Summer Season 2024

Hello everyone!

Saints Boardriders offer a belated ‘Happy New Year’ to our junior members and their

families! Our thoughts have now turned to summer 2024 and the Kids Club season. The

St Ives Surf School team have given us a programme of dates in preparation. Here’s the

plan – subject as always to the weather on the day:

2024 Kids club dates

May 18th

June 8th

June 22nd

July 6th

July 20th

August 3rd

August 17th

August 31st

Sept. 14th

Sept. 28th

There are two significant changes proposed for this year. Firstly, there will now be two

sessions running each day:

9am – Nemo , Dory and Swordfish

10am – Dolphins and Sharks

GROUPS

To keep things simple all of our groups are allocated by school year with the exception of

Sharks which is our advanced mixed age group.

NEMO – Reception and Year 1 (Parent helper required in the water)

DORY – Year 2 and 3 (Parent helper required in the water)

SWORDFISH – Year 4,5 and 6

DOLPHIN – Year 7+

SHARK – Mixed ages, Advanced

BOOKING

Secondly, there is no increase in price for 2024, however this year we will need everyone

to book in at least 24 hours in advance using the online booking system on our website.

This will really help the Surf School to allocate the correct number of coaches each week

and allow for more surfing time in the water! You will have the option to book per week or

for multiple sessions at once, If you book up for the whole season (10 sessions) you will

only pay £4 per session : )

Please make sure all memberships are renewed and paid up before booking any

sessions. Without a valid membership, we are unable to accept any bookings.For MEMBERSHIP – Select ‘Membership Options’ on our website or follow this link

For SATURDAY SURF CLUB weekly session bookings select ‘BOOK NOW’ button on the right.

We cant wait to get everyone back out in the water and having fun! Lets hope for some

good waves and plenty of sun this year!

See you soon!

Summer Sign-Off

by Nog Competition news General Club News Surf Club Events

A Sunday afternoon surf is one of life’s enduring pleasures and our young chargers had the chance to experience it for themselves at our final Kids Club session of the 2023 season. The weather was kind and the waves were friendly – the water as warm as we are likely to find at Porthmeor. Our banner picture shows most of those who came to make this a fitting send-off and was taken as a prelude to the afternoon activities. Our youngest crew had a session with their coaches while the Sharks and Dolphins held a competition further down the beach.

Those coloured rash vests certainly brought out the competitive element in our advanced surfers. We witnessed a couple of interference calls which scotched hopes of winning a heat and the judges followed the full rules protocol to guarantee fairness and to educated these newbies in the game.

And then it was back under the awning for the distribution of prizes and compliments to our high achievers. There were commemorative medals for all participants in Kids Club 2023, and then came the group awards in three categories: Most improved surfer, Most committed surfer and Surfer of the summer. Our coaches found these selections as difficult as always, all youngsters showing distinct improvement over the course of the summer. We then came to the results of the main competition and the time-honoured tease of announcing the result in reverse order. Bobby Smith triumphed in the boys event, while in the girls section Leila retained the crown she won last year. Congratulation to both of them, and to all our competitors for their participation.

The conclusion of the awards was the signal for the committee members to demonstrate their skills at twizzling, balancing and splashing the sauce as we fired up the barbie to share a Sunday Sausage Sizzle among family and friends to toast another fine season of surfing for Saints Boardriders Kids Club ( Super sibilant sentence structure seen there! ). We acknowledge the great support of Tregenna Castle in providing both the food and the beer, while also thanking Porthmeor Beach for chips and hot drinks for all the kids. We feel a depth of love and gratitude to Harris and the surf instructors for their unstinting support, to the check-in crew and administration for another summer of supervision, and Porthmeor lifeguards for another safe season. Our judges this afternoon were Tassie Swallow, Jayce Robinson and Josh Martindale, with Johnny Fryer co-ordinating. Thanks to you all, and to our parents and helpers who made our Saturday mornings tick like clockwork despite the usual car park congestion. We finish with a picture of Jack in a pinny. We haven’t seen enough of him this summer but the day will shortly come when his girls will want to join surf club! NB: Ben on quality control – We never let our standards slip!

The Porthmeor Cup

by Nog Competition news General Club News St. Ives Surf School events Surf Club Events

It has been five years since we enjoyed the St. Ives Cup, an Autumn handicap competition between local surfers that was so well-received by the community. Towards the end of last week Harris looked at the surf chart, checked that the tides were favourable and put out the call ” Who fancies it?” On Friday afternoon it was called ‘On’ for 8.30 Saturday morning and around forty competitors checked in for “The Porthmeor Cup”, a new incarnation of that fabled beast. There was a generous support of families and friends on a warm late-September day as the battle began in challenging chest-high surf that tested even the highly ranked chargers and created a thrilling spectacle for everyone on the beach.

I fear we didn’t capture all the action, or even all the competitors, on camera over the day, but here are a few more of them and a couple of beach scenes to round out what was recorded by our reporters on the day.

