Photo gallery number 2 of surfers at South Fistral beach, Newquay when a fairly chunky swell came one Wednesday afternoon in July.  It seemed like the the weather changed every half an hour with plenty of rain and grey skies on the one hand, then sunshine and a rainbow on another…Simpy click on the images for a larger version.

Couple of surfers up and riding on a wave

A Rainbow after the rain. Almost resembles an old painting?

A surfer notices another, already up on this wave

Water hit the rocks just as I took this pic of the line up

One surfer on a wave

A view of Fistral beach from the dunes

On a Wednesday in July some decent sized surf rolled into Fistral beach out of the blue. When the wind started blowing a moderate cross/offshore the waves really started holding up and taking a nice shape – especially at the South end of Fistral.  In spite of a lot of rain and getting soaked 2-3 times over it was possible to grab a few half decent snaps of the surfers from the rocks. I think my fave is the one of Jed Stone taken looking down/ over the breaking wave.

View of breaking wave from South Fistral

Jed Stone on a wave at South Fistral

Surfers dropping onto a wave

Two guys on a wave at South Fistral

Surfer girls jump off the rocks at South Fistral

Surfer boosts an air - view from back

Some fun surfing tonight in TR7 inspite of the grey skies and rainy weather. Good timing to combine decent surf with a number of local pro surfers being in town and going for it – inlcuding Alan Stokes, Russell Winter, Johnny Fryer and others! I guess we have the ESF inter company surf comp yesterday to thank for that   Anyway appreciate all the guys for going for it. You can WATCH VIDEO BELOW – Keep an eye out for an insane Rodeo flip attempt by Johnny Fryer!

NewquaSurfer.org coverage of the Gul sponsored Night Surf competition at Fistral Beach, Newquay, Cornwall. This is one of the only night time surf competitions. The video footage was filmed on Saturday the 19th June 2010 and contains clips of a number of UK professional surfers including: Reubyn Ash, Russell Winter, Ben Skinner, Johnny Fryer, Oli Adams & more. This video also includes footage of some street skateboarding at Fistral car park, the Stand Up Paddle Board (SUP) final, Longboard final and womens event and awards ceremonies.

The winner of the mens final was Gordon Fontaine (1st) Reubyn Ash (2nd) Luis Eyre (3rd) & Johnny Fryer (4th)

Ben Skinner won the longboard competition

Tom Earl surfing some small waves on his Quiver surfboard at Fistral Beach, Newquay, Cornwall on the morning of 15/6/2010. Footage was taken at high tide at Fistral at around 8 a.m using a Panasonic DVX100b camera.

Video of local Newquay Surfer Tom Earl surfing some small waves in an onshore wind at Fistral Beach on the 5/5/2010.  Footage shot from the North end of Fistral Beach in Newquay, Cornwall.

Surf Report for Fistral beach Newquay, Cornwall for Friday 23rd April 2010. Produced by Newquay Surfer featuring Gemma Illsley

Two happy surfers - Reubin Pearce & Alan Stokes

Whilst high winds battered the UK coast on Saturday, Sunday turned into a much calmer affair which fortunately meant some great surf for the 2009 Animal Open held at Fistral Beach, Newquay. Surfers faced some challenging conditions and a number of surfboards were broken during the day’s heats, however whilst a jetski was on hand for emergencies the surfers made the most of the solid surf that Fistral beach served up.

To watch our video of the mens final award ceremony (as featured on A1surf.com) see the video below:

The four finalists  Alan Stokes, Spencer Hargraves, Nathan Phillips and Reubin Pearce tackled some chunky overhead surf as the tide pushed in. Reubin Pearce was on top form and went on to win the final, in second place was Alan Stokes (who was also declared as winner of the 2009 UK Surf tour), Spencer Hargraves made third and Nathan Phillips fourth.

L-R Sophie Hellyer (3rd) Gabi Rowe (1st) & Zoe Sheath (2nd) - Animal Open Womens Final 2009

In the women’s event Gabi Rowe took first place with Zoe Sheath coming second. Sophile Hellyer placed third and Nicole Morgan was fourth place respectively.

Watch our video of the womens final awards ceremony below (Note Nicole Morgan’s broken surfboard as competitors battled with some sizeable surf).

For more info on the Animal Open you can also check out Carve Magazine’s report here

1. Stormy Newquay – Stormy seas and high winds roll into Newquay. Most of the local surf spots being blown out and totally unsurfable. We recorded wind gusts in excess of 45mph. However this didn’t seem to put off the local groms who on tuesday waited until high tide to try and bodyboard the backwash waves crashing off the main wall. When this got too dangerous, they simply dodged big waves as they rolled into Towan bay and broke on the ramp – occassionally sweeping one or two of them back out into the bay.  See photos of Towan Bay here.

2. Boscombe Reef officially opens - while generally speaking artificial reefs are a great thing, its still hard to get over the fact that an artifical reef in Newquay would have been much more likley to produce world class waves year round than one in Bournemouth as the latter relies on the English channel. That said the regeneration work in the area of Boscombe and all the new jobs and improvements it has brought are all good things – lets hope the artificial reef works out well too. There’s been a huge amount of coverage from the local press on the development of the reef, however the BBC have also put together an article as the reef is officially opened this week – Read the BBC news article on Boscombe Reef here.

3. Over 50s Surf Competition – At the weekend the Huntington Beach City Council on Aging held the 2009 Southland Senior Olympics Surfing Competition in Huntington, California. The competition was open to men and women who were 50 and over, and you could surf either a longboard or shortboard in the competition.  Reckon if you can still rip on a shortboard in your fifities and sixties you must be insanely fit! Photos of the event can be found here.

4. Top 10 places in the World to Surf – You wouldn’t really associate the Daily Telegraph with the world of surfing,  however as a spin-off on reporting on the Boscombe Reef the Telegraph wrote an article on the best places in the world to surf this week. No major surprises in the Top 10 list -  I guess they might have just watched Endless Summer and read a chapter of Alex Wade’s SurfNation but it’s good to see surfing in the news… and in the broadsheets too -  Read the article here

5. UK’s first £1000.00 Train ticket! – Yes, the nation’s most expensive train ticket now comes in at over £1000.00 and its a return ticket from Newquay up to a remote part of the Scottish Highlands and back again. Of course it’d be cheaper to fly, buy a car &  insure it or  even catch a luxury cruise ship up the coast, but this sensationalist piece of news certainly got people talking about the rising cost of rail travel – Read the news piece here.

These photos were taken at Towan Bay, Newquay just before a storm was due to hit.  Surfing was impossible at all the major beaches with high winds resulting in big messy waves in excess of 10ft already hitting most of the spots along the coast.

However in Towan bay at high tide a few of the groms tried to surf waves that rolled in straight towards the harbour wall – but either you had to jump off before your board hit the wall or you were thrown up into the air as the wave hit the backwash. When this was tricky the local kids resorted to bodyboarding and when that was too dangerous or impractical it was a case of playing dare as big waves smashed into the bay. Disclaimer: I’m pretty sure no kids were injured or swept out to sea.

Wave hits wall at Towan Bay

Kids watching waves roll in at Towan Bay

Kids watch bodyboarders surfing backwash at Towan

Kids play dare with waves at Towan bay

Wave hits the wall at Towan as kids duck for cover

Big wave smashes against wall

Kids get washed over by a wave

Wedge forms and is about to hit the wall