Raves & Rants . . from Penzance

It's finally here. The long awaited landing of the cable for the Wave Hub project happened this morning at about 5am, on the beach at Hayle rivermouth.  Once the cable has been attached to the electricity substation at Harvey Towans, all that remains is to unreel the cable to about 10 miles offshore, drop the Hub device to the seabed, and it will then be ready for business. The end of the line This is important for Cornwall, since the wave power devices that are tested on it will be at the very cutting edge of renewable energy technology, placing us at the forefront of that branch of engineering.  It's also important for surfers, since they will be able to see if the potential 5% reduction in wave size in the swell shadow (due to energy absorbed by the wave devices) is noticeable. This would mean a 20ft wave becomes a 19ft wave, a 10ft wave becomes a 9.5ft wave, a 5ft wave becomes 4.5ft - who will notice? Presumably, unless there is a veritable Barri...

A few pictures from the Greenaway Pro , currently being held at Porthmeor beach in St Ives this week. With the longboard event being run yesterday, the Under 18 semi-finals today and the Open rounds tomorrow, the finals on Saturday look set to be a showcase of British surfing talent. Toby Donachie In the first semi today, Quiksilver rider Toby Donachie stood out, with Sennen's Seb Smart missing out on a finals place due to a lack of waves. Holding a surf contest in August, the flattest month in Britain, at a beach that needs a decent swell to get going is a daring move. Organiser Matt Smith is certainly not short of the courage needed to even organise such a prestigious event, and clean, surfable, contestable waves pumped in during today's contest. Adam Bayfield Luke Dillon Some top notch Boogie Boarders will be showing up tomorrow, in the form of the Zion team, who will be signing boards and T shirts and, if the waves are as good as the forecast suggests, p...

The annual Pirate raft race at Praa Sands was lubricated equally by drizzle and beverages, both fuelling the anarchic party atmosphere. The first 'Pirates' we met were this strange but merry crew, so we were keen to see how they faired amongst the even stranger assortment of craft lined up on the beach, including a twelve foot parrot boat, a floating trampoline, and this motley bunch . . . . .         Total mayhem followed the start with many crews barely making it 20 yards out to sea.  That didn't seem to matter as everyone enjoyed jumping ship as they tipped over, were attacked or simply sank whilst under way.  The trampoline crew taking this to extremes by doing back flips and somersaults into the water. The lads above appeared to reach the beach first, but that didn't stop our Nacho Libre attired friends from claiming victory anyway,   and duly celebrating with a warm manly hug. The re...