How and why does it break?
The Cribbar shows itself fairly often once swell tops 2 m; to be truly surfable you usually need 2 m plus, a spring low tide, and south east winds. Some winters offer several sessions; other years offer none.
Towan Headland runs out to sea as a chain of reefs for at least half a mile. The bigger the swell, the further out the take off zone sits; roughly 200 to 800 m offshore.
Here the seabed steps up abruptly, bending swell lines with concave refraction, focussing energy over a shorter front. Deep water speed is converted into a violent upward heave and throw; that is why it feels in a different power band to Fistral and the surrounding beaches on the same day.
Surf Sanctuary looks straight towards the Cribbar; it sits just outside our front door, which gives us the perfect rendezvous point when it turns on. Its presence has shaped how we run the school; in summer we spend hours on SUP and snorkel tours around Towan Headland, building a quiet familiarity with this corner of ocean.
To watch it, walk to the end of Towan Headland. If it is on, you will not miss it; people gather there and along the coastline to see the explosions across the outer reefs.
Is it really that heavy a wave?
In my opinion, you will struggle to find a wave that feels heavier in real life. Not by scrolling photos or lists; by actually being there when everything lines up. Heavier waves exist around the world, but they are rarely encountered in a recreational session; you would need to find the spot, get there, and then get lucky.
At the Cribbar something gets broken about four times out of five; usually a board, sometimes a leash which then costs you the board, once a jet ski, sometimes a body part, often someone’s spirit. The reef shape wraps swell like a horseshoe, focussing power over a shorter wave front; the gradient from deep water to reef makes the line heave and throw with a primal explosion. It is seriously loud. You cannot swim under it; if it detonates in front of you, expect a serious tumble.
What’s the wipeout like?
On the biggest days when it breaks furthest out, a wipeout means a snapped board and a long trip to the depths; the slope is more gradual out there, so those are not the worst. On medium days, when it breaks further in, the swell jacks off a particularly shallow section of reef; down to about ten feet on a big low spring. The lip piles you down towards the rock and spins you with incredible violence. Expect darkness, then brown water, then a distant surface; before you reach it, the next wave lands and you go again.
When you finally break through you have to swim; your board is gone. You sprint on empty lungs for the channel and decide your exit based on the tide; you cannot swim against it, you go with it. On the fear scale, without serious experience and fitness, a wipeout cycle here sits right up there with finding a bear in your living room; a real FAFO moment.
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What’s it like to surf it?
The Cribbar does not show its hand until you commit. Every wave needs the same hard paddle; that commitment is the win. Sets that look modest can stand up into vertical green walls; others that seem huge turn into wild, slopey lumps. A dark line looms across the outer reefs and you fix your markers, check your mates, and hold your nerve. Too far out and you miss it; too far in and it will mow you down. You swing late, feel the swell lift, board chattering, wind roaring up the face; the world narrows to line and timing.
You stand low, drive the nose, and drop. Speed surges; the board feels weightless yet pushed hard into your feet. If it all holds together you knife into the channel and the realisation detonates. The afterglow can last for months; I have written about the science behind that response here.
How big does the Cribbar get?
In all of these photos I am riding either a 9'1" board with red rails or a 10'0" board in all-white. I'd conservatively say that from crest to trough, some of these waves are two board lengths in height. That's around 18-20ft on the wave face. Some people will tell you this is in fact in fact 12ft, I've even heard 5ft. This is due to a condition of unknown origin, whereby individuals drastically underestimate the physical properties of waves in the hope of gaining...more friends? Who knows. Maybe these people also watch F1 racing and state the cars are hitting 'nearly 60mph' on the straight.
The Cribbar will hold higher than my estimated 20ft, but then it breaks further out in deeper water so packs less energy per comparative unit. For comparison, I'd say that Fistral, a beach which holds as much swell as anywhere else in the UK, tops out at about 12ft, maybe 15ft on an exeptional set. However, the lip that the Cribbar throws out is several feet thick. You have to paddle in through the sets at Fistral to get home, and no matter how big they are, they feel like a red run after Cribbar's black diamond.
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What's down there, under the water?
The Cribbar name comes from the Cornish word for reef, kribow. Where the Towan Headland plunges underwater, you'll find a stunning labrynth of vaulting gullies, towering columns, arches and chambers polished smooth from millions of years of abrasion. You don't want to be anywhere near this area with any sort of wave action going on. Further out towards the take-off spot, the reef flattens out a bit into a typical rocky base covered with kelp. This gives the water a black colour, although it is actually quite clear. There is however a noteworthy prominence that sits just 10 ft below the surface on the lowest tides, and that's where you need to sit to catch a good one. Either side, the reef gives way to sand and the depth drops off by a couple of metres.
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If you look out over the reef at any time other than the few minutes of slack water that this place achieves, you'll see that the water surface is always bumpier than the deeper water either side of the reef. This is due to the tide dragging huge quantities of water across the reef to create standing waves, or 'overfalls'. These overfalls become more intense when the flow of the tide opposes the wind and swell. On a day where the air is completely still, you'll see white-caps on the water during the peak tidal flow. So even on days when the Cribbar wave is dormant, this is still an exceptionally dynamic and mesmerising part of the coastline.
