



As the evenings draw back in, excitement turns back to the concept of thick winter swells and northern Europe gets its first taste of winter. Locals and travellers alike cashed in on crisp, solid waves at Scotland's famed right hander. Thurso put in an early display of throaty hollow walls with enough waves to go around for all of those involved as the open ocean swell peaked at a terrifying 18ft@17secs from a WNW direction with strong offshore winds.

This is the same swell which battered Mullaghmore, in a first real taste of winter. We caught up with local surfer Mark Boyd after he recovered from a serious case of "noodle arms" to dissect the swell.

How did this day match up to normal October swells?

There were definitely some 10ft+ sets. I took a few photos on my phone of people on triple overhead bombs and there were bigger sets that nobody was really going near

Yesterday was a lot bigger than anything we usually get this early in the season and much bigger than the usual west swell. There were definitely some 10ft+ sets. I took a few photos on my phone of people on triple overhead bombs and there were bigger sets that nobody was really going near. It was a day of many faces – the morning was just huge and a bit fat then as the tide filled in, it got hollower and more wally, but the wind started acting up making it really difficult to get into them without a bigger board. Then into the evening, as the swell decreased a bit there were short periods where the wind was good and there were some good tubes – most of us were too noodle armed by that time.

Anything memorable happen that you keep returning to?

I keep returning to the moment when Rups was stroking into one of the bombs of his life, he looked like he was going to glide into it easy and then just air dropped from the lip to the flats and still looked like he was going to stick it. Needless to say he never did make it - the wave then proceeded to give him a good bouncing. Hamper, as per usual, managed to time his surf impeccably – he never spent all morning tiring himself out when it was “too big” (for mechanical drainers), but instead got in a couple of sneaky surfs at a couple of secret spots, which included getting the best backhand tube of his life. Then he came in for a quick surf at Thurso East just as the wind and swell eased a touch and a few barrels were getting throaty on the ledge and got probably the best tube of the day – this time on his forehand.

Who was out surfing?

Most of the usual faces were around: Myself, Scotty Main, Dermot, Chris Clarke, Hamper, Chris Williamson, Dave Adams, Rups, Phil, Flo, Neil and Scratch. A lot of people travelled up even from England and further afield leaving little space in the carpark. Some of the pros who had made the trip to Scotland included Jayce Robinson, Ben Skinner and Tom Lowe. It was one of those days where you needed a bigger board for the sets but you could opt to take out a smaller board and go for the ones closer to the reef which had more chance of tubing. Clarke put in a couple of solid shifts in the morning through the wind on a big board and was one of the few charging on the sets. It was one of those days where you needed a bigger board for the sets but you could opt to take out a smaller board and go for the ones closer to the reef which had more chance of tubing. Jayce, up from Cornwall, opted for the latter and was scooping in from behind the peak and after a few attempts finally made one of the better tubes of the morning – there weren’t many. Scotty Main also did well to find a couple of morning barrels. Hamper’s patience paid off as he scored prime afternoon tube time with fresher arms than the rest of us. Dermot has spent a lot of his life surfing Thurso East and yesterday evening it paid off as he was claiming one of the best tubes of his life. With my bigger board stored in my grannies attic on the Moray coast, I had to make do with a 6’7. It made it hard to choose between set waves or ones closer to the reef.

Malcolm Anderson is donating his fee from this article to the Scotland Surfing Team's Crowdfunder page to help get the team to the ISA World Games in Peru this month. You can help out here.

All sessions from this swell are eligible for The Winter Session. The holding period kicked off on October 1st and runs through till Feb.

To enter download the sting HERE and send your 90 second edit via wetransfer.com to: winter@magicseaweed.com and we'll do the rest.