Come on our surfing holidays to France and South Africa and enjoy surfing world-class waves day after day.

Today we visited the south coast of Cornwall as the surf was predicted to be up there, and as this is so rare we were interested to see how the surfing breaks worked in this swell.

We visited 2 spots – Pentewen Sands was 4ft and clean, and Charlestown was 2ft and clean with only one surfer out! Amazing!!

It’s not often you get proper groundswell into these south coast beaches, but this swell was coming in from the south west off Portugal which was the right direction to hit these beaches. Plus the winds were north, northwest making it super-clean with nice steep faces! WOW!!!

If you want surfing conditions more like this,….. it’s usually a good idea to book a surfing holiday to a quality surf break abroad. Our surfing holidays visit the best places to surf at the most consistent time of year. We know our surfing destinations really well, and very importantly, we know under what conditions each spot works best. This means every day we can assess the surf, and find the best spot for a clean wave, and take you there! Add the element of sunny weather and our adventure holidays are the perfect surfing holiday!

So come along this September (2011) on our France surf holiday, or the following May (2012) on our South Africa surfing holiday to Jeffrey’s Bay.

This winter the prolonged cold weather and high pressure systems are sat in the way of any low pressure systems coming down to the UK and bringing swell too. It’s unclear how long this will continue but with the next cold spell predicted from Thurs night it does not look like changing for the forseeable future.

There may be the chance of a wave on Wed according to the charts, fingers crossed!

On our surfing holidays we visit locations where the surf has been more consistent than here on the Cornish coast. We visit Seignosse in South West France every September and Jeffrey’s Bay South Africa from May 2012.

Yesterday it was 4-6ft at Fistral, as the photo shows. Today it was a bit smaller around 2-3ft, so we took the opportunity to get a few waves.

Tomorrow the forecast says 10ft plus!!! So….we might pop up the coast to a sheltered point break in Cornwall. In true surfer style, we are keeping the name of this ‘secret spot’ to ourselves, but I’m sure there will be a few other surfers there, if the winds are right! We’ll let you know how we got on.

It was a classic Cornish day today with the on-shore winds spoiling the surf. But we had fun wandering round the shops in Perranporth and taking it easy. And it was nice and warm when the sun came out.

Well we are not excactly expecting to surf like this today but we have at last some offshore winds!! This means clean surf!! We’ve had such a run of onshores we’ve forgotten what real lines look like!!
As you probably know the weather affects the surf, and what we hanker after is light or offshore winds and some nice groundswell coming from a weather system far enough away not to ruin the surf! This all sounds a bit geeky, and if you’d like to know more geeky stuff we’ve blogged about surfing and the weather and you can read about it under our ‘general interest surfing’ category.

I’m sure all the Newquay surfers will be out today too so we will hopefully see some friends getting some good waves in the sea later on.

Basking sharks are the largest fish in British waters and can reach lengths of  around 10 metres and weigh up to 7 tonnes! Big Boys!!! But do not fear their approaching fin,….they aren’t Jaws at all! They feed on plankton. If you spot one tell the Basking Shark Trust on +44 (0) 1752 672020.

In the last article in our series about surfing and the weather we look at the location of your local coastline in relation to the position of active low pressure systems. We relate this to the direction and movement of the ‘low’, and how this affects waves in the ocean, and ultimately, swell at your fave spot.

Swell window

The swell window is the area of cosatline that is exposed to groundswell. The majority of swell in the North Atlantic travels from the North and East to the West and South. This means that the most consistent places in Europe exposed to the swell are Northern Spain and Western Ireland, as well as the West coasts of Portugal and Morocco. The Azores and the Canary Islands also get a fair amount of swell. The North coast of Cornwall and Devon have much smaller swell windows from this direction of swell, because Ireland’s land mass blocks most North West and Northerly groundswells.

