Patrick Barkham: on surfing in Britain
Features
Jack Johnson. Flip-flops. That Guinness advert. Stitchless technology. Silent movies of the ocean showing in pubs. It is as if all kinds of random things have been thrown together by an enormous wave and carried to our shores. Surfing may have begun as a countercultural trickle, frozen out of British popular culture by small seas and an inconsiderate climate. Now it is a vast breaker. Once the exclusive domain of gilded young men, more than half a million people of all shapes and ages now surf regularly in Britain. This year, another half a million will join them.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: August 10, 2006
Top 10 UK surf spots
Features
Surf's up in the UK this month, in fact it'll be up for considerably longer than that, but between now and mid-November is prime time for hitting the waves since relatively mild air and water temperatures combine with regular swells and less crowded beaches to give the best conditions of the year. Here are ten of the best options for some autumn surf action.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: October 12, 2007
Asbo threat to surfers who steal swimmers' waves
Features
Surfers who ride waves through areas reserved for swimmers off a Cornish beach could be taken to court and issued with antisocial behaviour orders, it emerged yesterday.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: September 19, 2008
French new wave
Features
Slowly pulling the long ribbon of my wetsuit's zip up my spine, I looked out across the midnight blue water and surveyed the swell. Out there lay my first waves. I couldn't wait for a rip curl to curdle and create the perfect jumper. I had no idea what that meant, I'd read it in a surf mag that morning, but my wave-hungry group of new surf buddies were on the way down to the sand, and I was sure it would all make sense soon.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: July 05, 2008
Keep surfing, but make sure you're covered
Features
With the rise of low-cost airlines and cheap hotel booking websites, the package holiday, which seemed such a modern and glamorous concept when it started 40 years ago, has begun to appear outmoded. By scouring the internet, holiday-seekers have in recent years been able to put together their own flexible combination of flight and hotel, and it often works out cheaper.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: September 14, 2008
Surfing for food in Cornwall
Features
Fat Hen? What's a fat hen? Not, as you might think, an overweight chicken, although the food element is on the right track. The origins of fat hen take us back, way back into the swirling saucepan of food history when this now forgotten plant was eaten by our ancient ancestors. And, in my case, the trail has led to a farm near Penzance for a spot of culinary adventure on a new foraging weekend also named, appropriately, Fat Hen.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: September 19, 2008
Coasteering and surfing in Woolacombe
Features
Our magical memories of childhood summer holidays in north Devon were too beloved to be spoilt by commercialisation, over-crowding, and two decades of change.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: September 15, 2006
