COAST - BIGBURY ON SEA

COAST – BIGBURY ON SEA

Words DAVE EWER // Photos JOHN CARTER

Home to the largest sandy beach in South Devon, Bigbury has an even bigger reputation in UK windsurfing. Bigbury Massacre, South Coast’s Jaws, Bigbury Takes no Prisoners, whatever the sensational headline this South Coast hot spot has always had a fearful and deserved reputation as being a scary place to sail and many International sailors have scurried down the deep Devon lanes to be surprised how brutal Bigbury can be, usually dragged along by ex-local sailor Timo Mullen or popping down to visit local lens-man Alex Williams. Its bite lies in a rivermouth in the centre of the bay. Here any sniff of swell is maxed into a mast macerating break that challenges the hardiest of windsurfing heroes. Bigbury also has a calmer easier side too it’s not always mast high and life threatening. This south coast wave magnet often kicks up fun free ride conditions too, just be warned it can soon turn challenging as you drift down the beach towards the river mouth and over to Bantham, where you’ll be surrounded by surfers too.

Long gone are the days of calling the local windsurfing shop for a “Do you know if anyone’s out at the beach sailing?”question. Bigbury has some reliable info. readily available online. Magicseaweed.com, the surf forecast website headquartered nearby, has 3 HD cams on the beach (but not generally in the sailing area) and there’s an active Facebook group ‘Windsurf Plymouth’, where a lot of the local sailors will post their sailing intentions so you’ll never need to sail alone. Reactive Watersports also put up a Facebook weekend forecast so you know the best spots to sail and the optimum tides. Of course Windguru and Big Salty cover Bigbury too, but all that said you can’t beat a bit of local knowledge and who better to turn to than Reactive Watersports owner, Dave Ewer. Read on for Dave’s account of a classic day at his local and a guru’s guide to mastering the waves at one of England’s finest windsurfing beaches.

“ Any sniff of swell is maxed into a mast macerating break that challenges the hardiest of windsurfing heros ’’ ^JC

SURPRISE CALL
I’m a pretty keen wave sailor, I’ve been sailing Bigbury for longer than I care to remember, my early days sailing were with Timo and Finn Mullen when they were (barely) at Uni in Plymouth. We’ve had some epic days sailing at this classic spot; massive NE days, life threatening days on a big SW where I’ve almost drowned, as well as awesome Summer days blasting down to Hope Cove and along the coast on slalom kit. I get out on most good days at the beach but running my own business and employing windsurfers means I miss a few too!

Timo has called me the last couple of times when he was due to be down with JC, but I’ve been tied down and unable to make it to the beach. Sure enough I get a call from Timo’s broad Northern Irish accent, “We’re coming down to shoot Bigbury with JC, are you up for a sail, we’ll be down in an hour”, err, “I’ll give you a call back”. My shop guy James was in Cornwall sailing , Gwen my shop girl was fresh back from Bali and without her phone, my only option was to phone the wife and see if she can cover me last minute? Fortunately I’ve got a fantastic wife who after cancelling a long standing social engagement last minute for me held the fort in Reactive base camp. With cover in place, I was now in transit, beach bound. I’d sailed a couple of days previously but the temp had plummeted significantly to around 6-7c, a bit cool for me unless it’s really firing, (I’m a bit fussy in my old age these days). Upon arrival at the beach I’m greeted by JC who’s wrapped up like he’s going snowboarding and Timo’s half rigged and scurrying around to get out on the water like usual. The wind was howling cross shore and it was sunny too. The waves were looking pretty smooth, around shoulder high, but it was looking a bit more promising and punchy downwind in the river mouth. There were already a handful of local sailors out: Ed, Allen, Tim C and a couple of others, (they’d been chatting on Facebook all morning and I knew Bigbury would be the venue of choice today).

