been a genius at whatever she’d chosen to do.

7. Dallas Friday

She has the best name of any sportsperson, ever. She also looks pretty good, too, and is even better at her chosen discipline, wakeboarding. And discipline is the name of the game: as with everyone here, however outre their worlds, however extreme their sports, if they weren’t disciplined they’d not only be impoverished but also, quite possibly, dead. Respect.

Pictured: something which is decidedly not cricket.

This last, however, causes problems. When a homeowner, eager to defend his castle, shoots a burglar, all hell breaks loose. Tabloid hacks break out in sweats as they find themselves compelled to blame European laws and the politically correct for daring to wonder whether such force was necessary when, really, all that is in issue is whether shooting dead an intruder was proportionate to the perceived threat and context.

In the US, this question was recently answered in the affirmative by the excellently named Judge Carlisle Overstreet. The 65-year-old judge shot and killed an unarmed bandana-wearing burglar after the man broke into his home and started coming upstairs. According to the estimable Legal Blog Watch, the dead burglar, John Howard Jr. (who, says the Augusta Chronicle, delighted in the nickname ‘Killa’), was one of two men who broke into the judge’s house in the early hours of the morning. The other, William Omar Jacobs, turned himself in and was denied bail.

This sorry or inspirational tale begs a question. If it had happened here, would it be the first time in recorded history that a judge had killed a burglar? In fact, is this unprecedented across the pond, too? And more to the point, if anyone says the judge acted disproportionately and that he really shouldn’t be canonized, are they politically correct stooges from a morally abased, utterly bankrupt European superstate (or something like that: we confess that tabloidese eludes us)?

Pictured: a judge says “Clint Eastwood isn’t the only one who likes large handguns.” But note: she’s not Carlisle Overstreet.

LENDER CHASES LAWYERS FOR LOSSES

The caps are ours, for we felt this headline was deserving of capitalisation. But equally, it is far from capital for the legal profession to be subject to such announcements. What price their continuance over the next two years, as the economy sinks yet further into the mire? Or have we fallen prey to the first limb of Gates’ dictum?

Pictured: a rarely seen act among lawyers.

The Tory-Lib Dem coalition government is considering a new privacy law rather than allowing judges to create one by stealth, the justice minister Lord McNally hinted last night.

This is a nonsense. Judges are no more creating a privacy law by stealth than David Cameron is seriously going to take up surfing on his holiday to Cornwall. What judges are guilty of – the fiends – is applying precedent to the facts before them and ruling accordingly. Latterly, m’learned friends have utilised case law which dates back decades to try to preserve the privacy of their clients, at the same time as society has become ever more intrusive and prurient. Thus a privacy law has developed, but only because existing law has been applied to a new factual nexus.

Judges are not creating a privacy law by stealth. It is high time the media got its facts right.

Pictured courtesy of futurelawyer: an off-duty judge, going about his evil business.

Pictured: a woman, perhaps involved in an affair with a footballer, perhaps not, counsels caution.

Only an editor knows the feeling. There you are, approaching press day, contentedly sailing along, liaising with the designers and proof-reader, checking copy and page layouts, serene in the knowledge that the magazine will not be published with any blank pages. And then, eureka (but not in a nice way): you discover that there are, in fact, two blank pages.

This happened to me six days before press day for the September issue, when I alighted upon the unfortunate fact that Cornwall Today’s ‘What’s On’ slot had nothing in it. The slot is a not a listings page but rather a two-page interview with, say, a performer in a current show, or a profile of a contemporaneous event. To my horror, a final perusal of the flat-plan with the estimable Ed Andrews, the magazine’s main designer, revealed that while we had ably accommodated all manner of ads and what I believe are a number of interesting features, we’d forgotten to schedule anything in ‘What’s On’.

When I say ‘we’, I mean, of course, yours truly. What, though, to do?

Fortuitously, Jonny Nance, secretary of the St Ives Jumbo Association, had been in touch with me earlier in the week. He’d been keen for the magazine to cover the theft of the Association’s handmade trailer, which I’d duly done. But in talking to Jonny, it struck me that a feature on the Jumbos – fishing craft whose Cornish heyday was the 1880s, and which Jonny has revived – would be perfect for the magazine. Was there, though, a peg suitable for the ‘What’s On’ remit?

Mercifully, there was. The St Ives Boats in the Bay festival returns on Saturday September 11, and the Jumbos – so named by way of ironic juxtaposition with London Zoo’s elephant of the same name, a major draw in the 1880s – will be taking centre-stage. But how to get the feature written?

Again fortuitously, the Jumbos were being sailed last weekend. Jonny confirmed that I could join them, so too that a photographer could come along too. But work commitments meant that while I could make the sail, it’d sit better to edit a piece rather than write it. Lady luck again came to the rescue: Caroline Davidson, a freelance whose work is excellent, was in the area and happy to climb aboard and take on writing duties.

By Monday morning, I’d edited a nice piece filed promptly by Caroline and we’d secured some excellent photographs by Mike Newman. The ‘What’s On’ pages were filled – and filled rather well. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that the resulting feature is one of the strongest in the forthcoming September issue.

It’ll be on sale next Thursday, August 19, so readers can decide whether they agree then. Meantime, with press day happily behind me, my thoughts have turned to October’s Cornwall Today and beyond.  And guess what? I’ve filled the ‘What’s On’ section already.

To subscribe to Cornwall Today, click here. For more information on the exquisite replica Jumbo boats, including how to become a member of the St Ives Jumbo Association, click here.

As Law Technology News has it: A state judge in Suffolk County has ordered a mother to make her two children available for Skype online video conferencing with their father as a condition of her move to Florida. The decision marks the first reported New York case in which a judge has ordered a relocating parent to facilitate Skyping — i.e., the use of Skype conferencing software — between her children and her ex-spouse as a condition of her move.

Common sense, given the circumstances, but if Skype is taking over the world – and it is – perhaps the sky’s still the limit?

‘Twas merely a prank, and so all’s well that ends well, but what else could Google Street View unwittingly reveal? An errant liaison between two lovers? A visit from the bailiffs? A secret dressing up habit? The possibilities are endless. And, depending on your status, worrying.

The consequence, thus far, is that Telegraph Media Group says it will boycott the club’s plan to make available syndicated photographs through The Digital South, the only accredited picture outlet, while the Sports Journalists’ Association has called for a media blackout of all pictures provided by Southampton FC. Other media organisations, similarly disenchanted with this development, are sure to follow suit.

There are PR own goals, and there are PR own goals. This, we feel, is a PR own goal.

Pictured courtesy of the Marketing Debate: an executive at Southampton FC demonstrates the club’s media and marketing strategy.