TIMO MULLEN
Praa Sands has always been a recurring dream since I last scored it going off back in 2003. It is such an elusive beast; for a beach that is so consistent for surf the days we actually get to sail it are rare, so rare in fact that I reckon I have only sailed it 3 times since 2003 and none of those sessions were exactly epic! I’d say Praa gets mentioned more than any other break when myself and the boys are discussing where to sail on the South Cornish coast, but more often it gets dismissed as either being wrong tide, too gusty, too big, too onshore or any other myriad of excuses that us windsurfers make up! I reckon it probably is firing a hell of a lot more times than we think and any of the above reasons why we don’t go are probably the reasons we should be going!
With all of the above in mind, JC and I took the gamble that seemingly no one wants to take and focussed our attention on this one spot with a sworn pact not to leave until we scored it as good as 2003! As we rocked up to the beach at 8am it looked as if we had already blown it! Two student windsurfers I know had just come in, having sailed at first light to catch the best tide and wind window. We already knew we had to be on it, but these guys were mega on it! Maybe we were watching the new Motleys at work! Fair play, I love seeing guys as keen as us getting their windsurfing fix before shooting off for an important lecture at college. That did not change the fact we were now looking at a windless pumping beach break with our tide window slowly disappearing into a death shorebreak!
Now I have one of the best sponsors in the world in Starboard, which means I have never any excuse for not getting on the water, I literally have a board suited for any conditions, but my fail safe go to board for ‘iffy’ conditions, like we were looking at, is my Quad 94. The board gives me so much float when it is super light, but once up on the wave it lets me do whatever I want with its large volume not holding the board back on the wave. Straight away on my first ride I smacked a pretty hefty lip, immediately reminding myself that Praa takes no prisoners. Even at logo high this place packs a serious punch. What then ensued was a full on power session as the wind and waves picked up, if anything as the tide pushed higher (everyone says Praa is rubbish at high tide) the waves got better and the ‘treacherous’ shore break was setting up as the ultimate lip to smack or bowl section to throw some rail. I was absolutely loving it, a true beachbreak with loads of punch. With Blacky out and on his game you always have to push a bit harder and I was pretty happy to land a few moves, particularly stoked with a sweet 360 off a lovely bowly section, though thankfully JC missed my embarrassing fist pump claim afterwards! All in all we managed to dispel every one of our preconceived ideas about Praa; after this session we realised Praa works in any tide, loves a bigger swell and isn’t too gusty. The only two elements that remained consistent were the fact it still packs a serious wallop and that it is without doubt, one of the best and most beautiful beach breaks in the UK.
IAN BLACK
Best conditions at Praa tend to be nw to nnw and not too windy, else its gets way too gusty. Anything over 4 to 5 feet and you are going to need your mummy as it turns into a super heavy close out. It actually works pretty often, but I would not say we race there because it is a leg breaker. There are no real hazards at Praa, there was a weird thing where it went all rocky last year but now it is ok again. As a general rule, avoid high or low tide; but having said that sometimes the tides you think are not on are sailable! For this session I set up with my usual Blackie single fin and my new 4 batten 5 oceans 5.6, that thing is gold for light wind! This was actually one of my better ones at Praa. There were one or two waves with some real nice shape to them. You do have to be up for it to sail at Praa. There are no half measures at this place, if you are going to hit it, then hit it or else you are going to be in a world of pain! Carter asked me about smuggling here. What does he think I am?, some sort of Cornish historian? There is a place – Bashers cove – just around the corner which you can only get to at low tide, so I guess the answer is yes, this place does have a history!