Session of the Season // Northern Hemisphere Autumn 2024 // Beth's Bank
After a lacklustre summer, Northern Europe has had an autumn to remember. The back-to-back swells started in September and seemed to run right the way through, with every coast and cove having its day over the course of the season. Some of the most obvious contenders for autumn 2024’s session of the season have been shared far and wide online (with good reason) and whilst they were great, they were busy. The session that we’ve selected ticks two boxes from surfing’s Iron Triangle* of good waves/no crowd/warm water. In early November C-Skins team rider Beth Leighfield enjoyed a run of consecutive surfs with great logging waves on a solid and out-of-the-way low-tide bank, on this day shared with just one friend – off-duty photographer Bella Bunce. And who needs to worry about warm water when you’ve got NuWave 5:4 natural rubber steamers keeping you warm?
- Date: 5th November
- Swell height and period: 1.6ft at 10 seconds
- Wind direction and strength: 10mph SE
- Location: North Coast Cornwall
- Surfboard: Skindog Double Scoop Dynamic 9’2
- Wetsuit: Nuwave Solace 5:4 Womens Chest Zip Steamer
Surf photographer Bella Bunce, on the other side of the camera.
Can you tell us about this run of swell...
I think that week I surfed five or six days of absolute log perfection. I kept going back to the same bank because it was working every day. I think I must have surfed for four hours every day for like five days straight, which is pretty good these days! I haven’t actually surfed there since then. I don’t normally surf that area very often either, so it was a nice fleeting moment of brilliance in the bank.
And this particular day?
When I arrived, the bank that I ended up surfing was a bit of a walk and I didn’t see it to start with. But I went on a bit of a stroll and saw that bank. It looked like a bit of a close-out to start with but then I walked further along the beach and was like, “oh my gosh…” It looked like a sand bottom point break. It reminded me of when I was in Baja. That was my first reaction, which I feel like you don’t get very often in Cornwall. Whenever you find a good bank in Cornwall it’s usually a fleeting moment, so to find a good bank and for it to stay there, is such a win.
The forecast this day was pretty tiny but this was just one of those banks that scooped up all of the swell and made the absolute best of it. I think it was saying just over 1ft on the forecast but it was actually a really nice 2 foot size. That’s the beauty of finding a good bank!
Beth matching a fast wave with fast footwork.
Talk us through the wave...
The first section of the wave you could do a nice big fade or a cutback, and then it lined up into one long nose-ride section, another cutback before the inside section which got a bit steeper. I was just trying to go for the tens on nearly every wave that I could, and I was stoked to stick quite a few of them. It was such a good, steep, but not too steep, and nice size, section for logging.
Beth getting ten over on the inside section.
Photos by Mat Arney
*The Iron Triangle maxim shows/offers three desirable things but you are only allowed to pick two of them.
