Storm Watching at Portreath

Portreath is a typical Cornish seaside village, part working harbour, part tourist destination. It is situated on the north Coast of the county and so is exposed to the force of the Atlantic storms that hit us during the autumn and winter. It hit the headlines in 2014 when the well-known landmark called the Pepperpot at the end of the harbour pier was destroyed in a particularly fierce storm and again in 2018 when a large section of the Harbour wall was destroyed. So, from a photographic point of view, it is a challenging, yet rewarding location to photograph. On this occasion which was also my birthday, I was fully prepared with head-to-toe waterproofs including a new pair of Aigle boots. These were a present from my lovely partner Kim and I definitely recommend them to other photographers looking for a good choice in footwear. Anyhow, I went along at about 2:00pm with the knowledge that high tide was approximately an hour later, give or take. Conditions were sorry with a mixture of lowering clouds and flashes of sun in brief gaps. Exhilarating to say the least. However the storm had been well-publicised, so there were crowds of people there to witness the Storm. This included several foolhardy souls including a father and son who stood in a place which was about 3foot below where the waves were breaking. Please don't underestimate the Sea. It can catch you unaware and if those two had been caught, there would have been no prospect of saving them, it was far too rough.

Anyhow, I spent the next coup[le of hours happily photographing the waves and gasping oohs and aahs along with the rest of the watchers. I took care however er to use my long lens, stand well back and keep my camera dry inside a plastic bag. As my camera can take a burst of 14 images per second at max speed, this meant a lot of pictures! Hence the long delay whilst I whittled that down to a representative selection which I present here. One or more of these images may make it into my Gallery pages or even into the Shop as I'm quite pleased with them. Not that they are perfect of course, there's always room for improvement and more trips to this and other wonderful places for wave watching. I've also added a short video clip to highlight just how rough the sea was on that day.