barnaby cox

THE NORTH CORNISH TOWN OF BUDE IS HOME TO A LOT OF TALENTED SURFERS. ONE OF THE NEW CREW JOINED US ON A WINTER MISSION TO PORTUGAL FOR A BIT OF SUNSHINE, SOME TUBS AND A LOT OF CHICKEN AND CHIPS.

- SHARPY

Who are you, where are you from and how many Earth years old do you think you are?

What’s up! I’m Barnaby and I’m pretty sure I’m 18.

Do you remember the very first time you surfed?

Yeah, I definitely do and won’t forget it either. I was seven and it was at Trebarwith Strand in Cornwall.

At what point did you appreciate that you were good at surfing?

To be honest I have never really felt like that, I just really wanted to be a good surfer and do it all the time. It’s just what I like to do and want to do forever.

Growing up in Bude the ability in the water is super high, did having the Ash family, the Turners, etc around push your level?

Yeah you’re right, it probably did. I wouldn’t say it pushed me but seeing those boys rip was an inspiration, it just looked like it would feel so good if I could surf at their level so I wanted to do it too.

Is the Bude Sainsbury’s tunnel as legendary as everyone makes out?

Haha! No not at all.

Who were your early rivals in the juniors?

When I was growing up my best friend was Frankie Bamford and me and him would do just about everything together. We both moved schools and started hanging out at Crackington Haven and would surf all day with the other kids our age. I think we both just wanted to be better at everything than each other so anything he could do I wanted to do as well.

There’s been a good crew coming through in your age group, any idea why?

I’m not sure, but friendships around surfing help more people to get into it, maybe there was a lot of of kids who were frothing to surf all around the same time.

How was doing your first big QS in Morocco?