… but its just been too good recently to not talk about it.. sorry.

And its not like its a well kept secret anymore… Northumberland is fully OUT in surfing terms. Read on.

September THROBBED with swells, we had big southerlies, big northerlies, and just about the best conditions you can get up here. Now, as every surfer will tell you, when its good, you go. You just do. There are plenty of onshore days to sacrifice when you need to. That sentiment works even harder up here in the deep north. Our swells have short windows and can be gone the next morning after being perfect. It was ‘good’ alot in September.

The photos in this post are all mine taken from the swells in September, but there are a lot of shots here that look similar to those inside the articles of Carve and Wavelength this month. That’s as mainstream as it gets.

The crews had arrived form all over the country, Wales, Cornwall, Scotland – with Pro riders – Tow-teams with Jetski’s – photographers and video-guys – the place was buzzing for the surf.

You see, we have a secret here in Northumberland, and it attracts surfers form far and wide. Its not the clean water, empty beaches, stunning backdrops, or miles of coast to choose from. No, it’s a piece of rock, that collects swell and creates a truly great left-hand wave, unlike anything you will find on the beaches in the vicinity. This is why I keep bumping into the cream of UK surfing at 7am in a field next to a farm..

This piece of rock has attracted the cream of the UK Pro riders, Eugene Tollemache, Alan Stokes, Russel Winter, Spencer Hargreaves, Matt Capel… these guys have all been sat in the lineup in the last months.

So, you can understand how the mags got the lead – Cornall is a small place, and when the surf is flat everyone is looking further afield, and how the Welsh boys arrive on cue each swell – forecasts are pretty good and easy to read these days, and why its special – this is a legitimate, heavy, barreling wave… and its on our doorstep.

Anyway, this is not a magazine article, so I don’t have to justify anything, Im not here to talk about the good or the bad. I’m not naming the spot, but if your reading this then the chances are you know where it is.

Just think about it like this : Being up here – we’re all very lucky – and even luckier when we get that one morning with no-one else out and its perfect…. and gone an hour later…that’s the North for ya… appreciate it. :)

The weather is still pretty fantastic, blue skies, sunshine and warm water. The road are getting quieter…  you can feel Autumn approaching.

I love September. I revel in it.

As the summer passed, I thought about what defined this area we live in.. not easy to do. Not as an answer to that, but as a visual exploration, I collected these images, which hopefully begin to paint the picture.

Coxons Ice-cream

The Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands

Fish and Chips from any of the various chippy's

Bamburgh Castle

Lobster Pots - working or decorative

Billy Shiel boat trips to the Farne Islands

Of course there are many other things I could have included, and everyone has their own vision of what this special piece of coast means to them, but you have to draw the line somewhere… We could talk about Kippers, Grace Darling, Dunstanburgh Castle, Beadnell Harbour, Golden Beaches… but these are the ones that work most visually – and they work for me.

The villages are buzzing with the various visitors and summer activities, and as soon as this un-seasonal weather leaves us July and August will be upon us and gone in a flash. The summer has been a blur of football, work and surfing. All good then.

I never write here with a political agenda, its not what this site is for. This space is for documenting and celebrating the village of Beadnell and the surrounding area. That said, I do want to mention the current plans for the village. The new housing estate behind Harbour Road is progressing its final stage with another batch of twenty plus houses to be finished by the year-end.

Along with this the Duke of Northumberland has plans currently with the Council for a large holiday park development right next to the car park for the bay, adjacent to the Long Beach development. These plans have come under much scrutiny and objection within the local community. The village has an ever-growing number of visitors and second home owners, and a local economy that is shrinking with no new facilities to support the new homes.

The Duke of Northumberland

The Duke plans a seasonal holiday park, with basic facilities to service its own users. This copies the format he has used elsewhere, such as Alnwick, where he corners his market and peripheral local business lose-out and fail.
Its easy to imagine that the Dukes plans will be passed – they usually are – but the point of this being highlighted here is to raise awareness for the need for more local facilties to support and maintain the local community, rather than line-the-pockets of the Duke.

Documentation detailing the plans is hard to find currently, but should be available through the planning website eventually..

The Journal covers the plans here.

The Dukes plans get the Daily Mail treatment – here.

Locally, the feeling is that people would like to see the Duke doing more to support local communities rather than profiteering from them. Being that he and his wife have earned so much from the County, its time he started to repay the communities which he lord’s over…

… time will tell.

The General Election is days away and the country is alive with talk of the next government.

Beadnell, meanwhile, is plodding-on with charming predictability.
The only real changes, which I’m sure will cause a wave of discussion, is the new menu about to be released at the Beadnell Towers, and the semi-permanent marquee that has arrived at the Craster Arms in preparation for the World Cup next month.

The end of April gave me the opportunity to take a trip up to Thurso for the most prestigious surf contest in the British Isles, the Oneill Coldwater Classic / Highland Open 6 Star Prime WQS.

The surf was mediocre, the wind was strong, but the backdrop and area was stunning, and we got to meet some childhood icons along with way. All in all a good trip. Some photos below.

The surf here has been pretty decent in the last two weeks, much better than the previous months, and we’re crossing our fingers for more of the same.

I even managed to make a quick edit for the San Sebastian Surf Film Festibal in Spain. :)

More as it happens form the shores of Beadnell…

The farms are in top gear coping with this years lambing season, every field has little white things jumping around in it.

The village has been quiet for so long, but the changes are visible. The old huts used by the fisherman at the Haven have begun to come down, making way for more development.

The spring bulbs are popping up, things are green and bright. Below, the old Coop, with completed renovations.

