Jeopardy

Another Saturday morning – another eye on the weather. This time it was distant thunder and lightning threatening to visit us as we readied ourselves for another Junior Surf Club. Nevertheless, the largest attendance of the season to date made it’s way down the beach and we were soon into our routines and finding the waves very enjoyable. The Nemos and Dorys were perfectly matched to the swell size and were bagging loads of waves. Further along the beach the Swordfish group were tackling slightly bigger waves and racking up their wave-count. Of course, the second session for the seniors was more of a struggle in these small conditions, but with an impromptu raft-running session for the Dolphins and an intriguing tag team challenge for the Sharks the time passed in great high spirits and satisfactory time was had by all!

Fickle Weather Forecast

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Going into the weekend we felt we had to send an advisory to our Junior Surf Club and it’s parents in view of a forecast of strong onshore winds and a prediction of some large unruly surf. It’s hard to gauge the tone of such an announcement and we tend to err on the side of caution. In the event we suggested that conditions would be too raw for the Nemos and that nervous kids or parents should give it a miss. Saturday morning was thankfully an improvement on the forecast and we got the session away with an enthusiastic team with a particularly large Dolphins group who thrived in the conditions. Some pictures below.

Meanwhile, over the border in Devon, Bobby Smith of our Sharks group was tackling the Rip Curl Grom Search at Croyde. This is an annual national event with the division winners earning a place in the Eurropean finals later in the season. While not taking the European ticket, Bobby had a fine weekend making the podium with a third place finish. We are so proud of you Bobby and encourage you to continue competing and pushing your surfing. Go Bobby!

Moving On!

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Week two brought an increase in numbers of surfers with no lessening of enthusiasm. The waves for our Dolphins and Sharks session were more testing than the previous week and provided just the conditions that the coaches would require when they asked them to cut the bottom turn short in order to make a floater and hopefully a completion on the wave. The first hour had seen the Dory and Nemo groups catching loads of waves as parents and helpers coaxed them into some gentle runners by Mans Head. It has been a brilliant start to the season and promises much for the coming weeks and months. There’s some of the action from the day below.

And We’re Off!

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An idyllic Saturday in late-Spring/early Summer provided the perfect introduction to our Junior Surf Club for 2025. I’m sure those new faces will be itching to get back to Porthmeor again next week after a morning of clean little rollers and the bluest of skies gave them a first coaching session which must have whetted their appetite for more. Our more advanced surfers in the dolphin and shark groups may have wished for bigger waves, but finding good rides in small conditions can bring great satisfaction and there were plenty of smiles in that second session suggesting they were taking on the challenge. Here are a few pictures of the day to set the scene for what we might expect this summer.

Finale

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A day which began in the Autumnal chill of a dawn morning blossomed into a beautiful Porthmeor Saturday afternoon beach day to crown our season with a final session of tripping little waves by Mans Head for our juniors and some challenging surf by The Island for our Seniors competition. That early check-in for the comp and a ten o’clock start for the Nemos, Dorys and Swordfish brought us all to a climactic conclusion with a gathering by the surf school for the end of season celebration and awards followed by a sausage sizzle on the beach to cap a fine club day.

Super grom session below:

The competition attracted a healthy number of surfers including some plucky youngsters who fancied a chance to challenge the older cadets. It produced some memorable heats and a keenly contested final graced with the best rides of the day including a trophy winning ten point ride by our eventual champion.

And so to the summation of the summer’s efforts. We gathered our groups in turn for a photo and a commemorative medal before the coaches were given the unenviable task of choosing a surfer from their group in each of these categories: Most Improved, Most Committed and Surfer of the Summer.

If you hadn’t guessed, our banner picture today shows Bobby with Head Judge Jonny celebrating the ten point score which contributed to his championship-winning 18 point total in the final. It was a ride that deserved to belong in a final! Elyse was our Girls Champion and also ran a close second to Bobby in the final with a couple of scores that might well have won on another day.

It was fitting after such a celebratory awards session that the weather invited us to stay and enjoy our BBQ Sausage Sizzle on the beach picnic fashion and build those surf club memories to carry us through to next summer!

It only remains for me to thank our generous benefactors for another season of support of our young surfers. Principal among them is St. Ives Surf School and our magnificent coaches. Your enthusiasm fires those youngsters to meet challenges head-on and thrive in the water. Our many Saturday helpers, both in the water and around the check-in and administration are a boon, and we are always indebted to Porthmeor lifeguards and the management of Porthmeor Beach for their support. And finally, ‘Thank You’ to all our parents for your contribution and engagement with the Saturday morning surf club. See you all in 2025 to go again!

A Similar Story

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Our previous session was ideal for our Nemos and Dorys, and they lucked-in again this week with another morning of perfect little runners to score some ace waves. There were a few green ones further out for the more intrepid surfers as well as those gentle inside waves that we are becoming accustomed to catching. As before, this presented fewer challenges for our senior groms at 10 o’clock, but there was a measure of blithe spirit and an end-of-term playfulness that translated into those goofy headstands, buddhas, reverse take-offs, nose-riding and other oddities to compensate for the lack of thrills that chest-high waves might have offered. So, once again ‘Satisfactory all round!’ September 24th will wrap up another season with our usual finale of a comp for the advanced surfers and a session plus group awards and BBQ conclusion. See you there!

Autumn Hints

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The banner picture shows the nine o’clock group ready to smash out another session on a day that hinted at Autumn. There were waves to suit all abilities, and Harris’ brief to the Sharks at 10 o’clock was to slow down, eradicate the jerky manoeuvres and allow the wave to develop the turn. We had two very useful sessions over the course of the morning with Porthmeor again serving up the goods!

Sweet Session

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There was plenty to like about this week’s surf session. Porthmeor served up some sweet waves – little runners on the inside while the outside held challenging green waves that were hard to read and broke quickly. There were plenty of waves for our young surfers and lots of enthusiasm on show. As we pass the mid-season mark it is great to see the confidence with which the advanced groups are tackling their tasks. At the same time the nippers and their parents on the inside are developing teamwork skills that launch the children onto the best waves and give them a chance to demonstrate their new-found abilities. The next session on 17th August can’t come soon enough!

Surf and Rain

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Our damp summer continued this weekend with a rain-sodden surf session for our junior surfers last Saturday morning. The waves, at least, were plentiful and encouraged some good surfing from the participants, but the rain defeated my camera long before the end of the second session so there were few opportunities to capture pictures of the Dolphins and Sharks in action. Here are some action shots I did manage, and we might hope for dryer conditions for our next outing on 3rd August!

Still Waiting

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Well, we are still waiting for summer to commence this year, and we issued an advisory prior to Saturday’s surf club that conditions were forecast to be quite lumpy with an onshore wind. Maybe a little off-putting for a novice surfer or a weak swimmer. However, our turnout was a healthy number of juniors keen to test themselves and we had fun challenging the short windblown waves and the washy conditions on the inside. Outback, our advanced surfers had problems to solve to find rippable waves and also to get out again to the green waves through the succession of broken waves faced from the inside. All-in-all it was a valuable morning coming to terms with conditions that were less than ideal, conditions that surfers often face when finding time to get in for a couple of hours! Here are some pictures of the session, and a list of forthcoming dates below .