Our thanks are due to Harris and the Surf School crew for running such an ace competition flawlessly. Our gratitude also to Porthmeor lifeguards for their help and support, to Porthmeor Beach for feeding the competitors and to St. Ives Brewery for their refreshing ales. We also recognise the support of our community, particularly the families and partners of our competitors for sharing them with us for a precious day among friends. Thanks too to Barry Walker for the action shots of the surfing and to those competitors who took a spell in the judging chair during the day. Congratulations to all our surfers, and particularly to our champion, and first holder of the Porthmeor Cup, Johnny Fryer!

Saturday Farewell!

by Nog General Club News Groms Surf Club Events

Our last Saturday session of the season was an Autumnal sort of affair. Back at school and with days becoming shorter, we find ourselves measuring what we have achieved in our surfing summer this year. Increased confidence in the water and better board-handling techniques are evident in this session. There’s the final session at 3pm on Sunday 1st October to display all the skills we have learnt before we celebrate the season with prize-giving, our thank yous to the coaches, admin crew, lifeguards and Porthmeor Beach and maybe see-off the summer with a ‘Sausage Sizzle’ to cap the day and the summer!

Most Satisfactory!

by Nog General Club News Groms Surf Club Events

September’s bounty continued to deliver as we experienced another perfect Saturday morning for Kids Club, albeit that the waves were a tad smaller than last week! A well-attended session enjoyed an hour of peelers that were easy to stroke in to with time to trim and fashion turns to impress the coaches. Most satisfactory! There is one more session due next Saturday before the Grande Finale, which has been moved from the announced date of 9am on Saturday 30th September to the following day, Sunday 1st of October at the later time of 3pm to incorporate a regular session for the youngest surfers, a contest for the more competent older surfers, then end-of-season prize-giving and a club BBQ to complete the day and the season. Something to look forward to – but don’t forget that we meet for a 9am session next Saturday to polish those moves in readiness for that final exam! See you there.

‘September’

by Nog General Club News Groms Surf Club Events

Back in 1978 Earth, Wind and Fire topped the music charts with ‘ September’. If we can enjoy Saturday’s conditions for our final three surf club sessions of the season we may have to adopt the song as our surf club anthem!

A 9.30 start enabled us to enjoy the best surfing conditions that Porthmeor can offer as the tide dropped off the bank a couple of hours after high water. Adding to our good fortune was warm sunny weather and , perhaps, a slightly quieter beach as the school summer holidays come to an end. Coaches and surfers alike were keen to get in there and make the best of it! Our advanced surfers are getting increasingly confident out back and were letting very few waves come through unridden.

Closer to the shore the Nemos, Dories and Tuna were enjoying their own slice of surfing stoke revelling in friendly little runners that could be taken right in to the beach. The morning was as good as we dare hope for – can ‘September’ deliver again next week?

Our banner picture shows Nina waving ‘Farewell’ to surf club as she is going back to college in Switzerland. We loved having her as part of the team and hope to welcome her back again in the future. Thanks Nina!

Taking Advantage

by Nog General Club News Groms Surf Club Events

Last Saturday’s session offered the best conditions we have had all summer and our young chargers pulled out their best surfing to take advantage of the bounty. Our assisted nippers had some creamy white insider waves to play on, while all the older surfers capable of paddling into waves for themselves were out back catching green waves and enjoying the thrills that the sport offers. The smiles and the non-stop action were a joy to behold. A morning well spent!

Best Foot Forward

by Nog General Club News Groms Surf Club Events

The car park was full by first light as Mother Meor turned on and local surfers got a welcome weekend chance to tackle some decent waves. And while our Dolphins and Sharks would have to contest the line up out back with those experienced wave riders, there were plenty of little inside runners for our more novice juniors to take on. It was an exhilarating hour for those out in the growing green waves, and I think some will have met new challenges out there on the day. There were good long rides available to our intermediates on the white water, and the novices also had time to find their feet as the helpers boosted them onto those inside runners before they were spent on the shore. A good progressive day for all concerned!

Moving On

by Nog General Club News Groms

As we hit our mid-season stride we are seeing encouraging signs of improvement in our young surfers. Saturday saw plenty of water moving in the middle of the beach, but offered more favourable conditions towards Mans’ Head. I was surprised and greatly pleased to see the Swordfish group joining the most advanced surfers out back and catching some meaty green waves unaided. It was also of interest to watch how a couple of the surfers who excel on right-handers coped with what were predominantly left-handers out there! A surfer needs a good all-round game.

Win Some, Lose Some

by Nog General Club News Groms Surf Club Events

Strong winds and a deluge during check-in hinted that things might not be so cosy this morning. However, once in the water our various groups found conditions to be very helpful and we saw some good surfing progress right across the beach. All in all it was a successful call to run this morning, though the proposed “Sausage Sizzle” at Porthminster in the evening was postponed in view of the afternoon weather forecast. We’ll save that for another day! Win some, lose some.

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Author: Nog

Summer Season 2024

Summer Sign-Off

The Porthmeor Cup

Saturday Farewell!

Most Satisfactory!

‘September’

Taking Advantage

Best Foot Forward

Moving On

Win Some, Lose Some