
The Cribbar which is known as being England’s biggest wave is a fickle spot needing a large, long period swell and a low tide before it even starts to show its teeth. With its location off the headland out in the Atlantic making it really affected by the wind, the Cribbar only has a rideable wave a handful of times a year at best. Add into this the fact that we need the right direction and strength wind to be able to kitesurf out there and it drastically reduces the number of days so much so that I have been waiting for 4 years to tackle the beast.
By the time we launched around 9 am, it was pretty windy and with the tide on low we timed it perfectly. I scooted out through the huge rip in front of Fistral rocks with Neal right behind me, who unfortunately was just too close in for a huge set and took a couple of beating s before making it out the back and start riding down to the reef. Getting into the line up it took a while to get my bearings and work out how deep you could get without getting taken out by the 20ft+ waves. As the Cribbar is really a right it was not ideal down the line conditions, but we will probably never get a huge swell with NE wind. The answer was to try and backdoor the section and smash a few turns without getting too deep and washed onto the razor sharp rocks below the headland where your only escape would be swimming around the corner and around one mile to Newquay harbour. Everyone had some amazing size waves with us all hooting and hollering each other in and shouting go deeper boy. The photos really don’t do the size justice as they are taken from 300ft up on the top of Towan Headland, next time we will hopefully have a boat or ski as support and media vessel!
Big thanks to JNP Events for taking the pics, Neal Gent for being my wingman and also the first person to Kite and Windsurf the Cribbar. Bring on the next time!
Cheers
Lee ‘Pasty’ Harvey