Surfing Waves

First of all hello to all on the forum.

Was looking for a bit of advice on the above two spots. I'm a total beginner and was looking at taking a little trip up north this autumn.

I had first of all planned to go to Thurso, but after reading a bit about it, I reckon it's probably out of my league! Is it the one large reef break at Thurso East, or are there mellower beach breaks? I'll probably still check it out while I am up there. I heard about Dunnet Bay as well. Is this a better place for beginners? It sounds pretty perfect from what I've read.

Are they busy?

Cheers!

im no expert on north scotland but i think there are some user friendly beaches on the north coast. i think the better beach breaks are further west than thurso but i may be wrong.

By all means go to Thurso East, but only to watch. Not a break for a beginner and you'd quickly find yourself out of your depth there.

As the guy says, there are heaps of good beach breaks along the north coast, stretcing along the coast. Top middle area, west of Thurso is great. As for crowds, I think you'd have to hunt pretty hard to find a crowded break up there!

Check out http://www.surf-forecast.com/ and look at descriptions of some of the North Coast breaks. That'll give you an idea of standard and what will be working given the conditions when you get there.

The North Coast of Scotland is a beautiful place, loads of cheap b&b's and plenty options for free camping. Cracking campsite at Bettyhill and its close to all the breaks you'd enjoy surfing.

I've only been to Thurso once but am planning on going up there in September.

Dunnet Bay is to the East of Thurso and should be perfect for a beginner. I was there about this time two years ago and it had ridiculously long periods.

I'm hoping to go further west and try some of the breaks there.

Make sure you go to the club in Thurso, I forget its name, but it's an eye opener.

Oh yeah and as for crowds, there was only the 4 of us the whole day at Dunnet Bay and it's a big bay!!

im very half heartedly planning to go to thurso in september too. itll be the last chance i get to go there before i move south to university. maybe we can make a proper sw meet out of this.

We're headin up around the middle of Sept (11th - 15th) - hoping for a good chart - theres some beautiful spots up there. Options a plenty

There are far better places to check out other than Dunnet Bay. From what I've heard, it's a bit disappointing to say the least.

surferdude_scarborough wrote:im very half heartedly planning to go to thurso in september too. itll be the last chance i get to go there before i move south to university. maybe we can make a proper sw meet out of this.

Going to be up there 10-14 Sept (Monday to Thursday )

Must be some drive from Scarborough!?!

Not been on here since I posted. Thanks to everyone for the tips and info! Much appreciated.

Real Pol wrote:Make sure you go to the club in Thurso, I forget its name, but it's an eye opener.

Lol, I'm assuming you mean Skinandi's. Been there once and it was quite a night.

Real Pol wrote:

surferdude_scarborough wrote:im very half heartedly planning to go to thurso in september too. itll be the last chance i get to go there before i move south to university. maybe we can make a proper sw meet out of this.

Going to be up there 10-14 Sept (Monday to Thursday )

Must be some drive from Scarborough!?!

ah man thats the week i was vaguely planning to go. unfortunately i have transport issues in that my dad wont lend me the car. cant afford (or be arsed) to get the train so it looks like im out.

james

surferdude_scarborough wrote:ah man thats the week i was vaguely planning to go. unfortunately i have transport issues in that my dad wont lend me the car. cant afford (or be arsed) to get the train so it looks like im out.

james

Ah never mind. Just means there will be more waves and local lassies for us.

I tell you that Skinandis better be open during the week or the whole trip will be ruined!

I'll post photos of both!

Ah never mind. Just means there will be more waves and local lassies for us.[/quote]

The place is hardly a fanny magnet is it

Plenty o shhep tho

The Weegie wrote:Ah never mind. Just means there will be more waves and local lassies for us.

The place is hardly a fanny magnet is it

Plenty o shhep tho [/quote]

lol i'm welsh and proud of sheep, you don't need a relationship or the good looks so have fun! just need to know where to put it

The Weegie wrote:The place is hardly a fanny magnet is it

Plenty o shhep tho

As this is a family site I'm not going to go into my experience of how "easy" the girls are up there.

As for sheep! I lived in Wales for 3 years and now live in Aberdeen! There ain't noffin I don't know about sheep (they all come from New Zealand right?)!

Did any of you dudes get up North last week. There were a fair few folks aboot. We were there Tuesday - Saturday. Had some amazing days over at a certain break that was firing Wed & Thurs on the push.

Friday it all got a bit crazy but did watch a brave wee soul taking on the reef at Sandside, the only place on the whole coast that was working.

I was there saturday to thursday. Yeah it only got good on wednesday to thursday. Simarly the reef and the pier (separately) at sandside were the only places working at the start of the week.

Had a great time and surfed some places I'd never been to.

I was one of the drunken twits who were running around the sand dunes in the middle of the night at Strathy with glowsticks.......


Hey come on! They were on offer when we were buying a torch!

Think we might've seen you dude. Were you camped at Strathy? we were along the coast a bit at a sweet spot that was firing Wed n Thursday, we had it all to oorselves!!! What were you driving? We were in a red Golf. We popped over to Strathy for a few hours on Wed pm, it was sweet that afternoon. Was also over at Sandside on Fri morning but the reef looked a bit too scary for us - maybe if I had a sponge I would've braved it

I drive a black focus. We camped at Strathy on the Monday and tuesday night. As you drive down to the carpark if you keep going down the hill passed the toilets we camped behind the dunes.

I think I saw a red golf once, was there 3 or 4 of you? I kept seeing the same cars driving around.

Real Pol wrote:I kept seeing the same cars driving around.

thats because there are only 3 or 4 cars in north scotland