In late September 05, my cousin Fred Meehan had a few days off before returning to university to begin his 2nd year; and I had some lieu time off work. So we grabbed the opportunity to surf, on the last good weather weekend of the summer. Fred owns one of the finest vehicles on the road... The legendary Land Rover Defender, and we loaded it up with all the necessary camping gear, wetsuits, beer and started off on the 5 hour road trip from Hampshire to Cornwall. We Passed Stonehenge on route and going round Exeter, we arrived mid Thursday afternoon in Newquay and parked straight up in Fistral bay.

The waves are amongst the best in the UK at Fistral, and were pretty good when we first arrived. This guy was surfing to the right of the beach, by the rocks, where the break is highest but also the most dangerous.

We hired some boards, I took a 7"8 Malibu and Fred started out on a 9"2 Swell board it being only his second time out. The waves were actually extremely powerful when we first got in, and had a massive under-current to the left of the beach. After an hours buffeting, I traded in for a shorter 7"2 to make it easier getting out. Fred stayed on the beach with my Canon digital SLR 350D and a 75-300mm lens, which I was still learning to use. We stayed in Newquay for 3 days surfing and camping.

Having not surfed at Fistral bay before, I made sure to check the tides and currents with the lifeguards before getting in. Fortunately being a weekday, and at the end of the summer the beach wasn't crowded. Whilst the waves look small they were getting up to 5-6 foot, which for a relatively inexperienced city dweller is amble.

I had only previously surfed 3 weekends at Woolacoombe bay in Devon. The waves are much smaller there, and I found it quite a challenge on a shorter board, your balance has to be much better, the board is less forgiving. After 4-5 hours of getting battered we retreated to check out the Eden project.

We stayed down in cornwall for 3 days, camping at a cold campsite, where our "teamplayer" cousin Fergus stitched us up with a tent minus guy lines. On the Saturday we got up for the crack of dawn to hit the beach for a last hour before heading back.