BRITAIN’S surf capital has little to fear from Boscombe. That’s the view of a surfer who left Dorset to open a bunkhouse for surfers in the Cornish town of Newquay.

Andy Card, 42, said initial fears among Newquay’s traders and surfers of a challenge to the town’s reputation as the nation’s premier surf spot had blown over.

“There was a lot of hype that Newquay would lose its surfing crown to Boscombe, and the fact that we are seen as the surfing capital not only of England, but the UK.

“But people in the surfing business here had a pretty strong inkling that wasn’t going to happen. You don’t need to be a weatherman to work out that Boscombe is not on the Atlantic coast.

“A reef doesn’t generate waves – it only enhances them. It’s not a wave-making machine. Even Cornwall doesn’t get waves every day. The weather conditions and the tides have to be right wherever you are in the world,” said Andy.

The former construction worker and surfer of more than 20 years moved to Newquay four years ago to open his Seascape Lodge, which provides basic accommodation to surfers.

But he rejected criticisms that Bournemouth council misjudged the market by investing in Boscombe Spa Village’s upmarket – and largely unsold – surf pod accommodation.

“It’s a great thing to happen to Boscombe. I surfed there since the late 1980s and the regeneration has really enhanced the place. A similar project has been tried here at the approach to Fistral Beach.

“If you have the money to afford a second home, why not buy one overlooking our own coastline, particularly when so many people have had problems after buying property in Spain?” he said.

Poole surfer Jon Moore, 40, who has surfed in Dorset since 1986, backed the council’s investment in the reef, but added that any belief that waves at Boscombe would rival Cornwall’s was misguided.