The days are short and the sound of wind and rain battering the windows is becoming ever more familiar as Winter draws in here in the South West. Despite a few weeks of consistent swell and promising looking charts, shifting banks, inaccurate forecasts and unpredictable winds have lead to many a pre-dawn goose chase yielding little but a pair of wet socks.

However, occasionally we have been reminded why we look forward to winter, why we struggle into thick (and often still damp) neoprene and paddle out into sewage filled line ups with howling wind and pounding rain- for a few moments of jubilant sliding before the waves meet the shore. Here are a few of my favourite of those moments from the last couple of weeks, featuring some of the UK’s most talented sliders:

Photos by Luke Gartside

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