pumping

Surf was pumping tonight! Here we are looking from Tristram towards Stepper Point. This wave always looks great but just never really does it. Having said that I can remember some epic sessions. It's never busy - best on a super low. The tower on the cliff top is known locally as the 'Daymark' and is used by boats to navigate during daylight. Just to the left of this photo is the Doom Bar, a sand bar that stretches across the Estuary. Over the past two centuries many boats have gone down here, trying to seek shelter in rough weather or heading towards Padstow. The legend has it that they tried blasting the Stepper Headland away as so many ships were going down on the Doom Bar when they lost the winds in their sails. They stopped blasting when the engine was invented! I can't help but think that that's a myth!

A few years ago we turned up on the beach to find a sailing boat marooned on Polzeath Beach. The skipper had managed to confuse the lights of Polzeath with those of the estuary. When asked to produce evidence of how he was navigating, he produced an AA Road Map! Now that is true, I was there! Oh and then we had another one a few years later. Exactly the same except this poor fellow had just got divorced and had poured any remaining money into his boat. It was in bits. Feeling sorry for him, word got around and everyone locally downed tools and helped the mariner collect up as much of the remains as possible. These were then gathered on Martin Taylor's camp site (the Valley). Wasn't much left I'm afraid.

The most recent proper shipwreck happened on The Rumps. It was the Maria Assumpta, the worlds oldest working wooden boat and went down in June 1995 - our first year of trading on the beach. I remember seeing the news on the telly and running around to see the wreck. There were loads of people there. The boat had been taking a short cut between The Mouls and Pentire Point when the engine unexpectedly cut out. There was no time to get the sails up. When hearing the news that three people had died in the accident, it came as a surprise as the surf really wasn't that big. Enough maybe to cause panic amongst weak swimmers.... the boat had been due into Padstow where a big welcoming party was gathered. For weeks after, pencils with Maria Assumpta written in gold down the flattened edges washed ashore while we stood teaching in waist depth water. I remember rescuing a brass hinge as it floated by on a piece of flotsam.