PORTHLEVEN

 



Porthleven in Mounts Bay on the south coast of Cornwall. The harbour and around the corner has been surfed for 70 years plus. I was lucky enough to go on a good day on my first ever visit,  I had some insider information and I set off early. In the winter it's easy to park the car and I walked out onto the harbour jetty.  A couple of other photographers were around and there were two separate waves,  one off to my right which was a left-hand tube coming towards me and the other was a small wave where the groms mainly surfed right in front of the jetty. 


        





Robin (Sunshine) Davies, Snap Mishap






It was an awesome morning and there was some amazing really good surfers out there. One guy came up to us dripping wet after a while and spoke to us about conditions being over double head height around the corner.  I decided to go up there and check it out. I parked on the cliff road and walked down through two fields to the iconic  Cross of the shipwrecked mariners at Breageside. This area was a natural amphitheatre to the action below. 





Washed onto the rocks in a spot of bother 


Wavelength magazine has some amazing stories from the locals saying they went out to surf after a storm in 1993 which washed through Costcutter supermarket . They were picking up floating cans of coke and mars bars and eating them between waves. Another story about leashless boards being washed away by the swell and being found by fishing boats out to sea near Lands End.

Overall I can say that I had the privilege to dip into a supercool scene.  Even though the conditions got a little misty for crisp photos, I’ll definitely be back. 

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