Fistral Beach, Newquay – End of an Era

With not visiting Newquay and it's surf Beaches for some years, it was a massive surprise to see that nearly all the old Victorian Houses which housed the infamous cheap Surf Hostels had been demolished. They had been replaced with expensive, empty but impressive appartment blocks. Somehow I don't think these luxury appartments will be occupied with dedicated Surfers for many years to come, which is a real shame as Headland Road use to be buzzing with Surfers hanging out in front of the gardens on many fine surf days.

North Fistral Beach, Newquay, Cornwall with big summer Waves

The gathering of surfers from all over the world will now be dispersed further a field breaking a community vibe that was once visiable on the road down to Fistral Beach.

Fistral Beach Big Summer Swell 20101 Fistral Beach, Newquay End of an Era

Fistral Beach, Newquay with a big end of summer swell

Whilst I was digging with the kids one evening on Fistral Beach watching the Sunset (just made it down in time), I thought the only thing that could really harm the Surf industry and community in this part of Cornwall would be an Oil leak from a large tanker going to South Wales docks. However thinking about it more when driving home from the holiday, the greed of develops could do some really damage to surfers lives who are on a tight budget and just want to surf morning and night.

Fistral Beach Big Summer Swell Fistral Beach, Newquay End of an Era

Fistral Beach, Newquay with a big swell on 3rd September 2010

We happened to be on Holiday during the first week of September 2010 and was lucky enough to watch the big surf on Friday 3rd September. We could have watched it all day !

Fistral Beach Newquay Big Surf on Summers Evening Fistral Beach, Newquay End of an Era

Fistral Beach, Newquay, Big Swell on a late Summer's Evening

Just wished we had a better camera, as the swell seemed great for this time of year, just a bit of lucky timing.

Little Fistral Beach Summer Swell Fistral Beach, Newquay End of an Era

Little Fistral Beach, Newquay late afternoon on 3rd September 2010

It's lovely to see the modern complex on Fistral Beach with Shops, Cafe, Bar, Restaurant, showers and Toilets. It all adds to a nice day or evening on the Beach.

Fistral-Beach-International-Surf-Centre,-Newquay,-Cornwall

I could be wrong, but I don't think Surfers can afford to live in £500,000.00 Appartments. This could drive surfers away from the centre of Newquay due to the increase in travel to the Beach and more expensive expensive places to stay in. Headland Road could now be a ghost street on many weeks of the year now.

If you have any old pictures of Headland Road with the old Bunk Houses please send them in, so we can put them on to keep the past alive.

If you have any views on this topic, please feel free to post one.