Cold Blast

Courier and Light Haulage Services in North Devon

On the road again......

Quiksilver/ Roxy UK PST Three Degrees Tour November 2008

Road trip UK - a Cold Blast by Ester Spears

On the road again with the UK Pro Surf Tour for a series of three events ‘ooop north’ The Quiksilver/ Roxy 3 degrees tour, and driving the endless miles with a band of elite surf-hounds gives me time to think about the current state of British surfing. ‘The Tour’, as it is universally known amongst the competing surfers has had a pretty successful year with over £30,000 in prizemoney up for grabs at nine events supported by all the major players of the UK surf industry. The performance levels have steadily increased as the filthy lucre attracts travelling surfers keeping the home grown boys (and girls) on their toes, lifting the top of the pyramid and elite level surfing across the entire UK.

Driving up from the cosy south west into the real world of motorway mayhem and it’s stress induced frenetic pace makes me realise how lucky we are living at the beach but some of the best waves in the UK are on the east coast and last years event had wonderfully punchy beach break waves so we push through the chaos to Newcastle. The venue, Longsands beach is the epicentre of the surf scene in Tynemouth, the half mile stretch of squeaky golden sand is backed by small dunes making is a rural style beach in a very urban location. We were stoked to meet Richie Sills, pipeline charger who has moved to the north east with his girlfriend who is studying up there, Rich was raving about a few spots he had found and was calling one spot the cold water Indo. The local council, with foresight, were supporting an ‘extreme sports festival’ to coincide with the comp and when the first day was flat it gave everyone chance to hang out at the VIP tent and walk around the beachside site with snowboard and skate ramps, huge marquees and live music. Favourite act was beat boxer Pete Box, who Lamiroy described as “Amazing”.

The annual Surfers Ball that evening got a bit messy according to Gabe, who was using the occasion to catch up with the local crew. “surf films 'Just Add Water' about Clay Marzo and local surf film RISE were shown on the big screens before the crazy DJ's rocked the place.” Next morning, most unexpectedly there was a slight increase in swell size and consistency and it was decided to run an expression session and the women’s final on the high tide bank. Russell had decided to stay close to his heavily pregnant girlfriend at home and about the same time he was winning his latest British title at Fistral (winning a measly £200); Jayce Robinson was pocketing £250 for one turn - a sweet frontside air money move. Martin Black’s French partner Caroline Perret took the woman’s event in front of a big indulgent crowd, with some stylish turns, they love the event up here and it’s easy to see why both the surfers and sponsors love it too.

So with two surfing days down and the men’s event not even started yet the mad dash to the north shore of Scotland started. There was plenty of swell up there but very unkind winds, the big fella, Andy Bain, Mr. Thurso, was scoring the coast looking for some sheltered spots and his first though was Skirza. During the long drive through Scotland we had our first taste of things to come in the form of lumpy white rain... Andy reported that the NW swell direction was wrong for Skirza but that there was an onshore but rideable wave at Gills. So to the harbour with its daily ferry to Orkney we set up and so five hundred miles north at around noon the first heat paddled out and promptly paddled back in again. The tide had dropped out and the wave was breaking on bare rock, it seemed like the event was doomed not to start. The cold northerly wind was beginning to bite and Reuben Pearce was heard to comment, “Do you think that South Africans were meant to come this far north?”

We settled down to wait for the tide and then can word that in the shelter of Dunnet Head, the Point of Ness was head high and clean. So finally the first round was completed on the right hand point/ reef with the last heat surfing in an eerie tundra half light locally known as the afternoon. Everyone was stoked to finally get their teeth into some clean and chunky waves and looking forward to the same again, however the wind had changed again messing up the Point and so started the harshest day ever in the history of UK Pro Tour surfing:

It was a cold fresh westerly morning with dark orange-grey clouds and a sprinkling of crunchy snow on the ground, there was still plenty of swell at the exposed spots so we headed for the east coast and the beaches of Keiss and Reiss were there was a small but perfectly formed wave breaking on the snow covered beach. While we sat and waited the valiant Christian Surfers erected their tent to make some bacon banjos and boil the kettle just as it was up the sky went dark and what can only be described as a blizzard occurred, first sleet then hail and then snow – for some of the travelling foreign surfers it was the first time that they had ever seen snow. A mass snowball fight ensued.

