Andy King is at it again, scoring some more incredible conditions in the South West of England. Whilst he may not be competing with the other top British guys, Andy shows absolutely no sign of holding back on the water or slowing down just yet…

It’s been a while since my small board and small sails have seen the light of day so it was a real surprise when the second week of June delivered with a full day of ballistic wind and waves.

Andy King at Marazion - credit Matthew Burridge

I started late with a visit to Marazion mid afternoon and was greeted by some pretty ferocious seas.  On my drive down the radio was broadcasting a message from the coast guard warning members of the public to stay away from coastal areas due to gale force winds and heavy seas and to avoid going to sea unless absolutely necessary.

Fortunately this session was absolutely necessary as gale force winds don’t come around all that often in June!

I haven’t had a good sail at Maza for some time so this session was well over due.  Andrew Fawcett and Ian Black were already out and making it look easy in side onshore winds that must have been gusting 40 knots plus.  Digging through my van I finally found my 3.7 Goya Eclipse flat packed at the bottom of my gear and was quick to rig in order to get out there whilst the tide was still low.

Andrew Fawcett - Thursday afternoon at Marazion, image credit Matthew Burridge - 5 oceans sails

The onshore winds of earlier in the day had created waves that were logo to mast high out the back and these made for some pretty decent ramps when fully powered on a 3.7m.  The weather wasn’t great with heavy grey skies but that in some ways this just added to the atmosphere.

The storm was creating a sea that was angry, full of energy and which was almost predatory in the way the waves were trying to catch you out and swallow you whole.  I really had to work hard to override the urge to resort to survival sailing and forced myself to launch off some pretty erie sets way out back near to the rocks of St Michael’s mount.  These conditions certainly tested the Flymount that thankfully kept my Go Pro HD attached to my mast.  Unfortunately, the tide put pay to the fun all too soon and after getting dumped dry on the single I decided to pack in early and head to the North coast.

Andy King sequence image credit Matthew Burridge - Five Ocean Sails.

On route the grey skies of the south coast seemed to clear leaving bright skies illuminating the blustery coastline of St Ives bay. I had already heard that the south westerly swell was struggling to get into the bay leaving many frustrated sailors at Gwithian that morning but I was confident that it would pick up as forecast by bigsalty.co.uk.  Nick Moffat and myself opted to launch at Upton Towans Caravan park and my first hurdle was to get past the security on the gate.  

Friday afternoon at Marazion - credit Matthew Burridge

The campsite does allow public access to the beach car park at most times, but my problem is that it is a dog free caravan park, so the two rather large dogs filling the passenger seats of my van were going to put pay to a decent sail unless I could come up with a cunning plan.  Thankfully I had a double seat cover which was easy to remove and although the security guard looked slightly puzzled by the bulging, wiggling camo North Shore cover and the protruding Dalmatian tail he didn’t put two and two together and raised the barrier – game on!  

I then spent the next three hours until it was dark fully powered on my 4.2m Goya Eclipse and Goya Quad 78.  Hitting ramp after ramp and finding wave after wave.  This wasn’t a big wave session but it was simply so much fun.  Perfectly powered up on small kit, in good company with side shore winds and fun sized waves in one of the most beautiful locations in the UK….

Come the next morning and I struggled to wake having been up till 4am watching the ASP event at Cloud Break going off in insane 20ft barreling waves.  Yet the forecast on bigsalty.co.uk was looking great again and having coughed up for a babysitter for the day I was off.

I had spent along time deliberating between Marazion or Bigbury, both spots can be excellent but likewise both can be equally frustrating.  In the end I stuck with Cornwall and headed West as fast as the summer traffic would allow.

Friday afternoon at Marazion - credit Matthew Burridge

Arriving at the beach I was greeted by sunshine and side shore westerly wind blowing at around a force 6.  There were waves showing even with the tide just dropping from high to mid so all looked good for a fun low tide session.  The afternoon timing of low tide was a little frustrating as I knew that the swell of yesterday would be disappearing fast, however the conditions although not classic didn’t disappoint with plenty of ramps to hit and waves to ride whilst nicely powered up on my Goya Quad 78L and an Eclipse 4.2m.  It was great to see so many sailors out all enjoying some of the most fun sailing conditions Cornwall can offer, with a nice sandy low tide beach, steady side shore wind and nice clean head high waves.