WINTER WARMER
As usual I was in between boards and only had a fairly skinny quad in the back of my van, needless to say Timo had a full armoury of Starboard carbon in the back of his van, hum, a bigger size would have been better. After a quick chat on the beach the word was solid 4.2m weather. Before long I was skipping down the beach with a 4.5m and my skinny quad. I knew a warm up sail was out of the question today, (I’d only get colder anyway!), so I wasted no time and headed straight downwind to the river mouth where the waves were head high to logo. The tide was dropping which made the waves a bit bumpy but they were steep and had a bit of punch to them, chunky enough to make sailing interesting and take my mind of my freezing cold hands. Pretty much as soon as I got downwind the wind picked up and I was stacked. Timo was firing and nailing some solid back loops on the outside bigger lumps during the squalls. I managed to score a few solid turns and also stuck a few loops and hoped JC captured the evidence! Before long my hands had gone and the wind turned a tad gusty; my time was up and the school run was fast approaching. I strolled back upwind just in time for a quick chat with JC, before long I was doubled up, flapping my arms about whilst chatting, there’s nothing like the pain barrier to stutter the flow of conversation. When I left Timo was still sailing, the wind had picked up a little, hum I think next time I will chuck the palmless mitts in the back of the van when I sail during January!

“ Make a trip down to this beautiful part of the country if you can, trust me, you won’t want to leave if it’s going off ! ’’ ^{Dave Ewer}

LOCAL INFO
Parking in beach carpark – £2.60 for 2 hrs, make sure you have some change, (thanks JC!).
Beach cafe on site, toilet, cold outside shower and a dodgy phone signal. Camping available at Folly farm at top of field overlooking beach. Nearest Windsurf shop is 20 minutes away in Plymouth – Reactive Watersports, 01752 403300.
www.reactivewatersports.co.uk

THE SCENE
Plymouth has got some great home grown sailors, super keen to sail as many spots locally as they can, from speed to freestyle and of course the waves at Bigbury. The standard of sailor at the beach is pretty high generally. Top UK female sailors Sara Kellet and Sarah Bibby regularly sail here as well as some pretty hard-core locals like Dougal, Mark W, Tim C, Piere , James and plenty of part timers who will drop most things to be at the beach; Ed, Sam, Dave and Steve you know who you are!

Windsurf Plymouth, was a RYA funded pilot for Project windsurf, set up by local sailor and RYA ambassador Tim Cross. This has been a fantastic tool for windsurfers to communicate with everyone else locally and also has taught loads of new windsurfers in the area with their club sessions run by Allen Adams and team. Quite simply using Facebook to contact other windsurfers in the area means more time sailing with your mates at the beach rather than sailing alone or not going out as the conditions may be on the edge of your comfort zone. It’s really worth checking out your local Facebook group / club through Project windsurf RYA if you want to maximise windsurfing in your local area. Try and make a trip down to this beautiful part of the country if you can, trust me, you won’t want to leave if it’s going off !

“ Timo was firing and nailing some solid back loops on the outside bigger lumps during the squalls ’’^{Dave Ewer}

FACT BOX

WIND DIRECTIONS

Southerly, onshore:
Still sailable but pretty much bang onshore, not too much fun when it’s big as you’ll be spending most of your time running away from white water. Most of the locals will be sailing at nearby Mothecombe which is easier, or you can sail from Bantham side at high tide which gives flat water between the waves but can be busy with kites if not too windy.

South West, cross on:
Starboard tack jumping, big friendly rollers on the outside and an easy sneak out from the inside. If it is head high on the way out, you’ll be gybing on a mast high swell on the outside. The key to sailing on a SW is not to be too close to the island (wind shadow) but not be too far downwind that you get battered and washed up in the river mouth and the more powerful waves, they’re always bigger when you get out there! A good starting point is gybing in front of the lifeguard hut (as long as there’s not a swimming area there).

Westerly, cross shore:
Great jumping and riding at high tide on a westerly, generally a bit smaller than a SW day and better mid to high tide but still OK on low, the further you go down wind the better it is, (bigger waves).

North West, cross off:
It needs to be fairly windy for NW to work at Bigbury, but it offers free ride sailing upwind on the other side of the island and nice wave riding in the main break but can be a little gusty. High tide can be great fun in between the island buzzing the sea tractor that crosses the causeway.

Northerly, dead offshore:
The worst direction!

North East/East, offshore/cross off:
Generally flat water and baby waves, usually a lot windier than just down the coast due to funnelling effect. Great coastal blasting down to Bolt tail / Hope Cove. Don’t tell anyone but a few times a year we get epic waves in this direction, this creates amazing down the line rides of around 500m when it’s big enough, it’s usually busy, though still great fun when it’s waist high too.

South East, cross on:
Port tack jumping, fairly on shore but good fun sailing over to Bantham and back. Can be tricky getting off the beach at high tide though.