surfing is our identity

Are we currently witnessing one of the best and most consistent winters for surfing in Croyde, with one low pressure after another producing back to back swells of world class waves? Has this been one of the longest innings of people saying cliches such as ‘you should have been here yesterday’  we’ve ever known?

I wouldn’t be the best person to answer these questions unfortunately as I chose to escape possibly the best winter of all time for a warmer, more tropical, but all be it flatter ocean. It is here where I have spent many an hour watching the charts of little old North Devon thousands of miles away in complete awe and envy, visualising what home must be looking like and then comparing it to the hundreds of Instagram stories, videos and images uploaded seemingly constant and questioning my decision. It has been an ongoing battle of emotions which has always ended with gratitude for the quality time with the family, warm sun on my back and perfect excuse for yoga / beer.
It is here in Sri Lanka, ironically during one of their driest runs of swell in recent history and where local knowledge has been paramount to finding the best of what little there is on offer, that I find myself thinking about how there is so much more to surfing than just riding along waves. The subsequent profound run of thoughts I then journeyed on helped me come to the conclusion that this best symbolizes what it is we aim to provide at the Croyde surf school..

We want to share all of our knowledge from every aspect of surfing we know, not just provide your standard lesson of, “here’s your board, there’s the waves, stand up, yiewwww’. Combining all our years of experience being immersed in surfing and use it to interact with our clients, assisting them to a level where they can interpret the sport in their own way and progress at a rate that suits them. We want to provide a centre where people of all ages and abilities, from all backgrounds can come to learn everything surfing. From the basics of catching waves right through to the complexities of the culture of the sport, from types of surf break to reading weather forecasts. We feel that by working both in the sea and in the classroom we can cover all the elements of learning, A hub that has a core culture around better communication and a sharing of knowledge without egos, promoting a healthy surfing community where improving and enjoyment are synonymous.


(I know many of my surfing and non surfing friends alike will ridicule me for this cliche but it is completely true) We want to be the school that provides this and more because surfing truly is everything to us.

Surfing to us is waking up before dawn and putting on a soaking wet wetsuit, It’s getting changed in a car park, it’s the reason we’re late, it’s sunrises and sunsets, it’s one more wave, It is our way of expressing ourselves, how we explore and enjoy the environment, it’s our escapism and it’s how we socialise, it’s how we earn a living, how we exercise and it reminds us of the requirement for good health, it is how we scare ourselves, how we remain young, it fuels our desire to continue learning, it’s buying boards we cannot afford, it’s staying in tune with nature, it’s party waves and secret waves, it’s travelling, meeting new people, road trips and boat trips, it’s responsible for countless hours of loss commitments and even more hours of memories to never be forgotten.

Being surfers is our identity by nature.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of how good its looked back home, being bitterly cold and depressingly dark, the very reasons for leaving the shire suddenly seem completely bearable when you start picturing the beauty of corduroy lines wrapping into the bay. Seeing the local crew dominate low tide, hearing the hooting on the point and feeling the excitement driving around the coast in search of perfection.

Still, screaming kids, sweaty shins and Lion beer it is.

‘Namaste’.