1960s

The 1960s are presented as the heyday of Newquay’s emerging surf culture: a period that gave the town a reputation tied to its beaches and waves. The book uses that decade as a point of comparison, setting the earlier promise of a surf destination against the less settled town encountered by the walkers years later.

Surf culture and the town’s reputation

Newquay’s urban sprawl begins at Porth and extends to the Gannel, joining a succession of headlands and sandy beaches with some of the country’s best surfing waves. The surf culture that grew during the 1960s helped establish the town’s identity. By the time of the walk, however, that heyday had passed; only a handful of surf shops remained as visible reminders of its earlier character and as a possible basis for its future.

A legacy under pressure

The account describes a town becoming down at heel, where the arrival of stag and hen parties sits uneasily beside the needs of local families and surfers. Revellers in fancy dress fill shop doorways with empty bottles and vomit, putting off the visitors local businesses would prefer to attract. Yet pubs and restaurants depend on party-goers’ spending to stay open through winter. The town’s present-day tension makes the 1960s surf era more than a date in its past: it stands for a former identity that the surviving surf shops still evoke, even as Newquay’s economy relies on tourism that can undermine its appeal.