Surfing the Severn Bore: April Tides

3 days on the river in April 08,surfing the tidal bore.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• wipeout
• tide
• tidal
• bore
• surfing
• pipe
• bodyboarding
• nature
• barrage
• environment
• gloucestershire
• tourism
• education

[LBIsurf90]

this is in the UK?

[neilandfi]

@LBIsurf90 Near the City of Gloucester... actually, Minsterworth village is a closer mark. Yes, UK. Smallish tide. It gets about twice this size pretty regularly but this spot is always crowded with visiting surfers, so we tend to leave them to it and surf different sections. The wave runs upstream for over 20 miles, so there's no reason to surf in a crowd...unless you like that sort of thing.

[LBIsurf90]

@neilandfi awesome. I'd definitely like to try surfing a bore sometime, looks pretty cool. None near me though! Might try my hand at surfing a little standing wave near here, though. That might be kind of fun.

Do you guys ever make it out to the sea/ocean, or is this your main surf spot?

[neilandfi]

@LBIsurf90 Even small tidal bores are great fun. Just the fact of being able to stay on it for a mile or more.. a bit like skateboards.. you can use them in a half pipe or you can use them to do a local journey and make it more interesting. Surfing a tidal bore is just like doing that, going past farms, churches and villages etc. It's my regular spot as I live not too far away, but all the regulars also surf the nearest coastal spots when we can.

[marleySux]

looks like a 1 man wave, yet theres 15 people after it. just like california!

[neilandfi]

@marleySux True...which is why I was on the bank, not in the water. The wave runs inland for over 20 miles and this is the busiest spot. There are plenty of empty miles available for those of us who make the effort to find them.

[13sublime]

lol... these guys are the shitest surfers ever

[neilandfi]

@nawbruv Good. Don't come here then.

One less.

[harrisonhatton]

fuckin nubs, all nubs

[neilandfi]

@MrSimMonster It's certainly silty, but no, not dirty. Nobody gets out of the water with any kind of foul diseases. Clean enough for salmon, porpoises, dolphins, mullet etc. If you look at where the Severn runs through it's hardly an industrial river. But it is a tidal bore river, so there is often wreckage coming in with the tide from debris washed down by the river over previous months. That usually starts turning up about 10 - 15 mins after the wave.

[SuperProwler2010]

those boats need to f off

[jasason10]

I have to say that was pretty funny! Lol