I the thick of it was tour stalwart Richard Dodd, he had spent the night in his car and told me. “(It was) the most extreme experience, (I’d experienced) sleeping in the car in below zero temperatures, wearing everything I could, woolly hat, gloves and socks, two coats and a sleeping bag and no women to keep me warm!”.

Just when you thought that it could get more extreme it did, the swell didn’t show signs of picking up so we headed west to Sandside Bay under the shadow of Duneray Nuclear facility. The wind had picked up and it was probably twenty foot on the outside but the milky six foot reforms were peeling off the inside reef and the contest was finished under dark skies and hail storms from hell. Finalist Mike Young describes his experience. “The most extreme moment has got to be surfing at Sandside. (I surfed) three heats on Tuesday afternoon in hail, snow, 50 mph winds, rain, radioactive particles, (and also) snapped leash half way through my heat! The hail felt like someone standing 3 foot away and throwing a hand full of gravel at my head!”

Sam Lamiroy came out on top of the pile and former world junior champion Gye Gofton got wave of the day with three backhand cracks that challenged the laws of gravity given the conditions. The presentation was held in the warm sanctuary of the Royal Hotels public bar and Spencer Hargreaves on behalf of Quiksilver waxed lyrical about the grit and spirit of British surfing and how that was typified by today’s events. How true he was, special mention and thanks went to the band of Christian Surfers who had supplied hot drinks throughout the day in conditions that most people would have given up in.

So to the magic day, every surf trip has one and I imagine that most of the photos that accompany this article are of the classic day at Thurso East that followed the storm. It was a northerly swell direction so there might not have been a classic lined up day but there was plenty of size and power and the afternoon sunshine and glassy conditions were as special as it gets. Stoksey nailed the barrel of the evnt and bagged a perfect ten from the judges and Johnny Fryer told me it was one of the highlights of the trip. “Favourite moment? watching stoksey get sick keg for 10 point ride at thurso just as i was paddling out for my heat knowing that just 4 us were going to have it to ourselves for half an hour.” Not surprisingly Stoksey himself was pretty chuffed with it. “My ten point ride at thurso it felt like a ten and then i was just waiting for the score to come over the speakers and it was i felt pretty lucky at that moment.”

There were standout performances from Spencer Hargreaves, Sam Lamiroy, Rory Beach, Reubyn Pearce, Warren Tuck and Reubyn Ash but it was the casual tuberiding and blistering forehand hacks that gave Micah Lester his first victory of the year. The women surfed their final in what Nicole Morgan described as “the very first time five women had perfect Thurso to themselves”. The swell died overnight so it was easier to leave this legendary break for another days drive through Glasgow to catch the ferry across the Irish Sea to Belfast and on to Portrush on the Causeway Coast. This oft forgotten region boasts some of the most stunning scenery in the UK dotted with ruined castles and whiskey distilleries, no prizes for guessing which was of interest to our party!

Like Tynemouth there is a small hardcore group of surfers here, who are very supportive along with their town council the evnt was run off at a beachie just out of town at White Rocks that “was just big enough to be fun for a comp” (JF). The Aussie with an Irish passport, Glenn Hall, proved unstoppable on his adopted home turf and the pocket powerhouse surfer earned a hansome cheque of £1750 for first prize and the money move to take to Hawaii for the last couple of six star WQS events. Easkey Britton made it an Irish double by taking the woman’s event.

After such an incident packed and quite hard road trip the crew retired to the local pub to watch Lewis Hamilton win his world title and sample a few well earned pints of the black stuff. After a bit someone brings out a violin, the fire is roaring and the place starts rocking, Job done.