When most people think of Iceland they think of skidoos, the northern lights and Bjork. I guess if you are a bit more musically minded, you may also think of  Sigur Ros too…either way surfing, is not really something people associate with Iceland.

Reykjavik

I’ve visited Iceland before, but this October I was on a mission to get in the water and surf there, whatever it took. After a day or two of scouring the skate shops and sending a bunch of emails I finally managed to uncover some of the local surf scene. Believe me when I tell you that finding somewhere to hire a surfboard and wetsuit in Iceland is not easy. However I was lucky enough to meet Mummi who had just opened his skateboard and surf store JadarSport about 7 miles out of Reykjavik in Hafnafjordur. I whizzed over there to see him.

Xcel Wetsuits at JadarSport

It was cool to see that his store stocked a range of skate, wake board, kayak and surf kit for sale and hire. When I arrived Mummi had to dash over from sorting shipping orders of cod to the UK, but even though he was busy, he offered to take me out surfing and hired me some kit. The next day we headed off to surf a point break near the Reykjanes Penninsula in the south western corner of Iceland called Thorli.

Thorli is about a 45-minute drive from the capital Reykjavik and first we checked the beach. This was a stretch of black sand and dunes as far as the eye could see and reminded me of Penhale. There was some cross-offshor breeze on it making for some hollow surf and there was no one out. However Mummi was keen to check the reef a few miles away. We got to the point break and could see some consistent head–high sets. The wind gave it a bit of a bump, but there were plenty of peeling rights coming through, one after the other.

Map SW Iceland

I guess its one of those things, when a reef is working few surfers I know want to surf a beach. As we got changed it felt like a winters day in the UK. I looked around for other surfers, but apart from Mummi and me there was literally no one else around. He told me that he estimated that maybe 20-30 people surf in Iceland. That figure is around 30,000 surfers in the UK.

Don’t worry about crowds in Iceland. 20-30 local surfers have 5000km of coastline to surf. That’s around 100 miles of coastline per surfer!

If you are used to sharing busy line-ups with 200+ surfers, trust me, you won’t find it crowded!

We put on our 6mm suits, gloves, boots and hood and hit the surf. It was a fun surf and apart from a bit of chilly face on the wipe-outs it was no colder than the UK in winter. With it being an empty point break it was like a wave conveyor belt serving up one right after another.

Why are there so few surfers in Iceland?

Well, I’m going to speculate that it’s because of a few things. One major reason is that the water can be cold, but also there are loads of other extreme sports you can do too in Iceland. From snow-kiting to snow boarding, from kayaking to wake boarding and then there is skiing and snowboarding. Icelanders can do plenty of other things when it comes to outdoor sports without surfing – so as a surfer this is all good news

Saying surf breaks in Iceland are ‘un-crowded’ is a bit misleading, it’d be more accurate to call them ‘empty’.

Even thought its quite a sizeable country, Iceland has a relatively small population of about 320,000 people. That’s a similar population to a city like of Leicester or Cardiff here in the UK.

Unlike Cardiff (or Leicester) it’s a volcanic Island. The coastline is a mix of black-sanded beaches and rocky reefs – think Fuerteventuran reef breaks on a British winters day and your some of the way there. Many of these are point-breaks and when favourable winds blow they can produce world-class hollow surf.

If Fuerteventura is the Hawaii of Europe, then Iceland is the Hawaii of the Arctic

In geological terms, Iceland is a young island. It formed from a series of volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The south of Iceland is a bit warmer than the north. Spring to Autumn water temperature in southern Iceland ranges from 4-5c and go up to over 10c in late summer and autumn. This is similar to the winter – spring water temperatures in Cornwall.

Gullfoss Waterfall

Another interesting feature about Iceland is that in the spring- summer period, it can be light pretty much around the clock. That’s right you can go surfing at 2am if you want. If it’s looking offshore when everyone else is asleep, you can still head to your un-crowded reef break!

