Skip to main content

Charlie don't Surf

Image
By
People who live in Cornwall are a resilient bunch, used to a bit of heavy weather and the odd gale. We will doubtless have to foot the repair bill, currently estimated at £21 million, via council tax rises, so it was encouraging to see an international windsurfing competition, the Red Bull Storm Chase decide to run their grand final of this year's event slap bang in the middle of the biggest storms for decades, Winter Storm Charlie. Bringing with them hundreds of spectators and tourists and TV crews during the off season, broadcasting the beauty of a Cornish Storm to the rest of the world.

 
Jumping for joy

Checking the beach at Godrevy about 8am, there were some heavy head-plus size waves coming in. By nine am, the storm had fully arrived with waves hitting twenty to thirty feet. I saw the first two sailors to go out try and ride over the mountainous broken waves that were headed shoreward, but they were just crumpled under the weight of whitewater.

Rumbling rivers of whitewater
The howling wind, which hit 80mph on this day, and massive waves didn't deter these guys, they made it 'out the back', which was the best part of a mile out to sea, all the time spinning jumps and loops off twenty foot waves with apparent ease to get there. Also, seemingly, with a certain amount of joy.   Outside, two of the four safety jetskis kept them company, along with Red Bull's own media helicopter, until they rode massive double-mast-height beasts back to shore, before returning to what, for us mere mortals, was an unsurvivable sea. They did call the comp off in the afternoon and moved it to a less apocalyptic surf spot, but without a doubt these were the most dramatic scenes I have ever witnessed at Godrevy.

Porthleven
Porthleven is one of the best places to watch a storm come ashore. The quantity of media coverage from the recent storm, and this being a weekend, meant the whole town was literally grid-locked with storm watchers, emergency services and photographers. Roads were closed and extra services drafted in to keep the public from endangering themselves.

This scene was repeated all around the town

 Although the waves weren't as dramatic as previous storms, there was enough of a visual feast for photographers to go home with some classic shots, and salt encrusted cameras.

Find the people for scale
The brunt of the storm passed quickly with the high tide, which meant I could get to Sennen for the afternoon, where similar crowds of photographers and onlookers came for the spectacle. Although the great light from the brief glimpse of sun in the morning didn't re-appear, the salt laden mist cast a sullen pall as it was whipped over the top of the cliffs by a ferocious wind.  A couple of young chaps were flinging themselves upwards against it, attempting to get a selfie while flying.

Crowds flock to the coast

 Normally a storm will turn up some surf in a sheltered spot, but this one I was too busy to go and find it, so I'm afraid Charlie don't Surf , this time.

Check out some previous Storm Videos , including one where I get caught by a wave.



Labels:
Location: Gwithian, Cornwall TR27, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hurricane, or just a Violent Storm?

By
The south west has essentially been battered by several hurricanes over the past few weeks.  The most recent storm, hitting the coast on Friday afternoon and lasting until the small hours of Saturday morning, hit wind speeds above 80 mph and waves above thirty feet. The upper reaches of the widely used Beaufort scale are: Gale Force 8, Strong Gale Force 9, Storm Force 10 and  Violent Storm 11 for winds up to 73mph and waves over 37 feet.  Hurricane Force 12 is reserved for wind speeds above 74mph, and seas above 46 feet. Penzance Promenade  No wonder Penzance and Newlyn seafront were decimated, because that's what Hurricanes do. A whole layer of the promenade scattered  Although it might have been just a Violent Storm. This graph from the Penzance wave buoy would indicate otherwise, recording a wave over 90 feet.  . Large enough  Even if we assume this peak is an anomaly - the machinery that measures and records these waves has yet...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Silent One

By
A couple of days ago a storm system showed up mid-Atlantic, with winds hitting Force 11 (Violent Storm) and open ocean waves sending the wave buoys up to around the 30ft mark. The main thing about this storm was that no-one really noticed it. Perhaps due to the brilliant sunshine and blue skies that arrived at the same time, the lack of a grey canopy and squally rain making folk unaware of the stormy seas nearby.  There were few reports on the radio or TV, no warnings about walking on the beach, or storm watching. All was silent. So I thought I might get a sneaky wave at Sennen. Cornish Fireworks at Sennen The swell was too big to surf though, with waves bursting over the cliffs in a fifty mile an hour SW breeze, watched only by a handful of dog walkers and locals. Longships in a cloak of spray So I returned to the south coast, where the recent storms have uncovered remnants of a forest, believed to have covered the entirety of Mount's Bay about 5,000 years ago...
2 comments
Read more

That's All for Now. Or is it?

By
As Cornwall basks in some summery sunshine and clean lines of swell arrive over a brushed blue sea, the ravages of the recent storms and the wettest winter in recorded history start to fade into distant memory.  Hope is high that the winter has ended, and a constant stream of perfect swell over a warm hazy spring will precede a barbeque summer. Sunshine and Clean Swell Potentially then, this blog may have nothing more to report this winter, no more storms to watch, no more giant waves to record -perhaps the blog doors should be closed until next winter?  But first, I thought I'd do a recap from the stormiest season I can remember, one where 20 unique hurricane force wind storms hit the Atlantic during the months of January and February, 2014.   Hurricane force winds create large waves These are some of the pictures that hit the local and national papers over the winter Porthleven taking a hit from Hercules Fourteen of those 'bombed', low centers that ...
Post a Comment
Read more