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BRIGHTON: SHOOTING THE PIER

Brighton’s iconic West Pier was the setting for John Carter to shoot local hotshot Lucas Meldrum. The dynamic duo tell the tale of getting the goods despite a failed forecast and rail strikes!

Words: John Carter and Lucas Meldrum. // Photos: John Carter.

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It’s Christmas Eve’s, Eve, (if that even is a thing); that time when most men are charging around doing their last-minute shopping before Xmas. I had received a message from Lucas Meldrum earlier in the week, letting me know he was at home in Brighton and if I was up for any windsurfing shooting opportunities that may arise. I have always been a fan of the rusty ruins of the old West Pier as a point of interest for windsurfing photos, so with that idea in mind, we made a rough plan to try and sail close to the ruins if the right forecast materialized. The last time I had been for a windsurf mission to Brighton to shoot the pier, was about five years ago, so it felt that the time was right for another bash. And lo and behold, a decent forecast appeared on the radar, with perfect strong westerly winds, just two days before Christmas. Now in normal times this would be a straightforward trip in terms of travel from the Isle of Wight to Brighton, but at the end of 2022, with rail strikes rife and the surge of people travelling before Christmas, anything was possible.

Travel risks

Brighton is the Meldrum family hometown and after learning to windsurf in Greece on a family holiday, Lucas learned the ropes of wave sailing around the Hove area. After finishing school, he moved down to Falmouth to attend university and now spends the majority of his time sailing down in Cornwall, or away in Tenerife during the summer.

After communicating with Lucas in the morning about the day’s prospects, I made the rash decision just to take a chance and head to Brighton, despite the potential travel risks. If events turned too bad travel wise, I was prepared to just throw a U-turn and head back home. Christmas Eve was officially down as a train strike, but the day before seemed to be showing travel as normal according to the national rail website. It was definitely going to be busy travelling, but if the trains were running as promised, I would be able to make it from A to B no problem!

Once on the ferry, I was frantically checking forecasts to make sure the wind was going to be strong enough. All the sites were giving in excess of 30 knots by the afternoon, so surely the conditions would be firing. But in winter, with heavy rain squalls around, once again, anything was possible.

I made it to Portsmouth in positive spirits right up until the moment I looked up at the train notice boards at the station. They read, cancelled, cancelled, cancelled and cancelled! Fantastic! Pretty much every single train was…yep, cancelled. There were plenty of irate commuters all cueing up to have a go at the helpless guard at the station, so I took my place in the line, ready to voice my frustration. By the time I was at the front of the line, I had already gathered that there was no one to man the signals at Chichester station, and that was what was the cause of all the commotion. The weary guard assured me that if I jumped on the one train that was leaving Portsmouth to Havant, then I would be able somehow link up with a Southampton train, and by that time a signal man should be in place at Chichester. OK, it was still only 9:30 a.m., I had plenty of time, so I decided to continue with the mission rather than take a U-turn home and quit early. Big mistake! To cut a long story short, I eventually arrived in Brighton just before 2 p.m., a mere three hours behind schedule after being passed from pillar to post from various guards on various platforms. I must say Havant and Bosham stations are bosh pleasant enough places to hang out, but not when you are in a rush to get to the beach.

Destination Brighton

Brighton station was mayhem, but I managed to make my way outside where Lucas and his dad Phil where waiting patiently. The town was buzzing with festive shoppers, while the roads to the beach were gridlocked. Finally, after six hours travel from my side, we made it through the traffic to the beach right opposite the old west pier. Parking spaces seemed to be non-existent, but we manged to find a temporary spot in a restricted zone so we could check the beach. I have tried shooting windsurfing close to the Brighton West Pier a few times in the past with Nik Baker, and for some reason it always proves more difficult than anticipated. Tides in Brighton can be fierce, and at high tide it is usually impossible to launch due to the gnarly shorebreak. Luckily for us, the tide was on its way out, but, and this was quite a big ‘but’, after all that horrific travel, there was barely a breath of wind.

I could not believe it! With all the forecasts calling for 30 knots plus, it was about 8 knots at best with patches of the murky sea almost glassy. Politely I said to Lucas and his dad Phil, that I best cut my loses and head straight home, since I knew I was facing more delays and disruption every moment longer I stayed down in Brighton. Perhaps this had just been a bad idea and a day just to write off. After a bit of discussion though, I agreed to stay for another hour in the hope that the wind would suddenly appear. Back closer to home I could see on the live wind readings it was force 7 near to the Wittering’s, so surely the wind had to make it down to Brighton, though we were now in a race against time with the fading light. Lucas’s mum, Pilar, arrived for some moral support while we were surveying the conditions, and seemingly out of nowhere some gusts started to blow along the beach.

Action  

I am not sure if it was out of guilt or pure determination to score some shots, but Lucas was immediately keen to give it a try and grabbed his kit out of the car, while his poor mum was left to go and find a legal parking spot. By now it was around 2:30 p.m. and we only had about an hour or so worth of light to play with before it would be too dark for any decent photography.

The first attempt at sailing was futile as Lucas launched and drifted out to sea and back in the gutless breeze which was barely powering his shiny new Duotone 4.5 Super_Hero. Once again, I was ready to throw in the towel, but then, seemingly out of nowhere, the wind really did start to blow. Better late than never!

