South coast surf - Bantham

Thursday 26th April

Well the swell, tides and winds pointed to a South coast surf session this week. So I took a trip down some winding south hams lanes to see what I could find. I have recently been shown some pictures of a small out of the way Secret Spot on the south coast and so thought I'd check that out first.
What I found, when I finally got there, was fantastic, a small sheltered bay, with waves peeling in over a sand bar. However there just wasn't enough swell getting in for it to be big enough. But I know what conditions to look for next time. So it was back in the motor and onwards to the south Devon classic Bantham.

Bantham rules in action, 5 people on one wave

I'm not much of a fan of Bantham. I learnt to surf there, and have really gone off of it! It has a relatively small take off area for a couple of peaks, and when it get busy, like at weekends and holidays, it can be absolute hell. You end up with masses of people all trying to take off on the same wave.

A clean river mouth wave with only one person on it!

This Over crowding I reckon has lead to Bantham developing it's own set of surf rules. At most breaks around the world it's generally one person to a wave, and either whoever stands up first or is closest to the breaking shoulder of the wave has right of way, over everyone else. But not at Bantham. At Bantham, as many people on a wave is excepted as the norm, as is, dropping in on people already on a wave and not giving way to people on a wave. It drives me totally nuts.

A wave ski going off the top

There were only a dozen or so of us in the water, it was pretty chilled out, but people still kept on dropping in on each other. I got totally taken out by some old geezer, I was cruising down the line, when he paddled in, and tried to join me on my wave, however I didn't give way and was quietly hoping I might run him over and teach him a lesson. But instead he managed to hit me in the chest with his board taking both of us out. Then he just climbed back on his board and paddled off as if nothing had happened. Old *******************!

Tiny waves peeling into the Secret Spot

It Totally reminded me of why I hate Bantham so much. Next time the swell, tides and wind point to a south coast session I think I'll go biking, or climbing or..............