So, seeing as it was my birthday weekend, I had a very specific request. Waves and Sunshine ! That’s not asking for too much is it ?!
Thursday began with numerous texts and MMS messages detailing perfect Cornwall line ups ! Not fair ! Not only that, my usual lift to the West was departing on Thursday night and I couldn’t afford a full day out of the office on Friday. Thankfully a half day was agreed, so on Friday afternoon I jumped on the little propeller plane at Gatwick only to land in Newquay an hour later ! I could definitely get used to this ! It was worth it alone for the beautiful views of the coastline from above. Coming into land we flew over Mawgan Porth beach which looked like it was going off !
Jumped straight in at North Watergate without checking it on the outgoing tide – not a good move! Along with the howling F5 offshore, practically sending you back up the wave as you try to take off, there were some pretty solid sets coming through of which a few rightly steamrolled me. My new method of measuring decent surf is how many hair ties I manage to lose, and on Friday the count was 2 surfs and 2 hair ties. Enough said ! The afternoon / evening session at Fistral was absolutely no holds barred pumping although marred by the characteristically busy line up. Hopefully this pic gives a bit of an idea.
The remainder of the weekend also served up good swell and, albeit smaller than the Friday, the howling winds had dropped and been replaced with an altogether more manageable offshore. I don’t think we moved out of the Penhale carpark on Saturday. The Sunday, my birthday was a pretty gloomy drizzly day, but with the period of the swell smaller than the previous two days it provided a more peaky swell the length and breadth of Penhale. So, waves but no sun…I guess you just can’t have it your own way all the time, can you ? 
