6ft British Grinder.......
Do You Have A Wave Like This Near You?

When Britain cranks it truly does have some great surf. Some of you know where this photograph was taken but most of you will not have a clue and that is the way it will remain.

Sometime in the past 2 years we had the pleasure of tucking into some of Britain's best barrels and we enjoyed it with only 2 others in the water.

At 5.30am we awoke and checked the Oceanfever web site for wave buoy readings and to see if the swell was building for the day. We were not disappointed. Grabbing the boards, camera and some wax we headed by car through the country lanes arriving to see a gentle swell gaining momentum.

This being Britain we knew that we could wait and wait or just go in to have a laugh. After 5 minutes of discussion and the local bullock in the field closing in by showing us his nice nose ring we took the gamble that maybe we would actually get good surf.

It must have been 45 minutes before the first set started to crank on the spot, it caught the cameraman out by far and stretched all our paddling skills to the limit but we made it over. With in an hour we were surfing nice sets that were chest to head high and very clean with an offshore breeze.

Our loving surfing cameraman took a pounding on one set and we were forced to decide whether this spot was just to dangerous if the swell increased as the sea bed was becoming exposed in a number of spots. Our eager beaver Chief Editor Wes said we should carry on and try to get some good action…. But then again he would say that as he sat on his 9ft plus log looking as if he was out back at Pipeline. In fact the typical Ed had no trouble in encouraging us short boarders to take the drop why he negotiated the mellow lumps as if he was on a cruise.

Anyway, 2 hours into the session the Ed seemed to have a call for nature so to speak but not the watery kind and insisted he would actually catch the next set in. Ahhh! We thought plank rider would die today.

He turned cool and calm, a little smile on his eyes and away he went, we waited with deep breaths (why do writers always say that… anyway sounds good!) but no flying board in fact the man had made it down the line and out of the barrel on that board with out a hick up.

Stunned we all paddled in to a grinning bloke from ear to ear, who for the next 5 hours milked the story of his epic ride in British waters until the cameraman developed the film. In clear view we saw the terror of the man called chief Ed's face as he went over the falls on the British beast.

We know of over 10 waves of a similar nature in Britain, do you? If not and you like this type of thing then start looking because as far as we know most coasts of these lovely isles do have such a hidden sleeping monster!

And thanks Ed for letting us take the piss!