Raves & Rants . . from Penzance

It was morning, and work timings had unusually left me free for a couple of hours. That would normally mean the surf was onshore, or blown out, or flat or something, adhering as it usually does to the First Law of Surfing . But not today. Blue Rinse Today looked like a bleak, grey, midwinter day with (from a brief glimpse of the sea on the school run) a weak looking swell and the wind threatening to go onshore. But I had time. Time to take pictures. So I trawled along the coast looking for surf or seascape images, but found very little. Until I came to the reef. Which, oddly, seemed to be firing. Fryer  Several locals and some of the Aggy crew were making the most of a small day before the expected 'Hercules II' storm at the weekend. An acceptable peak Empty Dan Joel Mole getting critical Captain Fryer on a set wave A chill wind cut through the grey pall that hung over the break, warmed slightly by the relaxed atmosphere. Styling ...

There's such a lot of imagery and video coming out of Teahupoo, the massively challenging reef break in Tahiti, that I thought I'd keep adding things below as I find them. This is the biggest swell to show up since the Code Red swell of 2011, and the world's elite/ craziest big wave surfers have shown up to the Code Red II party. SurfLine's Fantastic crop of photos Wave of the Day Yesterday:   Mark Healy, pic by Ted Grambeau Raimana, pic by Shane Dorian Koa Rothman, pic by More photos from yesterday here: Teahupoo Photos In the video below you can see the green bottom of a boat getting caught out and flipped over the falls on the inside. Hopefully no injuries, but that would have been a nasty wipeout. Tomorrow is supposed to be even bigger, keep an eye on the Teahupoo Live Cam More photos of the scene here:  Teahupoo Code Red

So, we went, and it pumped ! Thurso, that is. Long way to get there, but what a great place Scotland is to surf. Plenty of good set ups, swell drenched from several directions, and blessed with a craggy coastline to find shelter from the wind. I must say, I rather enjoyed it. Shouldn't have waited twenty years to get there, but still. This pic is from one of the best days of thre trip, solid groundswell from a 960 Low. People showed up from all over, including one hardened camper who had his tent set up above the break. Not the balmiest of tenting weather, Scotland in October. Check out the full story and more pics in the next issue of PitPilot magazine. Ocean-Image.com