Why you should go surfing in Iceland:

1. World-class un-crowded quality reef breaks
2. Fun weekend drinking culture
3. Vibrant independent music scene
4. Amazing natural beauty –breath-tasking waterfalls, thermal springs, northern lights, wild horses, glaciers – the list goes on.
5. It hardly gets dark in spring/ summer, so you can surf at 2am if you want.

Some of the obstacles you face if you want to surf in Iceland

No surf industry for kit hire. In Newquay its easy to take for granted that in the space of a mile, there are a dozen or more shops that can sell or hire you a surfboard or wetsuit. In Iceland there are no shops I have found that sell surfboards or surf wetsuits with the exception of Mummi’s and the surfers I spoke to repaired their boards themselves.

It is cold. Many surfers like warm water if they go away. This is particularly true if you come from a cold-water country. That said plenty of the UK’s top surfers are happy to put up with cold water for great waves. Winter is cold in Iceland but this is not necessarily the case for a lot of southern Iceland in the spring-summer. Whilst it doesn’t get super-hot, the air temperature in May through to September can be quite mild, and you certainly won’t always need a coat.

It can be expensive. Its true that Iceland can be expensive. In 2006 when I first went there a pint of beer was around £8. However prices have gone down in the last couple of years and Iceland is now relatively quite a bit cheaper than Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Many goods in the supermarket are a similar to the UK, and the beer (whilst not cheap) has come down to average London prices.

Taking surfboards is expensive. Getting a ferry is not really an option as there are no direct ferry routes from the UK to Iceland, so you must fly. Return flights from Heathrow rang around the £200-£250 mark, however one of the biggest obstacles for surfing in Iceland is that the main airlines still charge travellers a lot for taking surfboards. The current fee for Iceland Air for taking a board is around a £150.00.

Not ideal for beginners. Whilst there are some beach breaks in Iceland and the waves will sometimes be mellow, it is not the obvious place to go to learn surfing on your own. Most beaches may be empty with no lifeguards and potentially no people around for miles. This means if you get into trouble you are on your own. If you are not confident in rocky reef bottoms and dealing with channels and rips, or haven’t surfed that much then it is probably wise to stick to organised surf schools at lifeguarded beaches elsewhere in Europe.

That said, if the sound of un-crowded hollow reef breaks, lots of natural beauty and surfing at 2am appeal to you then go surf in Iceland. It can be done! Take your own wetsuit, then give someone like Mummi a call in Hafnafjordur and he’ll see if he can find a board for you. Surfboard hire may be limited in Iceland, but there is usually going to be some great waves!

To contact Mummi at JadarSport visit http://jadarsport.is/

The Cribbar breaks rarely…perhaps a few times a year… if you’re lucky.

Unless you live close to Newquay and keep a keen eye on the surf reports the chances are, you could miss it. The reason it breaks so rarely isn’t (as far as I’m aware) about voodoo or spells, it is just that alot of factors have to come into play simultaneously in order to create the right conditions.

Good surfable waves at the Cribbar are not just about a big swell, but also about the swell direction, the wind speed, and direction of that wind…all of these things come into play. Once you have all of these things happening, the next ingredient you need are surfers skilled and crazy enough to surf it!

On the 30th of October it was one of those lucky days.

When I got up I noticed that even the weather was exceptionally warm for the time year. As I looked out of my window I could see large crowds gathering up on the headland. I left the flat and was glad I bothered to lug a heavy camcorder and tripod up the headland, because when I looked down over Cribbar rocks mother nature had decided to conjure up near perfect big wave surf conditions.

30ft faces smashed down a 100m away, there were bright blue skies and the atmosphere was electric. People hooted and cheered, it was like a Cornish version of Half Moon Bay, this was our Mavericks.

And to top it all there were guys like Ben Skinner and Richie Sills, amped up to tow in to monster waves.

Report ctd..

Around 100 excited onlookers watched as surfers used jet skis to tow into the huge waves that rolled in from the mid Atlantic.

Richie Sills and Ben Skinner charged. Each time a surfer made a wave and huge cheer went up. I’ve never seen so many people taking photos.

