The Red Bulletin UK Edition Magazine UK Surf Special Issue

The UK – a country often blessed with mediocre waves as well as unappealing weather – is in no danger of becoming the next surf tourism hotspot. Nor is Ireland, though its thundering west-coast waves will always dare the world’s best to brave its frigid waters. Yet both are nations of surf obsessives, with rich and storied cultures and a sometimes outsized influence on the global scene.
These are countries that have spawned Cornish chargers, Scottish slayers, Welsh rippers and
Irish talents reared on epic breaks; iconic big-wave surfers who regularly tow into record-making waves at Nazaré; multiple world champions in para surfing; podium-bound prodigies, and some of the most stylish and light-footed longboarders to ever grace the waves.
The hardy photographers who capture them – passionate watermen and women themselves – do more than just document people riding waves: they shape these surfing scenes, bestowing them with artistic endeavour, integrity and creativity as they showcase the uniqueness of each setting.
From the north east to the south west, these cold-water shores are also home to surfers
with a conscience – those working to make the waves more inclusive, to kickstart national conversations on water quality, and even those whose actions
have changed the very fabric of the world’s wetsuit industry, ushering in a new era of non-toxic natural rubber alternatives to neoprene.
Instead of hindering the development of surfing at these spots, it may be that the lack of consistent warm-water waves and year-round sun actually encourages it, by deepening the commitment and kinship of those who take part while also saving the sport from ever becoming truly mainstream. Here, the margins are the whole.
On the following pages, you’ll find the stories of these surf visionaries, poets and cold-water frothers, each of them raised on waves in the UK and Ireland.