Simultaneously, you need to be far out the back so that you don't get caught by a freak wave set but not too much so that you lose the take-off's sweet spot.īodyboarding veteran Rob Barber has already surfed The Cribbar a few times, but there was one in particular that he will never forget. You'll need to observe, watch, analyze and study each day's wave pattern. The Cribbar is a temperamental and sensitive wave.ĭon't expect a clear, well-defined take-off zone. Otherwise, I might not have lived to tell the tale.'ĭoug Wilson took photos of that historical day from the headland. 'Fortunately, the wave that smashed me was the last in the set. I naively tried to duck under the massive wall of whitewater while clutching the nose of my boards,' Russell said. Pete Russell rode a 15-foot flawlessly, but then on a second monster wave, he also got caught inside. The Australian's adventure had also ended prematurely. Johnny McIlroy caught a clean inside wave, but when he kicked out over the lip, his board was caught by the closing-out wave. The American was forced to relax, catch his breath, and swim back to shore. Unfortunately, his leashless board smashed against the nearby rocks and broke into two pieces. Jack Lydgate was the first to try his luck but was quickly cleaned up and left swimming. In the glassy, misty conditions, with that cliff face in the background, it was surreal,' recalled Pete Russell. 'I've never experienced the adrenaline rush of that day. Those who witnessed the historical moment say that the crew paddled through the raw sewage outlet at the old Newquay lifeboat slip. Newquay Bay was closing out at eight to ten feet, while The Cribbar was breaking at 15 to 20 feet.' 'It was the biggest rideable surf many people had ever seen. 'The lines were stacked on the horizon, generated by a deep Atlantic low which had just been downgraded from a hurricane.' 'One morning, the town's surfers awoke to find a monstrous swell hitting the coast,' writes Roger Mansfield, author of 'The Surfing Tribe: A History of Surfing in Britain.' It was the year of 'The Great September Swell,' as British surf historians remember it. The group included Jack Lydgate, Ric Friar, Pete Russell, and Johnny McIlroy, who all somehow tasted the raw power of the mythical British wave. The Cribbar was first ridden in September 1966, when four brave American and Australian lifeguards paddled out in waxless, leashless, 10-foot boards. Its consequences can be as tragic as its neighbors and Irish monsters, Aileen's (County Clare) and Mullaghmore Head (County Sligo).

The spot's name derives from the Cornish expression 'kribow,' meaning 'reef.'īut the wave also has another self-explanatory nickname - The Widowmaker. When there's a powerful swell in the North Atlantic, the energy grips the reef and generates clean, perfect, and big walls of water. The Cribbar is a reef break located off the Towan Head, a headland one mile west of the capital do English surfing, Newquay. Halfway down the Cornish shoreline, near the popular Fistral Beach, lies a sleeping giant. The area receives year-round swells and features a mixture of small, rocky bays and long, sandy beaches. Get to know The Cribbar, England's biggest wave.Ĭontrary to popular belief, England receives waves on all its long coastline, with Cornwall, on the southwestern tip of the island, being the most consistent region. The British islands are on the path of the infamous North Atlantic winter swells.

Wave break