The standard of big wave surfing in the UK has gone form strength to strength in recent years and more and more of the local crew in Newquay have got involved with tow in and surfing big waves here as well as in Scotland and Ireland.

When the Cribbar is on it’s our Mavericks and the atmosphere on the headland was electric. People witnessed high-performance, world class big wave surfing right on their door step in Newquay.

The guys put it all on the line with some critical surfing, even getting barrelled on huge sets.

Ben Skinner (perhaps the greatest all round surfer in the UK ) even threw in some little chop-hop tricks.

Your average surfer would probably drown if they tried to surf out there and these guys are did tricks!

There was even someone paddling in on an SUP, but he seemed to get caught inside and took a few on the head ( see pic below). It looked like he lost his paddle and had to come in.

Here’s what the conditions looked like on paper:

• 14-15ft swell16 sec wave period
• 15-20mph cross/ offshore wind
• Breaking wave face estimate 18-30ft

Well, if it looks like that again, you can be sure the boys will be out – but we may have to wait a while!

With the exception of a handful of films, most surf films in the last 20-30 years seem to be very similar.

Perhaps even more these days, they are riddled with cliches.

Maybe its the challenge of making something routine look fresh.

Or maybe its just a safe bet to follow formula, to sell stuff, but quite quickly it can start blurring into one long… ‘same ol, same ol’.

Or is it because (like stickers) they are really aimed for 11-15 years old boys…

21 steps to nearly every surf movie out there:

1. Shot of surfers rising and makes a coffee, its dark morning.

2. Surfers packs their boards and a small bag into a car.

3. Shot of surfers at airport and/or sitting on plane looking out of window trying to look deep

4. Surfers arrive, new shot of surfers in a car – either trying to act whacky and excitable or looking out of window and trying to look deep and intense.

5. Shots of road, shots of tatty sheds, lots of meaningless shots of doorways.

6. Stop motion clips of clouds moving, sky and waves

7. Shots of locals faces mainly looking intense and improvished

8. Cut to shot of surfers staring blankly at books.

9. Shot of surfers waxing their board.

10. Cut to more shots of tatty sheds, a hill or two, more headshots of locals (usualy impovrished) then cut back to beach

11. Cut to more stop motion of sky and beach

12 .Surfers run down to the water with boards and skim over whitewash into ocean

13. Shot of girls in bikinis walk past

14. Surfers do shaka paddling out past water camera person

15. Underwater shot of surfer duck-diving a wave

16. Then shot of surfer in a barrel, going past – camera drops into wave at end

17. More shots of tatty sheds, houses, and improvished locals

18. Surfers do some air reverses and hacks

19. Surfers walk back onto beach

20. Surfers do anopther shaka at end, and either close with a whacky-excitable moment or try another deep and meaningful pose.

21. Cuts then to even more stop motion of sunset…fade.

Repeat, as long as the kids keep buying it.

So are surf videos boring?

Lots of people try out surfing and usually they get the bug and want to get better…perhaps hoping one day they might rip like Newquay’s Alan Stokes (pic above)

However not everyone lives by the beach, and not everyone can surf regularly. So a common question is ‘How can I improve?’

I believe surfing is different to some other sports. The amount of time you need to spend physically learning is quite high, so anything you can do to improve little by little is important.

Here are 7 tips on how you can begin to improve your surfing…

1. Make sure you have the right kit

If you are learning to surf you need to be warm enough. So to ensure you can stay in the water as long as possible, a good wetuit is a must.

In addition to this you will usually want to learn on a soft foam surfboard with lots of volume.

If you are learning to surf and weigh anywhere between 120 -200lbs you should opt to learn on a foam surfboard between 7ft and 9ft long for the first 10-20 sessions.

Beyond that it’s common for folks to move onto hard Epoxy minimals or longboards – that said I would not see it as a bad thing for people to spend their first 50-60hours learning to surf on foam boards.

When most people learn to surf they have it in their head that they want to ride surfboards that the pros do.

