Session of the Season // Northern Hemisphere Spring 2025 // Two Coasts In One Day
After a winter for the ages in the South West of the UK this year, spring had a lot to live up to. There were several good runs of swell however, and it felt for a while as though summer had arrived early. Teamrider Woody New had his head down completing the final year of his degree, so when he took a day off to surf he had to make it count. On Wednesday 9th April, with the wind forecast to swing around through the day, Woody and photographer Luke Gartside made a plan to utilise the geography of Cornwall’s West Penwith peninsula to surf twice and score waves on both coasts – and score they did.
Date: Wednesday 9th April 2025
Swell height and period: 5ft @ 13 seconds
Wind direction and strength: 16mph SE veering S
Location: West Penwith, Cornwall, UK
Board: 6’4 Widowmaker by Bos Surfboards
Wetsuit: 5/4 NuWave Wired Chest Zip Steamer that kept me way too warm.
Can you tell us about this run of swell...
Leading up to this run of swell, I had not really managed to get in the surf much. I was juggling the final year of my degree with average onshore winter wind swell before it started cooking for a couple of weeks straight. So I felt a little underprepared for the good waves we had. I had to miss a few sessions even then, and those days sucked. Seeing the crew score when you’re locked up in an editing suite is always painful.
And this particular day?
When we rocked up to the reef this day, it looked pretty average. I took my time getting in, waiting for the boys to set up cameras and took the opportunity to have a quick catch up with some mates I hadn’t seen for a time. I saw a set come through and kicked myself, so rushed in and got out there. I had a few fun ones and the biggest one I had, got fully smoked and snapped my board - a 6’0 OG by Bos. I switched up and took this 6’4 Widow Maker out and had heaps of fun. We then turned tail and headed back down Land’s End way when the wind swung and the swell dropped. I jumped in and had a few clean walls on the high tide shorey. A couple of pints were had to round the day off. You couldn’t ask for a better way to procrastinate!
Talk us through the wave...
This wave in the photo above was the first wave I had after I broke my board, and it felt like a bit of a redemption wave. You can’t dwell on the crap things when you get fun tubes all day!
