Fistral Beach

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Fistral Beach is a major surfing beach of the United Kingdom, located at Newquay, in Cornwall. The beach is particularly straight and is about 2500 feet (750 metres) in length. It is mainly sandy and faces North-West towards the Atlantic Ocean. It is also backed by steep sand dunes.

Looking North from the Southern end of Fistral Beach

North Fistral

During the summer period it can get extremely crowded, both on the beach and in the sea, especially at high tide when most of the sand is covered by water. It is popular with surfers for its high exposure to swells, ensuring consistent waves. Waves at Fistral can, at times, be of very high quality.

The word "Fistral" is enigmatic and has no known meaning in any of the Indo-European languages (including Cornish).

The British Surfing Association is based at the north end of the bay, alongside the Newquay Surf Life Saving Club and the Newquay Boardrider Club. The bay is also overlooked by the famous Headland Hotel which was used in the film The Witches.

The beach is a site for major international surfing competitions and a competition suite for judges and competitors has been built at North Fistral along with a surf museum, surf shops and daily board and wetsuit hire facilities.

1 The Cribbar
2 Competitions
3 References
4 External links

[edit] The Cribbar

The cribbar, a reef situated beneath the headland north of fistral, only breaks on the biggest swells. It is considered to be Cornwall's premier big wave, with the biggest ridden waves having up to 40ft faces. Although it is impressive for Cornwall, it is dwarfed by other big wave spots around the world. Many surfers have attempted to ride the wave although a good deal of experience is essential. When waves are breaking over the cribbar, it can be easily observed from fistral beach. Just look up the coast...

At least three times per year, the mass media spreads half-truths, inconsistencies and plain rubbish about the cribbar.

The cribbar was featured in the third installment of the Alex Rider Series, Skeleton Key

[edit] Competitions

On 21 September 2006 Fistral Beach hosted the BSA's invitational Gold Rush Big Wave Competition. During the competition, which was scheduled to coincide with a large swell, Fistral saw surf of over 8ft caused by the weakened Hurricane Gordon reaching the UK. The winner of the £1000 prize money was 28 year old Scott Eastwood of the Channel Islands, who scored a perfect 10 in the final.^[1]

Also fistral beach hosts the Ripcurl boardmasters festival which is a large world wide competition , the prize money currently being $20,000.