Whatever Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning or Dane Reynolds ride – this is what people want to be seen with…

However the reality is that even if you surfed everyday for a few years, you may not get to the standard good enough to get the most out of surfing surfboards like the pros do…

Surfing can really be a bit different to other sports. For example – if you played cricket for a while you could buy the same cricket bat as a pro cricketer and it may help your game.

If you played football for a while and bought the same boots as Rooney, they may be really comfortable and help you kick the ball better. But with surfing following this logic doesn’t always work because it can take so many years to build up the skills level you really need to get the benefit of using the small dimension surfboards that pros use – an remember they are often surfing in much higher quality waves than we typically get here in the UK!

I heard a rumour that when Kelly Slater was asked “What surfboard of yours would you recommend people buy?” He answered none of them…

So, if your going to buy a surfboard, my tip would be don’t rush into buying the smallest board possible and don’t be mislead by sales staff. Remember they are often on commission, and so may not always have your interests at heart.

If your keen to buy a surfboard try and get some objective opinion about your current standard of surfing at that time…ideally from someone who will tell you the truth!

Just because a mate has a 5’10 x 18.5’’ shortboard he wants to sell, don’t immediately jump in and buy it if you’ve only been surfing 3 times, and weigh 180lbs.

The issue of making sure your surfboard has enough volume has been covered before on the site, but if you are learning to surf you typically want to stick to a surfboard with lots of volume…maybe for your first 50 surfs at least.

Check out the NewquaySurfer buying guide for learner boards here

2. Take lots of surf lessons

Though it sounds obvious lessons are important.

A common mistake made by some folks is to only have one or two surf lessons – which seems to be based on the assumption that this is all they need to know to surf and all that is required from then on, is to practice.

This can be a mistake.

What can then happen is they hire hard surfboards, ignore surfing etiquette and drop in without realising. Sometimes you’ll get a situation of upset locals, while learners are more likely to injure themselves and not improve that much.

Most gripes I hear from locals is usually about surfers at busy beaches who really should be on supervised lessons but instead are on hired hard surfboards.

So keep up the lessons!

Chances are when you start surfing you have a group lesson. These are usually one instructor to 5-10 students.

Have at least 5 if not 10 of those lessons, because one or two supervised lessons is really not enough for most people.

Once you have had many supervised group lessons, and if you still want to progress, consider having a further 4-5 one-to-one lessons.

The benefit of one-to-one lessons is that your instructor can tailor the lessons towards your sticking points, and dedicate the whole session to helping you improve.

With a group lesson of 10, you’re only really getting 10% of the surf instructors attention – with a one-to-one lesson your getting 100%.

3. Learn from watching others in the line-up

Once you have a warm wetsuit, the right board and you are building your confidence from lessons, there are other ways to start learning.

As you get more confident and can comfortably paddle out back, try and identify one or two surfers you think are surfing well.

Watch where they sit in the line up to catch waves, look at where they take off and how they drop onto the wave, what do they do next?

How do they surf the waves? Try and absorb this.

Whilst you may not be able to replicate exactly what they do, you can usually learn a lot from it.

Sometimes the folks surfing well can be local, or have some local knowledge – they may have an idea of how the waves break, where to be to take off and so on.

Even if you have a bad day catching waves, if you can watch others in the water and learn from them how to get better, you’re spending productive time in the water.

4. Watch DVDs and videos

If you come to Newquay you can’t really get away from surf DVDs. They play round the clock in most of the popular bars – usually its footage from Oz, Indo, Hawaii or Central America. Basically they tend not to be showing the types of waves we get in the UK.

So in my opinion, whilst watching people riding 10 ft barrels is entertaining, when you are learning to surf as a beginner, watching this sort of DVD will not really help you much.

That said – you can learn from watching instructional surf DVDs, so instead of watching Laird Hamilton charge 30ft Teahupoo every night it’d be wise to spend at least half of that time watching instructional videos either online or on DVD.

Surprisingly there are not that many instructional surf DVDs around, but there are a couple of good UK ones.

