Pleasure surfers queuing for huge swell sweeping up coast

With the competition season now over, we are left to enjoy a winter of surfing purely for fun, and so far it has been a lot of fun.

Last weekend saw perfect conditions in the South West, with a huge swell sweeping up the coast on the Saturday and some more manageable waves for the mere mortals amongst us on the Sunday.

I drove up the coast to a fairly renowned left-hander on the Saturday afternoon to witness some of the best waves I've seen in this country all year, and I wasn't the only one who had had the idea.

The normally quiet lanes were blocked up with vans and in the water it was a fight for every wave. But with good reason; it was pumping.

The purpose of my visit was to photograph the Ash brothers from Bude, Joss and Reubyn, who know the wave well and, when it's on, will usually put on a show of progressive surfing for onlookers and fellow surfers.

They didn't disappoint, with Reubyn pulling off huge ally oop airs and Joss coming out of long barrels. The results from the shoot will be in the next issue of Wavelength.

Meanwhile down the coast at Newquay, the Cribbar was breaking once again, with local lad Tom Butler getting into a few and stand up paddle-boarder Nick Healey from Falmouth also giving it a go.

There have been a few good days during the week, with Thursday being a bit of a stand out, especially in the morning when the main beaches on the North coast had clean, head-high waves with just a light offshore wind on offer.

However, the wintry winds from the north have finally turned up, messing the waves yesterday, and potentially tomorrow.

Today could well be the best day to try and get in this weekend, with a bit of a cross-shore wind, but probably just enough swell to find a bit of shelter somewhere.

The steering committee that is in the process of setting up a new national governing body for surfing in Britain had another meeting this week to move things along.

With insurance cover for surf schools needing to be renewed in the new year, it is important that they make swift progress in setting up something to replace Surfing GB.

Also, a British Junior Team, which has already been picked, will be attending the World Junior Surf Championships in Panama next April, so a coaching programme has been set up to make sure they are ready in plenty of time.

We head into December next week and although it has been fairly mild so far this autumn, especially compared to the snowy scenes we saw in the South West this time last year, it must surely be about to change soon.

The good thing is that run of waves isn't set to change any time soon, with some decent looking days at the start of the week, for those of you who can get an hour or two off work.

Enjoy!