I once did a double-take to spot surfers on a river in Munich; hours from the sea, it is not somewhere overly familiar with rip curls. Conclusion? You could probably surf in Coventry, if you put your mind to it. As Alf Alderson puts it in his book Surf UK, surfing has so exploded in Britain in the past few decades that even “last resorts” – Lincolnshire, by the way – have dedicated communities.
Yin to Lincolnshire’s yang is Cornwall, Britain’s surfing mecca. You need precise conditions for the best waves: a long run of ocean, a hefty prevailing wind, the right depth and angle of sea bed. Cornwall, foursquare into Britain’s south-westerlies, warmed all year by the Gulf Stream, has them all – and the crowds. Newquay is Britain’s self-styled “surf city”, Fistral Beach and Watergate Bay famed for consistency.
More fun can be had further west, though, at Sennen Cove or Porthleven. Great waves are renowned on Wales’s Gower coast and Freshwater in Pembrokeshire. Hardier souls hit the north-east’s rising scene – Saltburn, Longsands and Staithes – or, in Scotland, Thurso’s famous giants.
South and east? Kimmeridge in Dorset, the Isle of Wight (a hidden gem), West Sussex’s Witterings, Joss Bay in Kent and East Runton in Norfolk are all renowned. If all else fails, wait for the Severn Bore.