• 110% surfing Volume 1 and Volume 2 are probably the best on the market – click here – Volume 1 is the one to watch if you are new to surfing. It starts off basic, but by the end of the DVD it does get fairly advanced.

• Surfline have some useful free instructional videos for more advanced surfing online – check out >> http://www.youtube.com/user/surfline

• 13 online surf lessons – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEuvBqQBXvk

5. Watch the major surf comps – Live

This really can be an excellent way to learn.

Ideally go to the live surf competitions if you can and watch from the beach. There are a number held around the coast in the UK each spring to autumn time. Many of the major ones are held in Newquay.

If you can’t get to a local national comp, then check out the live video streams of the international events.

The streaming technology for these live surf events has improved significantly in the last 2 years so it’s possible to hook up your laptop to your 40inch plasma.

I make a point of saying watch it “live” rather than edited highlights because you want to see the not-so perfect bits too.

Watching live means you are not watching some edited glossy DVD that is a compilation of the surfer’s best waves over a year, but instead you are able to see how the surfers react in real time. Watching live allows you to see the decisions the surfers make taking waves, how they approach and make selections, their mistakes, how they respond in real-time and so on.

I’m not out to bash all surf movies, but personally I find a lot of them to be eye-candy, and not that useful for a beginner learning to surf.

Another reason live surf comps are useful when you’re learning to surf is that the commentary on the WQS and World Tour events is usually done by ex-pro surfers.

So the live commentary is not only entertaining but informative too. The insights given can really help with understanding surfing much better.

Some surf comps to watch online:

• O’Neill Cold Water Classic - Various events including: Santa Cruz, Thurso – http://www.oneill.com/cwc/

• Triple Crown/ Pipeline masters  – Held in Hawaii Nov – Dec each year – http://www.triplecrownofsurfing.com/

• Hurley Pro – Trestles - Held in September - http://www.hurley.com/hurleypro/

• Mr Price Pro – Ballito - Held in July - http://www.mrpricepro.com/

• Nike US Open of surfing – Held in August at Huntington Beach – http://www.usopenofsurfing.com/

6. Read books about surfing

This is a bit of an old school solution, but there are some useful tips contained in books about surfing.

A bit like the DVDs there are not that many instructional books out there on surfing.

If you head into most large bookstores in major cities you’ll struggle to find any on the shelves.

Its at this stage you realise surfing is a niche sport in the UK and DVDs lend themselves well to the 3-dimensional nature of the sport, however there are a few useful books worth a look if you are keen to learn more.

Some useful books:

• Learn to surf – by James MacLaren
• Surfing a beginner’s guide – by Alf Alderson
• Surfing: Mastering waves from basic to intermediate – by Elliot Almond
• Surf Science – An introduction to waves for surfing – by Butt, Russell & Grigg

7. Have someone video you surfing

My final tip, which could be your biggest eye-opener, is to persuade someone to video you surfing for an hour or two.

As we learn we get a self-concept of how we surf and how we look when we ride waves.

Perhaps the bad news is,we usually think in our head we have awesome style, and are riding waves like a pro – until we see ourselves on video that is!

Whilst having footage of you riding your local break may shatter a deluded belief that you surf like Occy at Bells, or are killing it like Dane Reynolds…it will help you learn.

Video is a massive learning opportunity and it’s something you can go back to and refer to again and again.

Just one video session of you surfing and catching 10 waves could be a useful reference for learning for many months to come.

Ideally get someone to film you with the camera on a tripod. Try and get footage of you doing what you think you normally do. This way you can watch how you pop up, bottom turn, even how you duck dive and so forth.

The aim of the video footage is not to make you look cool (more and more people seem to like to use GoPros for that purpose) but to show you how you actually look when you surf and how you can improve.

Summary:

Surfing is not an easy sport, it takes time and in reality it takes many, many years and innate skill, to get to the standard of the top surfers you see in magazines.

You may never ever get to that standard no matter how hard you try – but you could still learn to become a competent surfer.

