I
Surf magical
waves in the land of voodoo.
The 'Oceansurf Guidebooks' surf guide to PORTUGAL from Oceansurf Publications.
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IN SEARCH
OF ENGLAND
If you want the answer then dont ask me. Im English and, like my neighbours, I dont know, because I, like all English, am going through an identity crisis. But what I can tell you is that England is no longer as big as it once was. England is no longer Britain and Britain no longer means all things English. In all truth it never has done, its just that we English forgot. Now though, the Welsh, Scottish and Irish have reminded us and finally they have gained the independence from London that theyve waited so long for. I can also tell you something else about England and that is that it doesnt have cucumber sandwiches and games of cricket on the village green, but it does have waves and of more variety than you maybe ever knew. Well, actually if youve
been surfing long enough then maybe you do know. Maybe you can recall
those past glory days of Empire when England, and Cornwall in particular,
was at the head of Empire, not Queen Victorias Empire, but the
Empire of European surfing and the centre of it all, the self styled
Buckingham Palace of surfing, was and still remains, Newquay, a small
town on the north Cornish coast and the place where we will begin our
journey in search of England. Once it was nothing more than an insignificant
fishing village, but on a fateful April morning in 1962 a group of Australian
lifeguards working for the season in Cornwall became the first to paddle
out through the white water of one of Newquays town beaches and
ride into the history books of English surfing. From that moment on
surfing exploded in the English psyche and With so much going on in
the towns bars every summer night it might come as a surprise to find
out that by the following morning people still have the energy left
to surf. Throughout the summer they descend on Fistral Beach, the best
known surf spot in England, in their thousands, quickly turning the
water into little more than a slick of neoprene and fibreglass as every
type of wave riding craft imaginable piles into the sea. There are longboards,
canoes, airbeds, boogie boards, rubber dinghies and If, for some reason, this doesnt sound like your cup of tea, then youre better off coming to Newquay in the winter, as, from October through to May, Newquay actually does become the sort of town a surfer may want to stay in. Despite all the hype, despite the tourist boards over the top claims, Fistral Beach actually is one of the better beachbreaks in England and a half an hour drive north or south can reveal dozens of other beaches, reefs and points, all of which, throughout the long winter, dish up the goods. All of these waves have their own devoted local crews and almost all of them do everything they can to disassociate themselves with the summertime madness of the City of Sin and Surf. There is of course far more to England and English surfing than Cornwall. Some of it fits the clichés, the coves and the little fishing villages where life centres around the pub and surfing is the low key activity that youd expect in a country that spends most of its time drowning under rainfall and battening the hatches down from the strong winds. Other aspects of English surfing though are so unlikely that they are nothing short of miraculous. And our next destination is one of them. London, the biggest city
in Europe, centre of what was once the greatest Empire the world has
ever seen, is known for many things. Surfing though, is not one of them.
Or is it? Just an hours train ride from the city centre is Brighton,
Englands oldest and most infamous seaside resort. Newquay may
have a reputation for sin, but the crazy Cornish town is little more
than the young pretender, because after all, Brighton invented sin.
And it continues to live up to its sinful past, and is today maybe the
perfect image of modern England. Brighton is a twisted fantasy of tacky
decay and enviable sophistication, red and white striped deckchairs
line the pebbly beach and jutting out to sea, festooned in bright lights,
arcade games and kiss me quick hats is the Palace Pier and the now fire
destroyed West Pier. All your ideas of a classic English seaside resort
are alive and kicking in Brighton, but sitting comfortably beside them
are all of young, cosmopolitan Englands ideas of the future, because
Brighton, alongside London, is the beating heart of maybe the most dynamic
youth culture in the world. The party capital of the country, the place
from which every bar and club in the land takes its marching orders
and the home and inspiration to some of the biggest musicians, DJs
and trend setters in the game. Brighton may not be pretty, but it knows
how to have fun. And strangely, considering its location, shoved halfway
up the shallow and sheltered English Channel, some of its residents
also know how to have fun in the surf. The idea was born in Newquay,
but it has radiated across almost every centimetre of the nations coastline
and given birth to healthy communities of dedicated and independently
minded surfers everywhere it has gone, but of all the scenes it has
created it is Brighton that has emerged as, if not the most hardcore,
certainly the most surreal. Step off the train, head south, away from
the station, walk past the oriental extravagance that is the Royal Pavilion
and on towards the beach. Finally, there it is in-front of you, a surf
scene the likes of which most of us are unlikely to have ever experienced
and, in all honesty, are probably very glad weve never experienced.
The water is brown and the So if Newquay is the birthplace
and Brighton the surreal heart. Then where do the hardcore hide? Well,
as youve probably already guessed, its not a place that
immediately springs to mind when the word surfing is mentioned, but
maybe it should, because without it surfing today could be a very different
ball game. Right at the top of England, close to the border of Scotland,
is Newcastle, home of a black and white striped football team and an
accent thats incomprehensible to almost everyone else. Geordie
(as people from Newcastle are known) surfers have the sea and the surf
in their blood. After all, they produced Captain Cook and, in-directly,
he has made you a surfer and in the process probably changed your life.
Captain Cook learnt his trade a short way to the south of Newcastle,
in Whitby, a small fishing town of red brick houses. And it was here
that his ship, the Endeavour, was built, the ship that eventually took
him to Hawaii and the first western contact with surfing, a sport that
back then truly was the sport of Kings. Whitby, much like Newquay and
Brighton is another one of those terribly old fashioned seaside resorts
that, lets face it, no-one else but the English, could or more to the
point, want, to produce. Its all fish and chip shops and Punch
and Judy shows, but unlike its southern cousins its choosing to
retain its traditional beachside Throughout the year low pressures steam across the top of Scotland, producing giant swells that, after battering that countrys coast, continue to roll down the North Sea before finally making impact with one of the flat, kelp covered reefs around Newcastle and Whitby. And to add to the Geordie surfers joy, the wind blows predominately from the southwest, which is offshore. The results are thick, brown, ice-cold barrels, the best of which are to be found just outside Whitby. Did Captain Cook have any idea what he was sailing past when he set off to discover surfing? Well if he didnt, then two of Englands best known surfers do, Gabe Davies is busy following in Cooks footsteps by scouring the globe for new waves, whilst his friend and fellow pro, Sam Lamiroy, has chosen to see the wider world by taking the contest route. These two are just like many other hardcore English surfers, abroad more than they are at home, helping to cement a reputation as European surfings most devoted travellers, but like almost all of us, they return enough to keep their roots firmly planted in England. With the cold of Newcastle, the circus of Newquay and the tack of Brighton you may wonder why, but the question is also the answer. It is because we are English, even if we cannot remember how to make a proper cup of tea and even if we dont recall the words of the National Anthem and even if we couldnt tell you for sure when St Georges Day is. But, quite frankly we dont care, because Britain has fallen down, its glory days are done and the British are being left to look over their shoulders and dream of Empire, but were not British, because Britain no longer exists. Instead we have searched for something new and we have discovered something forgotten. It doesnt have cucumber sandwiches and games of cricket on the village green but it does have nightclubs with superstar DJs and it even has a city of sin and a city of surf. We are British and we have finally discovered England and the English have discovered surfing. That is why we will return to the cold of Newcastle, the circus of Newquay and the tack of Brighton. Thanks to Brighton based surf site www.sharkbait.co.uk for the use of some of their pics. |