Scoring good waves through winter in the UK often means dropping everything to be at the right place, on the right tide, during the short hours of daylight. In the depths of winter you only get one turn of the tide, and fortune favours those who can create a window of opportunity and put themselves where they need to be to meet the wave of the day.
Our session of the season for this winter in the Northern Hemisphere is noteworthy not just for the quality of the wave ridden, but also for the absolute marathon session that it occurred in. Luke Dillon does not lack dedication. On this day, he put in an eight-hour shift in the water with no breaks, and was duly rewarded. Here’s how he tells it:
Date: Late January 2026
Swell height and period: 5 ft at 15 seconds
Wind direction and strength: Northwesterly
Location: Cornwall’s Premier South Coast Reef
Surfboard: 6’3” Fourth Charge quad fin
Wetsuit: 5:4 NuWave Rewired
Can you tell us about this run of swell...
I’ve been surfing down there quite a bit this winter, but I tend to try to go down there if I think it’s going to be six to eight foot plus, otherwise it just gets a bit busy for me. And typically I will go out there, surf for two or three hours, and maybe get four or five waves. I’ll drop anchor out the back, have a chat with everyone, and just enjoy it.
It’s always a good day out down there. When I go down I try to stay down for the day, go and have some food in town and chat to everyone, just try to peck the eyes out of it! Often I’m watching Jayce on the right of the next peak along getting like fifty barrels in a session and we’re all talking about how we should go over there but we never do. So he’s having a ball getting 15 times as many waves as I am. But then he’s the king of that wave. And then you’ve got Dan Joel who kills it down there, Woody New who always gets some good ones, Markie Lascelles, Skindog and Lukas. Yeah it’s good. It’s a good laugh!
And this particular day?
We actually got there really early. We got there for first light around half-past seven, and it was due to get better all day but a couple of forecasts had the wind being better in the morning. Everything else was pointing at it peaking in the late afternoon and evening, though. I jumped in early and there were already guys out, probably 10 or 15 people. It was about 4 or 5 foot and cross-offshore. I saw some people getting some crazy ones. The wind just didn’t switch for maybe two hours and everybody knew it was meant to get better later so they all started getting out to get some food and in the end it was just me out there by myself. I ended up surfing on my own for maybe two or three hours with nobody in.
Then the wind started to switch and it got good again, and it was just me surfing for a while, so I had it to myself at 4-5 foot and offshore and nobody around!
I got a few nuggets and then everybody started getting back in and it started getting busier and busier and it was absolutely what you’d expect for a good day at this spot. I didn’t want to get out for food and I wasn’t feeling that thirsty, so I just stayed in and all the crew coming back out gave me a bit more energy. Before I knew it, it was starting to get dark again. I’d got in just before 8 o’clock and I got out at quarter past four, so it was a long, successful session!
Talk us through the wave...
Because I sit out there for so long, Porthleven’s a really good spot that when there’s a little pack out the back everyone knows whose turn it is and there’s a lot of chatter out there about “are you going on this one?” or “do you fancy it?” People start positioning themselves and paddling into the wave pretty early on. It’s a cool feeling that when it’s your wave and you’re paddling, no one else is going and you’re paddling through loads of people, you make the drop and pull into the first section and the light’s really cool. You get to see the harbour through the pit. Then you see the cameras being held up by the water photographers if they’re out, and a couple of people will be hooting you on the shoulder. If you get a really good one and it spits then that always feels amazing. We’re lucky that the locals down there are really good with everyone coming down, because it must get super frustrating.
Big thanks to them for letting us all turn up and get a couple.
And I got a double pit on that onewave! I pulled in, got a real good little barrel and then I came out and I was stalling for what felt like forever. I couldn’t get the board to slow down, I had my whole arm in the wave face and a bit of my back leg in there. I was pretty much sitting with my bum over my back foot trying to put weight on the tail to try and slow down. Then I got a little pit on the second section and came out, and I think that was my first wave in like two hours out there.