And if you are older and are learning to surf, you can accelerate your learning by avoiding some of the pitfalls.

Make sure you have the right equipment and take more lessons than the average person.

Then have one-to-one sessions too.

Get in the water as often as you can and watch how good surfers take waves.

When you are not in the water keep fit, but also watch instructional surf DVDs and watch the live comps.

You can also swot up and read if you’re a keen reader.

And finally get someone to video you and analyse it.

Ok – those were the Newquay Surfer top 7 tips for beginners to improve their surfing.

Put them all together and I reckon you’ll be racing down the line and busting big hacks and turns before you know it!

Do you have any good surfing tips?

Let us know in the comments below!

SurfingGB have put together a handy PDF with all the UK & Ireland surf comps for 2011 listed. There are quite a few surf competitions coming up in September through to November in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

The next event after the King of the Groms, at Fistral beach in Newquay is the XPY PRO Junior on the 17th and 18th of September – with the Animal Open and British Championship being held in November.

To download a PDF copy of the 2011 GB surf competitions visit http://www.surfinggb.com/

The Billabong rpo at Teahupoo in Tahiti has largely been on hold this week bar one day of surfing.

However yesterday ( Saturday 27th August) the big swell that was predicted hit. True to form the big wave teams turned up and set about launching themselves into insane huge barrels.

There were many stories of heavy wipeouts and surfers being dragged across the reef – one having his life vest ripped off! The waves were certainly heavy…

Watch the video footage below

With round 1 done and a few lay-days down, according to Surfline, the surf is meant to get pretty massive at this week’s Billabong Pro surf comp at Teahupoo!

Surfline.com forecast for this week at Teahupoo

Commentators are talking about whether the event may need to get called off on the biggest days – or whether the competitors will be allowed to tow-in…could that really happen?

Well who do you fancy for the event? Suddenly who you’d back might change if the waves are really big.

The small wave aerial rippers might not be the obvious choice…

I’d always wager Kelly Slater could do well big or small, but could this be a good comp for the Hobgoods? CJ was killing it in round 1.

And what about veteran surfer Taylor Knox? He’s now 40, but still fit, he’s still on tour and he likes the big stuff.

Or maybe young gun Julian Wilson coud have his day… he seems to froth at the thought of sizeable surf.

A photo gallery of some pro international surfers surfing in their heats at the 2011 Boardmasters WQS 6 Star event in Newquay, Cornwall in August 2011.

Some moderate onshore wind made the conditions great for airs – so, some of the American, French and Brazillian surfers certainly seemed to have fun.

Busy times in Newquay are upon us…

Most of August gets very busy in the water in Newquay, so here are a few pointers in finding a surf spot if you want to free surf.

Surfing at Fistral beach:

What usually happens at BM - Click image for larger version.

Its important to appreciate that about 1/3 or more of the beach can be allocated to surf comps when they run. If they are not running then you can surf at North Fistral.

Free surfing is permitted on Fistral generally, but not in the red and yellow flags which is for swimming and bodyboarders.

If you don’t realise that red and yellow flags mean no surfing and are a designated area for swimming and bodyboarding only… you should probably not be surfing on your own. Sign up for surf lessons!

It is usually less busy at low tides and more busy at high tide, as the waves tend to break closer to the shore – pushing free surfers into a smaller take off zone.

Generally it will be busy at all times during weekends, as most surf schools take their lessons to Fistral to surf between the black and white flags, so be aware.

If you want it quieter, then I’d suggest a dawny or surfing elsewhere.

PS: Also, unless you’re Laird Hamilton don’t surf into a comp area if events are running.

Surfing at Towan Bay:

Click image for larger version.

Basically you can’t!

Towan Bay is for swimming and bodyboarding only through the summer months.

The nearest you can start surfing is in front of the cliff of the little island and you can only do this at low to mid tide. Beyond that point, the tide is just too high to surf, so Towan becomes a swimming and bodyboarding only zone during the day until the lifeguards pack up at around 6:00 pm.