Another factor that will determine your swell is your surf spot’s location in relation to the low, and the usual path of the low. For instance Western Ireland in the winter can get consistent large surf, but it is often blown out due the fact that the low is too near the coast; creating strong winds. Also there can be many lows, one after the other, and each one ‘blows out’ the other’s swell.
On the other hand, Morocco and the Canary Islands get lots of good winter groundswell with calm, warm weather conditions. This is because the lows pass far enough away not to affect the warm high pressure weather at the coast.

Beach orientation

The orientation of individual beaches is equally important in determining how big the swell will be when it arrives. For example, the North coast of Cornwall picks up most of its swell from a Westerly direction, so those beaches facing West get the full impact of the swell. Those facing North will get less of the impact of the swell, and have smaller waves as a result, as the swell has to wrap around a headland to reach the shore.

Conversely many of Cornwall’s South East coast beaches don’t receive much or any of the Westerly swells, and as a result are less consistent for surfing. They tend to have a lot of ‘flat’ days. This coast relies on the rarer South and South Westerly swells or really large Westerly swells we sometimes get in the winter. These can then wrap around the coast and hit the shore with some good surf.

To check your surf conditions  we recommend you use windguru, and the BBC weather site to track pressure systems.

So next time you look at your weather chart and see a low pressure system coming in, it could be generating some great waves for you! Happy surfing!

Today’s blog will consider local weather conditions and their affect on groundswell at your local beach.

As groundswell approaches your local beach the quality of the surf will be will largely be dependant on local weather conditions including wind direction and strength.

Lets use the Newquay area of the North coast of Cornwall as an example.
Imagine we have a lovely 3-4 ft 15 second groundswell coming from the West, this sounds promising, but it will depend entirely on the wind direction and strength, and how exposed your beach is.

The perfect wind direction and strength for most surfers in Newquay would be a light South Easterly (offshore) wind; blowing from the land directly out to sea. In these conditions the swell will appear as clearly defined lines on the ocean, if you look from a good vantage point out to sea. The sea between each wave will be smooth.

As the waves approach the shore they become steeper, being pushed up by the shallower seabed, additionally the offshore wind will hold up the face of the wave, creating a steep smooth face. As the wave breaks some fine spray will be blown off the lip of the wave, and the stronger the offshore wind, the more spray will be blown back over the wave from the lip. Also the waves will break a bit closer to the shore due to the wind holding them up.

In a very strong offshore of say, force 5 or more, it often becomes difficult to catch the waves. This can be due to the wind blowing up the face and holding you back, stopping you from being able to take off in to the wave. The spray coming from the lip of the wave can also hold you back, both physically and mentally!

If you are on a long board in a strong offshore it can be even harder to catch the wave due to wind blowing up under the nose of your board, you often have to get a bit further forward on your board when paddling into the wave, you also have the added safety problem of a bigger board being blown through the air by the strong wind.

Strong cross-shore winds can be a problem too. If the wind gets quite strong and blows across the beach parallel to the sea, and the beach is fairly exposed, such as Watergate Bay, where there are no headlands, then large chop will develop coming across the face of the waves creating lumps and bumps in the waves. Waves can also possibly break into small sections; and this results in a difficult take-off, and a bumpy, difficult ride.

With moderate to strong onshore winds; those blowing from the sea towards the land, the waves tend to have quite a lot of chop or bumps in them, and the waves tend to break earlier; further out to sea. The faces of the waves can have a gentler slope to them, and this is especially true on a relatively flat beach with subtle sand banks. These conditions often results in a more difficult and longer paddle out, as you are paddling into the wind.
Windless or calm conditions are what surfers call ‘glassy’ conditions. In these conditions the surface of the ocean is a smooth as glass, with the groundswell passing through it. These conditions often occur in settled weather. In the summer in England surfers will refer to the ‘morning glass’ or the evening ‘glass-off’. These glassy conditions, along with light to moderate offshore winds are most surfers dream conditions, and can pave the way for an epic surf session!

It is awful weather today here in Cornwall with strong gusts of wind and rain. As you can see the cows are not enjoying it! They are coming back in from the field into their shed.  The surfboards in the foreground won’t get much use today!