News

There was I prattling on about how good the weather had been when all of a sudden the heavens opened. Its been a bit damp and stormy for the last couple of weeks to say the least and we have been stuck in a Westerly wind cycle. Westerlies are the ‘pointless’ winds in this part of the world. They just bring rain in the winter and there are no coves where you can shelter unless the swell is so large that you can surf on the English Channel side of the Lizard peninsula. And that don’t never ‘appen!

There has been the odd break in the winds though. Usually when a storm passes overhead you get a few hours respite with light winds, ideally from an easterly direction, like in the above photo. This little beauty was taken a few weeks ago now but it was one hell of a weekend. Swell, good winds and good banks. Its rare to get three of those at the same time in January so to get good weather as well is nothing short of a miracle.
As for the coming weekend its looking like a cold one. Northerly winds and clear skies. Surfing in this weather means its almost impossible to get enough feeling into your hands after a surf to grips your car keys and unlock the doors. Thank God for central locking infra-red key fobs – without them I’d still be in the car park now.

We are well and truly into 2012 and it looks like at long last there is going to be a break in the cycle of westerly winds that blight Cornish surfing.
And hurrah for that.

A nice big high pressure is looming into view but she just needs to track north past Portugal and over our fair shores. It’ll bring some cold weather thought the winds will be much lighter; definitely lighter than the 100mph gusts that have been wreaking havoc in Scotland and the North and destroying the sandbanks that had been developing on our beaches since Autumn.
Today is the first day in a week that it hasn’t rained and there is nothing like getting changed in a damp car park to completely take away any enthusiasm you might have for a winter surf.
When the wind and weather is like what we have had since Christmas then all you can do is drive around hoping that you can find a sheltered cove that will make sense of the swell with cliffs high enough to take the edge off the wind. Then you’ve just got to steel yourself for the hellish five minute struggle into your wetsuit!

There is a cracking wave that breaks into St Ives harbour (pictured above last April) but it’s rare that you get tide, swell and wind all working together for this little beauty to fire up. It almost got going on Tuesday but by the time the tide was right it was dark but at least Praa Sands has offered up a few waves during the week.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the coming week!

And 2011 draws to a close. Not with the bang that the early Autumn swells promised but with a bit of a whimper. There has been surf during December but there hasn’t been a lot on offer other than some surfs down at Hayle on Boxing Day and the 27th and a few, by and large, diabolical surfs at Praa Sands.
Overall though you’d have to say that 2011 was a good year. Surf-wise its been an incredibly violent time in the Atlantic and so long as there is enough swell you can always find a sheltered cove somewhere that will make sense of it.

Even the summer provided plenty of waves but next year some more sun would be nice!
If next year is as good I’ll be stoked – we’ve got a child due at the end of January, our first, so I have a feeling it will be a good one. Though I’m told very tiring. I guess I wont be surfing as much as this year!
Well, have a great 2012 from all of us at Gwithian Academy of Surfing – hope it gives you loads of waves and sunshine.

I so hope this isn’t a fake.

For the first time that I can remember the waves and weather have ensured that we have been able to continue with our Junior Surf Club right up in to November. Normally by early winter the beach is being demolished by colossal  storm swells and the chance of taking a lesson out is very slim indeed.

This year however, unseasonably warm (it was snowing this time last year) weather and good quality groundswells have meant its been perfectly safe to continue doing lessons. Even the sea temperature hasn’t dropped off the scale yet. This is the first year that you can still surf in a summer suit in November. I still haven’t even put on my wetsuit boots yet and I usually dust them off in October.
Long may it continue. I just hope we don’t pay for it with a diabolical cold snap or a lousy summer.