AN AUSSIE’S WINTER IN OLD BLIGHTY
Beau Young managed to find some waves to himself and a special beauty in a surf trip to the UK in the time of COVID
By Beau Young
Surfing and shaping photos by Bella Rose Bunce
It’s 5 am and I know that the alarm won’t sound for another hour. But I wake just like I always do and turn on the two heaters in my tiny living room.
The room smells of wet wetsuit as my 5/4 full suit is hanging limply on the wall. A half dry suit is a godsend in wintertime UK. I wring out the arms and legs and throw the kettle on to take my coffee on the road.
Shutting the little wooden cabin door behind me and taking the forest steps to my car, I am graced by multiple scampering squirrels. They have come out in droves during this Covid lockdown period, along with deer, foxes, badger and hedgehogs. I almost hit a gorgeous little hedgehog last night coming back from the grocery store. If I did it would have crushed me, probably a bit like an Aussie hitting an echidna or koala I suspect.
Jumping into the 1000 pound, newly-dubbed clown car (due to its preposterously tiny size) I head down the first of many single lane, rock and hedge-rowed lanes. The clown car’s one saving grace is it can squeeze into the smallest of spaces. This, my friends, is a real lifesaver, especially when confronted by large English lorries or ancient tractors that often frequent these roads.
The break is a 40-minute drive from my cabin. At first, I thought the morning was a rainy one however with the high beams on and the clown’s wipers at full steam, I realize the morning is shrouded in a thickly dense fog.
With shrinking daylight hours and on the cusp of winter, the surf timelines decrease as well. Just like most of Europe, the UK’s waves are extraordinarily tide-dependent.
Arriving at 6.45am, currently when the sun begins to wake, I know I’m an hour late for the dead low tide, but I still carry hope for a shoulder high running-wave to test my 5’8” twin. This break is predominantly a longboard wave but with the right tides and conditions it is a really fun mid-lenghth or twin fin style wave.
Pulling on the 5/4 wetsuit, 5mm boots and pulling the hood over my head, I forgo the gloves. I’m learning how to roll with the elements here. Even so, it feels like you’re surfing on ice blocks. Funnily enough, this is only their Autumn and there are people at the beach in swimmers so….. I need to man up!!
I paddle out solo. This break is one of the most popular in the region and apparently in summertime a nightmare for crowds, however this early Monday morning in the time of lockdown the surf is mine alone.
As I paddle out, I survey the terrain. The fog has lifted, and the first crimson hues of dawn are rising above the landscape. Scattered clouds cover the entire sky, scudding slowly with the cross/offshore breeze. I see both stratta and cumulus clouds as they mingle together, both low and high.
Looking back to land, I admire the green elongated headlands with sheep and ancient abandoned dwellings that could have been either a church or a barn, who’s to say? To the far left of this headland sits the local village with its pub and bakery and cobbled streets, hobbit-like and old and beautiful and steeped in a history that goes way back to early humankind.
There are buildings in the region that definitely pre-date modern man, remnant signs of the very first holy ones and monks. Before them, on the same sites, it is said are examples of early humankind, who built platforms and early dwellings to survive and where they also forged flint into spears.
And, so it is a simple surfer finds his lineup with a specific rock formation upon the craggy English shore. To be IN nature grounds me no matter where I am. My day is changed for the better. Surfing alone in a far flung ancient land, I link my last wave for a few drawn-out turns. Heaven.
Onshore with feet in English sand, I turn to the sea and take in all her majesty. This is the life of a surfer, the life of you and me!
Check out Beau Young’s signature range of boards at the Surfboard Warehouse.