Surfing UK

Scotland

The Point

I've spent a lot of time in the UK and I've got a big soft spot for it. It isn't just the surf, well its mostly not the surf to tell the truth, although it does get epic sometimes. It's the attitude towards surfing, they love it here. I'll never forget the first time I went to the beach. I wasn't that keen to be honest. It was November and we drove down from where my buddy lived in Bristol. It was COLD - so cold that there was ice on the car when we set off from his house in the dark of the morning. He assured me that the swell charts looked good and that it would warm up when the sun came up. With a couple of bacon sandwiches down the hatch and with the sun hitting the hills of the pretty countryside that we travelled through - I started to feel a bit more into it. This was England after all so I was expecting some fun waist high waves with perhaps a few hardy longboarders for company. I was in for a shock. We were on our way to his favourite beach, a little holiday town in the north of Devon called Woolacombe. Approaching the town, the road drops down from a high ridge and you can get a good view of the sea from a mile or two away. I could see white water and lines stacking up, but it was only when we got down to the parking lot that we saw just how good it was. Four or five foot, ruler edged sets of six or seven waves that came through every few minutes. The tide was still dropping and my mate said that it would get even better on the low tide. But we were far from alone - there were about twenty or thirty people already in the water and a lot more feverishly getting into their wetsuits in the car park.

We had a great surf, for more than one reason. It got heavier on the low tide, perfect for my semi gun, and the water was much warmer than I was expecting. It got seriously crowded, but a large proportion of the crowd was more enthusiastic than skilled. With the long breaks between sets, anyone could make it out the back on an assortment of longboards, funboards and plastic things made by BIC. When a set came through it was carnage, the impact zone a frothing melee of surfboards and people. Now that's entertainment!

Since then I have surfed a lot along the Devon and Cornish coasts and had some great waves. The internet becomes your best friend. You have to check the charts and get familiar with the tides and winds. When there is swell, you can almost always find somewhere that is offshore. But surfing in the UK is more than just catching waves, it is long drives through beautiful countryside, it is surfing until 10pm in summer and tramping through fields of snow in winter. It is hot tea in the campervan and big lunches in the pub with your mates. It is lending your spare board to a friend of a friend that has never surfed before, and buying that extra buoyant board because it is just no fun trying to catch waves on your 6'2" when you are wearing a five mil wetsuit.

Like I said, I've got a big soft spot for surfing in the UK.

I've never surfed Scotland though, and that is where we are heading next. I remember, many years ago, looking at an atlas and trying to work out which parts of the world had exposed coastline and the possibility of undiscovered surf. The south of Chile looked good, all those islands in the south pacific must get swell, and I also noticed that the far north of Scotland had a little stretch of coastline that had a direct view all the way up to the stormy Arctic. It must be bleeding cold though..

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