The level ranged right from the likes of locals Ian Black, Andrew Fawcett through to those getting there first taste of wave sailing.  I sailed right through until the tide eventually rose to put pay to the waves.  As I derigged I noticed that the wind had come back round to WSW so I quickly formulated a plan to make the most of the wind that looked set to disappear for a week or two.

The Bluff. Image credit Debbie Kennedy.

A call from Jan Sleigh confirmed my hopes that the Bluff would be sailable, so I swapped coasts and joined him and a few others on the water at Hayle.  The waves were around head to logo high pushing in on the incoming high tide.  The stormy winds were easing so I opted for a 5.0m and bigger wave board to make sure I was going to be powered up.  It was a gentle way to unwind from the hectic winds of the last two days and the sailing seemed real peaceful even though there were still some great jumping and punchy wave riding to be had.

Andy King The Bluff. Image credit Debbie Kennedy.

There are very few places in the world where you can get quality side shore wave sailing conditions on two different coasts, on two different tacks, the same day with in a 15 minute drive of each other, for two days straight …..I guess that’s just part of what makes Cornwall so special for windsurfing!

Andy King is sponsored by:

Goya Boards and Sails

Mormaii Wetsuits

bigsalty.co.uk

Amex rigging solutions

Pat love Accessories

Flymount Camera Accessories

MFC Fins

For more about Andy check out his other features here on Boards.

Cornwall is with out doubt one of the best areas in the UK for finding quality wave sailing conditions yet many of the county’s best beaches are often over looked by many windsurfers who tend to go directly to the established beaches of Gwithian, Daymer, Marazion etc…

Andy King

The last few years we have been treated to many snap shots from the 5 oceans crew, giving a insight into a hard core unit of talented local sailors down west, who risk every thing to explore and find some quality reef breaks and seldom seen coves however some times the real quality breaks are there right under your nose…

So why are they often over looked?  Well the truth is they tend to be the territory of surfers who must out number windsurfers more than 100 to 1 in Cornwall and many of these aren’t too fussy about what conditions they surf in.  So, even windy side shore conditions will see the surfers out looking for that odd good wave or two that may be out there when any kind of swell in running.

Despite living in Cornwall the price of diesel has really started to make me weigh up the 70 mile round trip to Gwithian and has forced me to look at alternative locations closer to home…. time to take back the beaches…

Day one – All out assault – Crantock

Cornwall doesn’t have that many spots that cater for Westerly winds combined with small to medium west swells.  In west winds the south coast can be great but really needs big west or south west swell to get a decent wave.  Daymer and Hayle can both be good but again both need decent sized west swells or waves from the north.

On this occasion the Bigsalty forecast was showing West wind with only a moderate west swell due to build during the day.

A friend and long time local sailor had been badgering me to try Crantock in a westerly for months, but previously I had always opted to head west and hunt out rare starboard tack conditions instead.  Well, on this occasion I decided to save the diesel and chance a sail at Crantock with fingers crossed it wouldn’t disappoint.

Crantock

The parking recommendation was to go to the National Trust car park behind the sand dune at Crantock however I typically ignored this and went straight to the car park at the Bowgie Inn which is up on the headland and overlooks the beach.

From here it is cliff top walk at high tide or a quick and easy path to the beach at low tide.  The national trust car park gives easy access at high tide but a longer walk at low tide so whichever best suits the tide really.

From the Bowgie Inn I had a great view of the conditions below which looked nice with a solid force 5 – 6 and head high waves rolling in.  The wind was side onshore and the tide on springs dropping to low.  Spring tides are never ideal on main beach breaks but you have to take what you get here in the UK.

With the side onshore wind I opted for my 5.3m Goya eclipse and 92 Goya wave quad board to ensure I had plenty of power for jumping.  Best option is to carry your kit down to the beach and rig up down in the lee of the headland.

A quick phone call to my father in law who was to our camera man for the day ensured he was ready to take up position over on the western side of Pentire headland.

News had got out and we had a crew of ten or so wave sailors ready to stake their claim on this beach at least for a few hours anyway.

Once on the water I was pleasantly surprised by the power of the wave.  Crantock is well known for having a really good right hander which breaks off the Newquay’s Pentire headland and this wave was providing some really nice jump ramps and hollow bowls to dice with on the way in.  You needed to be spot on with your timing mind as any errors would be quickly punished as the onshore wind would encourage the lip to drop earlier than you might think.

