While November seemed to be a month full of great surf, light offshore winds and mild weather, December has so far been nothing but stormy waves with cross-shore gales and rain.
Newquay’s Ben Skinner was first in last weekend’s penultimate event on the European Tour of Longboarding
It is definitely this time of year that, if you have not already booked a winter getaway to the sun, you will start considering it pretty quick.
I am lucky enough to be down in Portugal this week, on a training week with some of the brightest young British surfing talent, who are training with Joel Gray from Surf Solutions in preparation for the World Juniors in Panama next March.
I can definitely recommend that timely top-up of sunshine and warmer water during these dark months!
One of the more popular destinations for surfers from the South West over winter is Morocco, with their season really kicking in from now until February.
Last weekend saw the penultimate event on the European Tour of Longboarding held in Morocco, with Newquay’s Ben Skinner and Adam Griffiths taking first and second place, respectively.
In some fairly chunky waves, the two Brits managed to fend off all the other competitors and secure the wins, which also put them in first and second place in the ETL rankings for this year, with only one event left to run.
We shall keep our fingers crossed, but it would be fantastic to have the Brits dominating the Longboard Tour this year. Zak Lawton and Ben Howey have also put in great performances this year and are both in the top ten of the rankings at present.
Outside of Europe, the contest that has been capturing everyone’s attention is the Billabong Pipe Masters which started this week in Hawaii.
The legendary event which takes place at the Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore is one of the most anticipated of the year on the World Tour, and the first two days of the contest this year have seen absolutely pumping conditions, with seriously heavy barrels and some amazing surfing going down.
If you have not managed to catch it yet, log on to the webcast from early evening to watch it live.
As for surf this weekend in Cornwall and Devon, it is not looking too great, with the messy conditions continuing and not really enough swell to light up the very sheltered which do not mind a westerly wind.
There does look like we could see a lot of swell coming in from the middle of next week though, again with cross-shore winds and stormy conditions, but with enough size potentially to find cleaner waves if you know where to look.
At Wavelength, we have a new issue hitting the shelves this week, with some incredible surf sessions in Cornwall from back in November gracing the pages. If you are missing those better waves that we were getting used to, be sure to pick up a copy to get you through this bad patch!
Meanwhile, here in Portugal, I’m afraid to tell you that the sun has come out, the winds are light and the waves are pumping.
I’m off to shoot with some the future stars of British surfing, Harry De Roth, Dale Foster, Rhys Barfield and others.
Don’t worry, I’ll be back to join you in the cold, rainy winter very soon!
