After one the best Februarys in living memory, many insisted the bombardment of groundswell, light offshores and sunny skies could simply not continue into Spring.
Some nay-sayers offered up vague and dubious oceanographic reasons for their pessimism, but for most, it was just a gut feeling. A nagging sense felt somewhere between kidney and spleen that Britain was incapable of being that kind to its native surfing population.
Because we all knew what we signed up for when we decided to be a surfer based in these parts. Long runs of rain peppered mediocrity, occasionally interrupted by fleeting moments of modest enjoyment. Not non-stop, sun-dappled, head-high bowls. Not here.
And then April rolled around and shit all over the south-west surfer’s long writ contract.
Nineteen of the month’s 30 days saw conditions that fell somewhere on the scale between clean waist high runners and crazy overhead drainers. Nineteen. That’s over 60% absolute champaign.
When coupled with the beautiful weather, the swell’s obliging synchronicity with weekends and holidays and the smattering of magical banks that popped up along the coastline, April served up something pretty close to a perfect month for your average south-west based surfer.
Here’s hoping for much more of the same as the summer hits its stride over the coming months.
Speaking of which, we’ve compiled a series of gear guides to help you get fully kitted out for what the news website prone to extreme exaggeration are already predicting is going to be another scorching summer.
We’ve got a rundown of our favourite wetties, a guide to the best summer sticks, reviews of 2019’s finest boardshorts, as well as some other choice apparel and essential hardware.
Unfortunately, right now, neither the view out the window, nor the forecast are looking too dreamy, so let’s look backwards instead and live vicariously through a few photographic highlights from those amazing few weeks at the start of Spring:
Cover photo @dan__hunter
Going off?
Want to share your photos? If you've got a great gallery of your local spot email us [email protected].