It is well into the season for getting wet here in Kernow so we might as well embrace it. Like many, I am inexplicably drawn to the Ocean. A fascination born from golden hazy childhood memories of long car journeys to Llandudno once a year as a kid. Desperately trying to spot saltwater from the backseat of a Vauxhall cavalier probably 50 miles before we were anywhere near the place. The seas and oceans have always held me firmly in there grasp. Watching huge surf is not only breathtaking, it has a habit of putting everything from our daily lives into perspective. In times that seem to be perceptibly compelling what is left of our free will to worship screens either in our pockets or everywhere else we turn, It can be suprisingly refreshing to witness something so real as Mother Nature’s temper instantly compelling all our senses to react to what they were originally designed for. There is no denying that the Ocean cooking on full gas is one of the most powerful forces on the planet and of course this natural theatre plays a major role in our very existence. Now this is Cornwall, not Hawaii, Portugal or any other big wave Mecca but let me assure you after watching this corner of the Atlantic for many years I know for sure that we get some extraordinary and immense waves. Most of these mountains of water are totally invisible for a majority of the year only surfacing on the most herculean swells. Usually the show begins with the remanence of ex hurricanes or tropical storms sending their left over energy and violence in the form of charged tower blocks over the Atlantic using the United Kingdom as a final crash barrier on their passage of utter obliteration. The beasts created in this way are waves often unsurfable by even the greatest watermen and women but this particular blog is about my favourite places to photograph big waves NOT surf spots.

Disclamer:

(If you don’t like the idea of sitting in an icy bath wearing all you clothes with someone continuously and relentlessly giving you the ice bucket challenge and slapping you round the face with fine grain sandpaper while all your expensive camera equipment gets destroyed until the moment you make it back to your car then just maybe storm watching is not for you. If you do go storm watching its at your own risk not because I told you to go. (Please take care and take the appropriate precautions)

5. CAPE CORNWALL

When it is big and I mean BIG, if you can make it through the blusterous squally to Cape Cornwall you will not be disappointed. It is a hard place to take pics due to the severity of how weather systems hit this exposed area with very little in the way of cover due to its geography. Occasionally you may get a brief reprieve from the onslaught but I have yet to experience one. Even if you just sit in your car and try to scale up some of the mountains of water rolling in on the nearby house it can be rewarding. Taking photographs at sea level are not really advisable unless you are a Himalayan goat with a dry suit on.

To give this giant a sense of scale look for the bird in the photograph just in the left hand corner and remember this is an adult gannet not herring gull with a wingspan of around 6 feet in length.

Tip: Stay in your car the entire time.

4. MILOOK WATER. BUDE

For me it’s not always about the sheer height of a wave. Sometimes just the immense power and ferocity can make it so unique. Look at the thick shoulder on this rabid bulldog! I came across this wave quite by accident some time ago while on the hunt for a mountain of liquid gold just a little further from my usual comfort zone. I don’t know for sure how often it gets this angry here, neither can I remember the chart stats of that day. I do however recall it was a serious unrelenting onslaught with trees and debris strewed all over the roads. The exit on other side of the valley had become a tempestuous rapid like river that was almost undrivable but after two attempts and a lot of wheelspin we made it out .

Tip: Prey to the storm gods that there is no one else is taking photographs or cruely taking their poor doggy for a walk in such conditions as parking is VERY limited.

3. ZORBA’S REEF/ BAKER’S FOLLY. PENTIRE HEADLAND. NEWQUAY

Zorba taken from Towan Head approx 3.5km away.

The Zorbas reef is a monster wave spot located two miles off Pentire headland. Situated almost in the shipping lanes it has the potential and has without doubt thrown up some of the most massive water mountains the UK has ever witnessed. The only problem is that the planets don’t align very often with all the correct factors for this rare phenomenon to happen. During severe storms I have spotted this almost mythical giant wave out back rearing its head from the depths yet it took me many years for all the elements that are needed like size and the correct swell/wind direction to witness it working properly. This whole area of headland often produces some huge and interesting shapes on a big swell but my favourite day was this one. On the 6th of February 2019 we in Newquay were experiencing an unprecedented jaw dropping two weeks of pumping surf that just kept on giving. I pretty much spent two weeks on the coast and even got sunburnt (YES in February) as I was outside watching the ocean for so long. I was casually walking on the costal path from South Fistral to Pentire Headland and could not actually believe my eyes, row after row of 20-25 foot waves! They were forming on the Zorbas reef way off shore then charging past Goose rock as they continued to grow in size, eventually breaking about halfway down the headland. The absurdity was that although there was huge amounts of swell around nothing of real significance was happening anywhere else. Even the mighty Cribbar was not doing a great deal. A small group of us gathered and just surveyed this titanic spectical for at least a couple of hours (see above pics). Pentire Headland is somewhere that I often pop up to when there are big seas because at the very least there is something memorizing in watching the James Bond style house (Bakers Folly) behind the Lewinick Lodge take a good beating. In my 20 years of wave watching here I have never seen such massive and solid waves of that caliber or consistency in this location before that day or since.

Tip: If its ever on ring me first! (please)

2. PORTHLEVEN

If you love big waves, their power, their majesty and the absolute drama involved in it all then you have to visit Porthleven. I remember my first time like it was yesterday. Its quite a jaw dropper. Not so much due to the size of the waves themselves, although they do get some serious lumps. The main spectacle and attraction is down to the insane height produced from the rebound of thundering southwestly boomers that hit the wall and cliff face of this Cornish fishing port with an indescribable force after travelling at full speed across the Atlantic. It is so impressive that people have even built careers and successful instagram accounts off its backwash alone. In short, if you are curious about all this storm business I highly recommend a session or two taking the now nationally familiar pictures from one of the many vantage points around this beautiful harbour town. I have pictures of much bigger explosions of water here but I love the light on the first picture showing this sonic boom as the oppersite forces collide. It allows you to see the incredible natural pallet of the Atlantic that we only seem to get here in Cornwall.

Tip: When its on it gets very busy. Don’t park on Beacon road (the small hill that leads out of town towards Rinsey) unless you are very patient or have a good book to read.

1. THE CRIBBAR REEF NEWQUAY

There can only be one winner in my own personal BIG wave top 5. Although there are other great places in Cornwall to witness Mother Nature at her best, some close to me here in Newquay and a couple way down west that may or may not be more impressive on occasion. These are MY favourites and for me nothing in this country beats the Cribbar Reef. Even on smaller days it still mesmerises me with its bubbling franticness as water is forced up and over from the deep to the shallows. With its many faces as the winter swells draw in. Watching it ‘s madness is truly what make’s me feel most alive. Many times I have stood on the headland deenched, freezing and all alone, laughing like a madman while the ground shakes accompanied by the thunderous sounds from its crashing bowels. Occasionaly if its not a raging weather front I am accompanied by curious crowds and sometimes surfers if the conditions are right, all sharing the strange draw and deffinite addiction of the Ocean and its mighty waves.

Above and below are a selection of images of the Cribbar reef from different vantage points takes over different years.

Tip: Wrap up warm. Don’t climb on the slippy rocks and always smile at the soaking wet guy with a beard and gaffer tape on his lense cover.