It wasn’t the conditions I had hoped for, but at least we had around fifteen to twenty knots blowing from the west, along with plenty of ramps, enough for Lucas to throw a few jumps and smack a few waves. With the winter sun lighting up the remnants of the West Pier, the backdrop was very impressive indeed as Lucas battled the current to find the speed for jumps.

The West Pier was originally built in 1866 and it eventually became the only grade one listed pier in the UK. It was closed to the public in 1975, fell into disrepair and gradually collapsed. The pier was badly hit by the great storm in 1987 and then further destroyed by a major fire in 2003. Any hopes to rebuild the pier were thwarted in 2004 when a freak storm proved to be the last straw after all the previous fires and collapses. Today, what is left of the pier is just a relic of its bygone glory days. There were rumours that Brighton local and champion boxer, Chris Eubanks, reckoned he could raise the money to restore the pier, but for now it is owned by the West Pier Trust who bought it in 1983 for a mere £100.

Homebound

Once Lucas had finished his session, I wished the family a happy Christmas and made my way hastily back to the station for the next dose of what National Rail had to offer! Needless to say, there was a shortage of drivers, signallers and pretty much all the staff needed to run a train service! Without going into details, I eventually made it home following six hours of chaos, after being stranded at various railways stations en-route. The journey should have been two hours on a normal day!  After all the travel hassle, at least the mission was worthwhile to score that late session. Plus I now have an idea exactly what is needed for the perfect Brighton pier forecast, which is probably low tide and a minimum of 40 knots plus winds from the west. Hopefully the next time it will be epic!”

LUCAS MELDRUM

“I have been in Cornwall for two years now studying graphic design at Falmouth University. The windsurfing has been just amazing compared to what I’ve had for most of my life in Brighton. You always seem to find a wave and can get out a lot more because of the different directions of the beaches. Every now and then you get some world class down-the-line conditions too. I think the reason why I’ve enjoyed it so much is because the sailing in Brighton was so difficult in comparison growing up.

Tricky

Brighton is up there with the trickiest places I’ve ever sailed, especially in the winter. It’s cold and there’s a lot of current and the wind is usually very on-and-off and gusty, which makes it really hard to learn and improve. The benefit of sailing in really hard conditions is when you go somewhere that’s easier you can enjoy yourself way more and generally sail a lot better. To be honest, when I come back from Cornwall for Christmas break at home, I’m not really looking forward to the sailing too much. Don’t get me wrong, I have had a few really good storm sessions in the Brighton area, but I much prefer coming back in the summer when you can get more fun and consistent conditions.

JC and I were talking a week before as it looked like there was some wind in the forecast. One of the days looked super westerly, which is the ideal direction for the south coast. I think it was a solid 25-30 knot plus forecast with no rain, which is normally a good sign. After some hesitating, we made the call to go for it the night before. JC planned to get the train up, but we had no idea that the trains would be in complete chaos. I think there were some cancellations, and it was the day before Christmas Eve, so it was a hectic travel period anyway. When he told me he was stuck in one place for two hours, I was just thinking, I hope the windsurfing will be worth it!

Local knowledge

The idea was to get some pictures sailing next to the old West Pier in Brighton. Funny enough, I would call it my local beach. I can walk down from my house and in 10 minutes I’m standing looking at the West pier, but obviously, I’ve never actually sailed out there. It’s not normally the best conditions and on top of that the parking situation is really difficult. Windsurfers always sail up towards Hove, next to Hove Lagoon or even up at Shoreham and Worthing. Generally you get bigger waves down next to the pier, which results in a nasty cross-shore current, and the wind can usually be quite fluky, especially with all the buildings in the city.

My dad and I picked JC up from the station and headed down along the seafront. Looking out the window was a pretty bleak sight. There were definitely some fairly decent waves size-wise, but little to no wind. It’s something I’ve experienced a lot growing up in Brighton, going to the beach after school and there not being any wind at all, even with an epic forecast. That’s just what winter sailing is like down here, it’s really hard to time it right and you can never predict what the weather is going to do. We decided to wait around for a bit, hoping for the wind to kick in from somewhere. After 30 minutes the sun came out and the wind started to pick up, so I thought I’d just give it a little go. By the time I rigged and got on the water, the wind died again! So it was back to waiting on the beach, it was like a game of cat and mouse. Finally, the wind kicked back in again, and it was enough for my 4.5 Duotone Super_Hero. The strong current meant it was hard to get any jumps on the inside in the breaking waves, but then out the back I was sometimes pretty overpowered! Classic south coast sailing, but it was definitely made easier with the onshore machine that is my Fanatic Mamba 78-litre.

Raw

I didn’t really anticipate how scary and daunting the pier wreckage is. It looked pretty raw and rough, with sharp metal sticking out and certainly more unknown hazards under the water. A couple of times I had second thoughts about doing jumps near it, as if the wind suddenly died, I would’ve drifted straight into the wreckage! I think I’d be more confident with really strong wind, as I would have more manoeuvrability and control over where I wanted to go.

The sailing was tricky, nevertheless, it was a cool experience and another novelty spot ticked off the list. We didn’t get the conditions that we were hoping for, but I’m keen to try again in the future, there is definitely potential to score an epic shot.”