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| Claire Roberts with instructor Ben Ridding |
In reality, the board must be lugged around, the best beach hunted down and the waves patiently awaited. Beginners could be forgiven for wanting a little help.
Perched majestically on a promontory overlooking Fistral Beach in Newquay, the Headland Hotel is home to Surfing is Therapy, a bespoke service that takes most of the sweat out of surfing. If you want campfires and barefoot freedom, look away now – the family-run Headland exudes an old-school grandeur reminiscent of an Agatha Christie film set. Arriving on a Friday afternoon in the middle of that rarest of events, a British heatwave, it feels impossibly glamorous.
We drop our bags and go to meet Ben Ridding and Gemma Harris, the team behind SiT. With their sun-bleached hair and early summer tans, they certainly look the part. Their credentials are impressive, too: Harris has represented Great Britain in the World Surfing Games, while Ridding has served as head lifeguard on beaches all over the world. For SiT clients, Harris and Ridding are available from 8am to 10pm, and they keep their classes small. “We try to avoid the one-size-fits-all approach,” says Harris. “Our method means we’re able to offer clients an appropriate level of tutoring. We’re able to literally hand-hold complete novices, or ‘fast track’ more confident beginners in a way that would be impossible in a larger group.”
Safety first, however: I am taken through the basic rules of the water, followed by a quick warm up. On to the boards, then. I lie on my stomach and wriggle down so that my feet hang off the end – or tail, as surfing parlance would have it. “Paddle, paddle, paddle!” shouts Ridding. I flail my arms obediently. I catch a wave and get into my “trim position” – placing my hands underneath my shoulders, ready to push myself up. “Think chicken wings!” yells Ridding. I count to three to give the board time to stabilise, then slide my knees through, plant my front and then back foot on the board, “pop up” and turn sideways to mimic the classic surfer stance. I’ve cracked it. Now I’ve got to do it all again – this time in the water.
Ridding shows me how to attach our leashes to our ankles so we don’t lose our boards, and how to steer through the waves without getting smacked in the face (keep the board out in front, nose first, with firm pressure on the centre and tail to prevent it flipping backwards). Everything’s harder in the water, despite the fact we’re only up to our waists in crumbly surf.
To help me concentrate on “feeling” the wave, Ridding pulls me through the first few. All I have to do is lie on the board and practise popping up on Ridding’s count. It’s a display of breathtaking gracelessness, but it’s brilliant fun nonetheless, and for the next 30 minutes I wipe out spectacularly, again and again. “Don’t think about it,” says Ridding. “Just try to move instinctively.” He hops on a board and we wait in the water, side by side. I am instructed to wait, wait, and then wait some more as the board stabilises in the churn. Only on Ridding’s say-so can I pull my knees through to a standing position. This delayed popping up makes for a much smoother ride. I stand up and stay up. High fives all round.
From the clifftops and the beach, the surf appears packed with wetsuited bodies. I wonder if the old-school surfers feel a bit miffed about the “luxury” crowd muscling in on their waves. Later, I put this question to Tim Nunn, editor of surfing magazine Wavelength. “There’s no backlash against ‘luxury’ surfing, as such,” he assures me, “although the numbers of surf schools popping up all over Cornwall means the volume of people in the water is growing all the time. More surf schools mean more old-school surfers making a living as instructors. At the moment there’s room for everybody.” If surfing is undergoing something of a facelift, then Newquay seems ready for it. New developments and contemporary apartment blocks are evident all over town. Cornwall’s original surfing community seems ready to move with the times.
The next day we visit Watergate Bay, home to one of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants, Fifteen Cornwall. Ridding has brought us here to experience different conditions, although to my untrained eye one wave looks very much like another – except today’s are bigger.
Ridding claims he’ll have me paddling “out back” (into open water, behind the breaking waves) in no time. But those big walls of water are scary. Ridding teaches me how to paddle through the waves – do a full press-up so you go over the top of the wave and the board cuts through it. We wait for a lull. The water out back, behind the churn and froth, is calm and serene. I sit up on my board, legs dangling either side, and feel like a real surfer. I wait and feel the wave build. Lying flat out now, I paddle and catch it. Wait, wait, wait... then I get into my trim position, make chicken wings, pull my legs through and pop up. And, just for a second, I work with the water instead of against it. Then I wipe out. But, I hope, with a smidgen more grace than yesterday.
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Surfing terminology: how to speak like a local
The “Poo-man” the pained crouch most beginners assume when first learning to stand on the board
The “Hallelujah” the arms-thrown-up, celebratory stance that accompanies that first upright position on the board – usually swiftly followed by a wipeout
Foamies big foam learner boards
Nose front of the board
Tail rear of the board
Trim side of the board
Out back the calm, open water that lies past the surf
Sets sets of surfer-friendly waves
Lulls
calm between surfer-friendly waves
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The details
Surfing is Therapy: 01637 851517; www.surfingistherapy.com. Surf safari packages start from £80 per day per person.
Headland Hotel: 01637 872211; www.headlandhotel.co.uk.
Packages (for two people in low season): From £299, inclusive of luxury transfer from Newquay Airport, sunset glass of Cornish bubbly on arrival, two nights dinner, bed and breakfast in a double/twin room at Headland, two half-day surf safaris, and professional photographs to capture your best waves.
