UK Surf Trip
Fizzer and myself arranged to meet at 06h00 outside my flat in London. The phone call came at 06h15 and I was still asleep. I planned to get up at 05h30 so that I could be nice and ready when Fizzer arrived. That did not happen, my phone ringing at 06h15 woke me up and I was out of the door 10 minutes later with surf board under my arm and ruck sack and sleeping bag on my back. We hit the road and before we knew it we had arrived at Sunnyside camping village in Quintrell Downs, just outside of Newquay. We checked in and setup the tent, we then drove into Newquay. When we saw the sea the excitement was very hard to contain!! There was even some swell coming into Towan Beach (we didn’t know where Fistral was at this stage). We took a quick stop at Tunnel Vision surf shop where Fizzer managed to negotiate almost buying a board and then hiring one for nothing, we also had a chat with the owner and he was a real nice guy with an amazing shop and a nice little selection of boards. We went down to the beach, got into 3/2 wetsuits and jumped into the water. It was at first freezing and I thought maybe it was too cold to surf in, but actually after about 5 minutes it felt fine. This was the first time in the water with my new Dalhberg board and it was cool! The waves were probably too small for it (wave height was 1ft at best) but I got on loads and was happy with that! After the 6 hour drive and getting straight into the water and having nothing to eat, we headed to the Fish and Chip shop, we then headed back to the camp absolutely shattered and decided before heading out for a night on the town we would have a quick rest and get up at about 21h00 and go out. This did not happen, the tiredness with the adrenaline mixed in with some power paddling to get a 6’2 board onto a 1ft wave and only eating a pretty terrible fish and chips completely killed me, Fizzer was also the same as we woke up the next day at about 08h00 (after not much sleep in the night after the returning yobs came back to the campsite and decieded to try and do 20 ‘keepyupies’ with the football, which kept hitting our tent).
Surf capital Newquay –
The next day Fizzer’s buddy Davey came down from Wales. He is a long time surfer. We headed back down to Newquay where Fizzer bought a brand new locally shaped 7ft shortboard mal type thing which he is very happy with –
We headed to Fistral beach in the morning to find a decreasing swell. This was pretty much going to happen it was forecasted so we did not feel too down. I felt pretty stupid walking out there with a shortboard at first as everyone else was ridding either mals or in Fizzer and Davey’s case 7ft boards. That feeling passed when I managed to get a few lefties. The surf didn’t last very long because it was getting too pathetic so we went on a little beach recon mission for next time. We visited lots of beaches on the coast including St. Agnes (heart of the badlands), Perranporth and Sennen which is right on the tip of the South West. We then had a look at Lands End, the furthest SW point on mainland England. That night we had burgers and sausages on the BBQ and headed out into town for a quick beer. Here’s Davey and Fizzer in the car park at Fistral beach, ready to head down and RIP IT UP in that 0.5ft surf –
Monday and we thought we’d head back down to Sennan in the hopes of a little wave, there was only wind swell so we hired some soft boards and had some fun on them. The sea was so calm I did not bother with a wetsuit!!! We then did the 6 hour drive back to London, a superb weekend and some real potential for some killer surfing in the UK at some beautiful locations when there’s some bigger waves 🙂 Back to the WAM forecasts….
Here’s a little video with some highlights from the trip, it also includes a bit of Billy Corgan’s new album TheFutureEmbrace, if you like it buy the album……
Fizzer and Davey reckon they can see a 3ft set coming in –
