THE SET-UP
By 10.30 we were back in St Ives, looking down at the harbour from the main road into the town, a prime vantage point to assess the conditions. The seas were raging but very messy. We had been told though the key here is that with the pushing tide the waves wrap around the harbour and come in at right angles creating side shore wave riding on a peeling left-hander. Ironically a harbour that was designed to give shelter from storms has helped create the set-up for one of the heaviest left handers in Cornwall. The first section of the wave is super gnarly and breaks right off the rocks in front of the tiny bay to the left of Smeaton’s Pier. Once that first section rattles across the sandbar in very shallow water, it connects through past the pier and the ride can finish way down in front of Porthminster Beach. Beware of the current on the pushing tide, as it can easily be 4-5 knots in the impact zone sweeping you away from the main peak. As for parking in St Ives, you can either launch and park at Porthminster or drive into town and park on the pier or in the small car park up towards Porthgwidden Beach in town. Beware if you have a big van as the streets in St Ives are very narrow and you don’t want to totally lock up the traffic in town as top UK wavesailor Tristan Boxford did many years ago when scouting the area. Launching from Porthminster means its a few tacks up to the break but once the tide fills in you can sail for longer as launching from the harbour you need to come in earlier as the water is pushed up towards the pier, making for a tricky exit. If relying on wind swell to make St Ives work, the wind really needs to push the waves in from a northerly direction but the more north-west the wind, the cleaner the wave, which can also mean more surfers. Today surfers were not an issue; the fifty knot winds were taking care of that. Over to Timo and Duncan for the low-down on the session.