RUBBISH SURF…
October 26, 2007 on 3:42 pm | In Surfing |
Top ten surf spot here, top ten surf spot there – enough already. Here’s five of the worst surf spots in
Britain.
WHITESANDS, PEMBROKESHIRE
Whitesands - the most over-rated break in Wales. Here’s why: Most surfers would agree that you need a good swell, right swell direction, right stage of the tide, good banks and an offshore wind to create good surf. Whitesands will and often does have four of these variables in perfect conjunction, but the fifth will always be missing. So the waves are always rubbish. Like tonight, even though the swell was head high.
What’s worse is it’s my local break. Pah!
BOURNEMOUTH
Bournemouth has pretty mediocre surf at present along with huge crowds every time there’s a wave. But next year it will have a new, million-pound artificial reef, creating…mediocre surf with huge crowds every time there’s a wave.The council’s head of leisure services begs to differ, saying the ‘pioneering reef project’…’will make Bournemouth one of the prime surfing destinations in the UK’. What, like Thurso East, Porthleven or the Yorkshire reefs?I think not, because unlike
Bournemouth the above spots receive regular clean, powerful swells.
Bournemouth does so only on months with a Я in them, and no end of expensive reefs will produce quality waves if there ain’t any swell in the first place.I will be happy to eat my hat about these remarks, but I believe my hat has little to fear.
BENBECULA, OUTER HEBRIDES
For all I’m aware Benbecula may have absolutely bitchin’ waves on 358 days of the year, but I know for a fact that for the other seven its rubbish, cos that’s how long I was there once, during which I didn’t see a single decent wave.And for a man who lives in Pembrokeshire, Benbecula is just too far to travel for flat conditions – if it’s flat when I’m there that makes it a rubbish surf spot as far as I’m concerned. And all the bars close on Sunday too…
FISTRAL, CORNWALL
Like most surfers I am a wave rider of average ability. And for ‘average’ surfers Fistral is liquid hell, because when there are waves it’s always as crowded as Paddington Station, and an average surfer will rarely get a decent wave in these conditions because they’ll either be dropped in on by a beginner or beaten to it by a local hotshot.Of course the hotshots think it’s great, cos Fistral does indeed get quality waves and those buggers ride most of them; and the beginners couldn’t care less cos they’re beginners and owt will do. But for the rest of us surfing Fistral is an exercise in utter frustration. Great place if you like beer, curry and a punch up though…
HOLKHAM, NORFOLK
Holkham is one of the most gorgeous beaches in Britain, about four miles long and, it seems, almost as wide, with jade green water, golden sands, pine backed dunes – and not a wave in sight. Ever. And that’s rubbish – what’s a beach as lovely as this doing having no surf? It should be made to audition for the X-Factor as punishment…
Alf Alderson
http://www.alfalderson.co.uk
Multi-award-winning freelance journalist and author of Surf UK - the definitive guide to surfing in Britain.
