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.
September 14th, 2008 at 4:55 am
you are so right about the reef
ifyou do some serious homework you will find that the company involved has yet to complete a project that delivers any of the core promise; Opanake,Mt manganui , surfparks now sadly bournemouth may be added to the list.
there is a 60 mins story in this with all leading back to the narrowneck at the gold coast and a group who defend to the last word everything they do except words dont create a finished promised product.
The initial seed was “my calculations show that narrockneck reef multiplied wave height by 2.5, that means knee hight to overhead” a director to a crowded meeting at wessex surf club. (thats a basic phallacy anywway) but the crowd went wild and said they wanted three reefs not one.
then the catch cry for marketing by all is knee height to overhead 2.5 times -well my 2,5 times knee height is my chest.
But questions began to be asked and what do you know , the scientific community was told 2.1 times (maybe) thats kne height to maybe midriff.
Ahhh now bournemouth council says to the builders “whats going on?) the builders in damage control are told to “manage” the misconceptions and perceptions about the multiply factor and even the council has contracted the project on the basis of “double the wave height and twice as many days a year for waves” but the designers now say publically
“we have to manage the peceptions - the media hype about 2.5 times the wave height going to overhead is just that “hype” (but oops the hype was “seeded” by the designers into a overflowing crowd at wessex surf club) and the designers/builders now say it wont even be two times the height and that only happens at one smal place at the take off point for a moment.
ooops stories that change as time goes on - ok you are the journo i just see all!!
and of course all where they wish they could get waves as you point out -fertile ground for men in trenchcoats offering sweets to surfing wannabes.