30 JULY 2019BIGBURY
Ben Page stomping an air off
some Atlantic chunk.BEN PAGE
B
igbury in an easterly is a pretty special forecast and the one
I most wanted to score. In the 1980s my Dad used to be a
local there. On the wall at his house is a cut out from a long
deceased magazine with a black and white photo of Bigbury in
an easterly. My dad is in the photo, sailing a custom wave board
made in a shed. The mast track is on the boards’s nose logo and the sail has
no battens. The wave in the background fills the entire bay in one long line
with a cloud of spray flying off the back. All the windsurf stories he used to
tell me as a kid were about Bigbury, and the best day of them all was that
easterly. Fast forward over twenty years and that weekend totally lived up
to the hype.
I’ve not sailed many places where it was harder to catch waves. The waves
were so fast and the wind so offshore that you had to take off right under the
peak, racing down the line at full tilt just to avoid falling off the back. If you
couldn’t keep up, which I couldn’t a lot of the time, you got blasted out the
back by the gale tearing straight up the face. You then had to wobble about
as the next one came bearing down on you. It was perfectly clean, punchy
and the spray filled the entire bay just like in Dad’s old photo. I’ve never
seen anything like it. The risks were big, but the rewards were even bigger.“THE RISKS WERE BIG, BUT THE
REWARDS WERE EVEN BIGGER.”
BIGBURY FACT BOX
Parking - Parking for the whole day will cost a hefty £9, although if you
are there for 3 hours it is a mere £4.
Facilities - Excellent toilets and a place to change next to the Venus Café.
Venus Café - Serving up coffee, tea, delicious pasties and the cheesy
chips are an absolute must after a long day on the water!
Closest shop - The excellent all-round watersports shop, “Reactive Water
Sports”, founded by local windsurf legend Dave Ewer is located about a
30 minute drive away in Plymouth. http://www.reactivewatersports.co.ukDevon river mouth dreams.