As you’ll hear many a proud British pro claim, “the surf can ‘get’ real good in the UK”. It’s rare as rocking horse shit but it does happen. And this winter, unless you owned a jetski and were into rushing XXL monster mashers at Belharra or Nazaré, the U.K. and Ireland were actually a couple of the best places to be for rippable surf – it’s rugged, cut-up coastline offering all kinds of sheltered surf spot opportunities tucked away from the raw open-ocean power of this winter’s exceptional run of storms. Take Thurso, for example, which was one of the few Euro lineups able to handle the swell size and strong winds brought on by the St Jude storm back in November and absolutely pumped for the Scottish Open.

The start to January was no different, with this left-hander (which apparently only breaks once in a blue moon) coming to life for a couple of truly magic days. Usually more characteristic to England’s North East, machine-like leg-burners reeled down this Atlantic-facing point for hundreds of metres in veritable world-class form.