We headed out west from Thurso, I had a hunch of small waves and a look at rubbish on the beaches which acted as collection points for rubbish crossing the North Atlantic. Along with Micah Lester, we ended up at Oldshoremore beach at twilight. The swell had dropped around Thurso and I’d never been out this way before and wanted to see the very north-west corner of Scotland, and see what this remote outpost had in the way of plastic and marine litter. We had checked a few spots along the way but like with a lot the north coast there was minimal rubbish and today minimal swell.
We’d spent a week in pristine waves, not a drop of water out of place, not too much plastic on the shoreline either, and then you realise that there are these collecting points, little eddies in the coast, places where all our rubbish collects. In this case on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, if the sun was out here, it’s tropical blue and clear, and what looks like a super fun right-hander for a longboard. But this perfection, this idyllic outpost of mainland Britain was ruined by piles of weed and plastic. In places up to chest high in depth, combined with the mass of weed. What is almost worse though is the way plastic and rope are just dangling from the rocks at the end of the beach, the whole place looks like a rubbish dump. It’s a shock to the system, having surfed great waves in near perfect conditions to find this, on one of the most remote beaches in The British Isles is a jolt.
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