Sennen/Land’s End

Monday, 8 October we again proceeded south through such lovely little fishing villages as St Ives (remember the shampoo), Penzance (end of the line for the British Rail line), and finally ending up at Land’s End. It was a bit stormy, so after some Irish coffee and a light breakfast we were ready to try a new spot that we had been told had never been SUP-ed before. It was a large granite reef almost a mile offshore and looked to have a sporty left breaking off of the north end. The beach at Sennen Cove is spectacular in that the sand is soft, decomposed granite that runs out for hundreds of yards. The “granite sand” gives the water a translucent blue-green color when the sun shining.

We paddled out to the mystery reef and discovered that it was a bit more challenging than we had thought.  By long held custom: he who rides the first wave usually names the new spot. It looked like Tim Mellors was going to get the naming rights, but, discretion being the better part of valor; he aborted out of his takeoff roll. Dave ended up getting first blood and displayed his experience for shallow rocky reefs that are the staple of the Central Coast of California. See Matt Argyle’s article about the spot at: http://www.supglobal.com/stand-up-paddle-surfing-features/latest-sup-news/67-stand-up-paddle-surfing-at-sennon-cove-with-dave-parmenter.html  Below are Dave and Tim; bottom picture is Adam.

After a few near misses with the reef and some nice juicy take-offs for ourselves, we moved in to join Claudia in the beautiful beach-break off Sennen Cove. The offshore wind freshened as tide helped push up the nice waist-high swell:

Tim goes large on the Great Pumpkin


After three hours in the water, the crew stripped off their wetsuits and made their pilgrimage to Land’s End in a cold wet rain to experience the English version of Manifest Destiny. “Land’s End, Ho!” in the distance behind Adam, Dave and Claudia:

The next day I started my journey home, back to family, responsibility, and flying for a living. It was with heavy heart that I left our friends, Adam “BKoftheUK”, his wife Helen, son Jordan, Tim “Kong” Mellors, and all the lovely British people that we had met. Dave and Claudia stayed on another week and ended up scoring very large surf in the Newquay area. I strongly encourage all to visit this wonderful land of courteous, kind, and skillful waterfolk. Thanks, Adam and Tim for taking care of us wayward Yanks!

Respectfully Submitted,
Ted Rutherford
C4 Waterman