Crantock

Mid tide was certainly better than the full spring low which turned the waves more onshore but it was still fun and all in all I sailed for about three hours under sunny skies.

The only real hazards to watch out for other than the obvious two head lands at each end of the beach is the river that runs out of the north end of the beach.  I was right over in the north corner at low tide and at this point the river was merely a stream and was having no effect on the sailing conditions however at different tides or after heavy rain there may be different currents etc worth bearing in mind.  Life guards are likely to have swim zones here during the summer months but they weren’t there on this day.

Apres sail refreshments are just a short walk away at the Bowgie Inn.  During the summer there may well even be live music on the weekend evenings to add to the days fun.

Day two – Special Ops  – Solo insertion on page two

With some solid winter training behind him, and a surprise goal for the 2012 season, Proffitt seems rather more relaxed than he should be and definitely earns his place as May Rider of the Month.

Proffitt riding high. Image courtesy www.windsurfaustralia.com

Name: Ben Proffitt

Nicknames: Errr..  maybe Proffittaroll

Sail number: K800

DOB: 20/01/1978

Years windsurfing: Oh god..  26 years!!

Disciplines: Wave

Home town: Shrewsbury

Current residence: England

Sponsors: Simmer Sails. Simmer Boards, Simmer wetsuits, O’shea Clothing and Funsport.

Boards: When did you first consider yourself professional?

Proffitt: I would say 2004 after a 5th place in Pozo waves, and a couple of good freestyle results. That was probably when I got to the stage where I was making enough money to be classed as a pro…  but don’t get me wrong it was proper bread and water living!

Before that, from 1997 to 2000 I was part of the Olympic squad and training full time on one design, so I suppose this could be classed as being a professional too!

Boards: As the winner of the BWA tour for the last two years, we all know you’re capable of taking the top spot, but when was your first big UK win?

Proffitt: Technically, the first win was probably 1992 on a raceboard! The first big event win was the Freestyle Nationals in 2004.

Taking the title in Cornwall

Boards: You’ve been posting some pretty successful results on the PWA for a few years now, what has your best result been?

Proffitt: Funnily enough it was my first ever wave event, again Pozo in 2004! I finished 5th in the single, and then made it back up to 5th in the double. I was set to take on Nik Baker but the waves disappeared and we never finished the competition, leaving four of us equal 5th.

Boards: How has your winter training been?  Where have you been and what have you been working on?

Proffitt: Winter was really good! For the first time, in a very long time I didn’t go to Cape Town. After six or seven years there, I went over to Western Australia. I got a lot of really great down the line sailing, maybe not as many full power jumping days as I would have liked, but from what I hear Cape Town didn’t have much of this either, so I don’t think I missed out too much!

I really wanted to work on my doubles and push loop forwards, but unfortunately as I said conditions didn’t exactly play ball, I am hoping to head out to Pozo pretty soon to make up for this though.

Training hard in Australia

Boards: Not all of us have been to Rhosneigr or Brandon Bay, what can each location be like and what sort of sailing can we expect to see at each?

Proffitt:  A typical forecast for Rhossy is a south/south westerly, so this means cross on shore, port tack conditions. It’s a pretty friendly wave, not really a mast snapper, but still super fun for jumping and tricks on the wave. It is like a cross between Pozo and El Medano, when it’s good you can score loads of jumps on the way out, then on a wave you’re not going to score down the line riding. It’s more about nailing your moves.. so back side/frontside 360’s, takas, forwards off the lip etc. A total stunt fest!

Brandon Bay is such a big bay, it works in pretty much every wind directions, and can throw up a whole host of conditions. A good forecast would be south westerly, cross off shore with down the line riding and that’s definitely what I have my fingers crossed for, as it’s what I’ve been sailing in all winter. In these conditions it’s more about the wave riding, and you’re likely to see aerials, goiters and just pure, slick wave riding.

Boards:  After such success last year, do you think you’ve got what it takes to win the tour again?

Proffitt: Well I feel I am riding as well as, if not better than I ever have been. My wave riding is feeling really good, I’m even more comfortable on my gear and I know how far I can push it now. So I don’t see why not! But there is some really stiff competition and as with everything in life you also need a certain amount of luck.