Surfing in Newquay

By James Stone

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Surfs up! Or to be more exact, Surf's not up. Despite the sea being wonderfully tranquil on the Friday morning when we arrived at Newquay, we were determined to make the most of our stay. Lessons had been pre-booked and it was off to nearby Holywell Bay, which we were told by our South African instructor, Sandy, was the perfect spot to learn. Thankfully, by the time out minibus had dropped us off the winds were picking up a bit and Sandy said that it was going to be great learning weather.

After squeezing myself in to my smelly wetsuit, which if I weren't in such fine shape, would have mortified me, as it left little to the imagination, it was off down to the water for our two-hour lesson. Those of us who had not surfed before were taken aside and given a safety demonstration and provided with the instructions we needed to bodysurf. This was easy enough: look over your shoulder, catch a wave, lie down to go faster and push up to slow down. This was great fun and easily accomplished. After 15 minutes of this we were brought back to the beach and offered two ways of getting to our feet: the explosive route, which involved jumping from the body boarding position straight on to your feet, and the slower route, which saw us get to our knees before making the last attempt to get upright.

Back in the water, it soon became evident that the explosive method was out. The only explosions going on were as I attempted to jump to my feet, found the board disappear from under me, and plunged headfirst in to the sea. It was also extremely tiring, and with my wetsuit full of water and my arms already knackered from paddling to catch waves, it was a real non-starter.

I had more success with the staggered method in that I could get up on to my knees and then get one foot on the board and occasionally two, but not long enough so that it could be counted as surfing.

The day ended with me feeling shattered and cross. However, after a night trying to avoid getting in to fights with pissed-up 16-year-olds, it was back to the surf in better frame of mind. The new day brought considerable success. With the a word or two of advice regarding positioning on the board from Sandy and with my strength back I was up on to my knees, then on to my feet with 15 minutes. Wild celebrations ensued! From then on I was on my feet and surfing, often all the way in to shore, at least seven out of ten attempts and the feeling topped that of my previous favourite boarding experience, that of snowboarding, for the incredible sense of floating and speed that it brought on. I'm heading back this summer in the hope that I won't have forgotten how to do it.