If you do try and surf there during the day you’ll get yelled at by lifeguards (usually on jetskis).

Surfing at Great Western Beach:

There is a small allocated free-surfing zone at Great Western Beach which you can walk to via Towan bay at low-mid tide.

Its quite a small beach, but at low tide it does open up creating a bit more space for surfing.

Again there will be a allocated swimming and bodyboarding area (between red and yellow flags) and surf schools will likely be out during the day taking up a fair bit of space.

At high tide Great Western only offers a small surfing area, so it can get very crowded. Unlike at low tide, it only really works ok when the swell is 4-5ft+

Surfing at Tolcarne Beach:

Tolcarne offers a similar situation to Great Western, in that it is a small beach that opens up to create more space at low tide.

But also like Great Western, Tolcarne is a much smaller beach at high tide, meaning it can get very busy at peak times.

On Tolcarne beach there’s food, little shops and a bar on the beach for non-surfers.

Dogs are not permitted on Tolcarne beach, but don’t go thinking that means all the girls are hot…

It will also have a allocated swimming and bodyboarding area, and bare in mind that surf schools may be allowed to use it during the day.

Like Great Western at high tide its a small area, it can get popular with bodyboarders as sometimes waves wedge up off the cliff – this tends to only really work when the swell is 4-5ft+

Other beaches to consider surfing during Boardmasters 2011 :

If the Newquay beaches seem like they may be too busy, then there are plenty of other options to surf close to Newquay including:

a/ Lusty Glaze Beach – head down another 1/2 a mile past Tolcarne and try Lusty Glaze. There is a car park for the beach there. There’s food, adventure activities, little shops and a bar etc on the beach for non-surfers. Surf this beach at Low to mid tide.

b/ Watergate Bay – whilst this will usually be busy due to the main event being held there the beach is pretty massive at low tide. It works on all tides, but at high expect it to be packed as the tide pushes in. There are surf schools, bars, cafes and Jamie’s 15…which is expensive and often booked out in advance.

c/ Perranporth – is a huge beach at low tide. Best low to mid tide from my experience. There is parking in the town next to the beach or up the hill on the cliff. Parking is typically a bit cheaper than Newquay – in the £4.00 range.

Once you have found somewhere to park you can usually relax…finding a quiet spot to surf in the water is usually a bit easier.

There are lots of surf shops in Perranporth as well as cafes and places to stuff your face with pasties etc

Warning: Parking in Newquay generally sucks

The parking machines can be broken and so sometimes do not accept coins, so you may need to pay using a debit card over the phone.

You should only have to pay around £5.10 – £5.30 for a full-day parking.

If you are in a council owned car park and the voicemail is saying any more that £5.30 to park for a day keep trying…you are probably pressing too few, or too many hours.

There is an iPhone parking app, but word is that is just as bad, and charges you more.

Anyway to re-cap, the parking fee to park all day in a council run car park between 9:00am -6:30pm should be around £5.10 – £5.30 a day.

Have fun at Boardmasters.

Peace out!

I’m always fascinated by trends…what consumers buy into, their current shopping tastes and so on. This data is usually taken from sales, and then used to market more product at people.

However in the last few days it seems that due to all the rioting in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol etc… a new sort of buying trend has emerged…looting.

Now with looting its not been possible to measure sales…

“Goods have flown off the shelves in record time…but no one paid.”

And with no till receipts popularity can only be measured by a broken window…or a fire.

I guess consumer rights no longer apply…

Some have suggested that the trend is a new inner-city wealth re-distribution program at the expense of major shops, and it looks like the surf and skate brands are not popular with the majority of rioters and looters.

Check out the ‘Top of the Shops’ looted list below.

Click for larger version

The stores hit for clothing tend to be more traditional sports merchandise and it looks like surf fashion doesn’t resonate with the youths who have taken to the streets.

So where are the surf brands going wrong? Or right…I guess it depends on how you look at it. But it begs the question:

“Is surf fashion not edgy enough for the inner-city youth of today?”

Let us know what you think in the comments below…