Always a momentous day – you know its not winter when the village fish and chip shop opens for the year !

The first boats have been out in the Bay, with some glorious conditions, it is a bit windy, but the wetsuits are out and the kids are in the water. :)

Crew

VT

The village has slipped into dormancy, happily, after a busy summer. The weather is cold, the days are dark and short. There is snow on the ground as I write this post.

The surf has been pretty average for autumn, a few clean swells but mostly junky cross-shore, small period mediocrity. Ive still been getting in, but more out of desperation than desire.

December was a massive month for surf news, with Hawaii firing with epic huge swells. The ASP tour was won by Mick Fanning after Parko stumbled in the Pipe event which was eventually won by Taj, for the first time, with Kelly coming second. Parko, although pipped at the post for the world title, took the Triple Crown Title for a second year, after Sunset and Haleiwa both produced quality entertainment.

And finally, the Eddie ran. 5 years in the waiting, with 30ft+ swell, it went off, massively, with Greg Long winning in the last heat to steal 1st place form Slater. Epic.
I watched all 8 hours straight on the web, one of the best live streams ive ever seen.

I was doing some tidying-up the other day and found these shots from the end of summer, and so thought I should share them.

Hope you like the flash-back to a warmer, sunnier Beadnell.

So, back to reality. at least the winter solstice has now passed, and its officially getting warmer and lighter everyday.

The New Year will bring new swell.

See you out there. :)

b

Not much in the way of notable swell, but still getting in every few days.

Below, find a photo set taken recently whilst watching the water.

We hope more decent swell rolls in before Christmas, but the snow is falling in the alps, and before long the winter will bring adventures sliding sideways of another kind.

We’ll look forward to it all.

Bamburgh Beach bathed in morning sunlight

The weather had been terrible the day before, and I wasn’t expecting to be ‘on’ for the photos. Luckily, it was a glorious morning.

Rider, back-lit against castle

The perfect match

Claire and Mr Kai, have a very close relationship…

Holy Island Castle

Bamburgh beach is unique in that it offers good vantage points for Bamburgh castle, Lindisfarne castle and the Farne Islands.

Trotting in the shallows

With the group assembled, we headed down the beach a while.

Good looking castle...

Water sun and sky coming together.

Same castle... different angle.

You don’t see too many shots of Bamburgh castle from the south. I like it.

Having some fun

The horses love a good stretch on the beach, stopping them was hard. :)

The group resting

Walking-off...

Although not empty, the beach looked as good as any you could imagine.

A different kind of shot.

For a beach ride along to Bamburgh along to the castle get in touch with Slatehall Riding Centre.

Clean swell on monday

The previous post outlined and the predicted swell, and some early snaps indicated that it was going to be good, but really we have much more to talk about than just the waves.

Marching swell

A few highlights from the week just ended.

• Early morning session in huge overhead conditions in the middle of the Bay – including creating a new hole in my knee
• The new and highly questionable smell coming from my car
• Jumping-off Stag Rock to paddle out in huge waves with Steve, James and Murds in a classic old-school session
• Getting a luscious Sunday evening session with light off-shores and gorgeous golden light
• Covering god-knows how many miles and spending £70 on fuel chasing waves around the coast (not exactly sure this is a highlight…)
• Making ‘The Sacrifice’ successfully, twice, and scoring as a direct result… its as guaranteed as paying taxes
• Meeting and surfing with lots of new faces from up and down the coast – great to see more people in the area

Big and onshore

All things considered, we have had a sensational week, lots of swell, mixed weather including plenty of sunshine, new faces, new boards and shapes to eye-up and plenty of spots visited and surfed.

Of course there are downsides, I appear to have developed a nasty chest-hack, and my head is a bit full -hopefully with just a summer-cold and not anything to do with swine-flu ;), and of course there are always the odd gripes over who should be surfing where and what photos get taken.

Beadnell Point reeling

Racing the wall

Big hack...

The happy place

There really are not many surfers up here, and of course this is one of the attractions of living here. But once you’ve lived and surfed in genuinely busy spots such as Croyde, Bude, Newquay – all of Cornwall actually – Australia, New Zealand et-all, you can realise just how good we have it. With that in mind im never going to subscribe to the narrow-minded, selfish and generally childish mentalities of some people. Life is too good and too short to hold these sort of feelings.

The long paddle-out

So with the swell gone and a return to normality lying ahead, im sitting here watching Occy and Tom Curren tear-apart perfect JBay…  I had better hold onto these memories, they will probably have to last until the next decent swell sometime in November….  :).

Peaking...

Big out-east

Seahouses harbour taking the brunt

Screaming right

Big screaming left

Sunday evening slash

Lining-up...

Tucking-in

Sunset shimmer

It does look like there might be some nice waves at Thurso next week mind… maybe a trip is in-order.

See you in the water.

Aloha.

Or as we thought.

For the second year in a row, we’re going to get some of the potentially largest and best swell ever seen in the summer months on the east coast.

Ive just returned from the water having decided i should get the board out and get the arms ready for the rest of the week. It was huge – overhead and barreling all down the beach. You just don’t get waves like that on the East coast of England.

So, the rest of the week is supposed to get bigger and bigger… the charts look like this -

Swell forecast

Remember today was at least 5-6 foot.

And with the radar looking like this…

Chart

Im pretty sure we will have decent overhead surf for the next week…  with a ten second period. That means getting the jetski’s out and towing-in with the sun shinning, and seeing all those secret reef’s lighting-up.

Bring it on…

Some snaps form the session this morning;

Clean lines

Marching swell

Inner Farne setup

Workable...