Antony Colas visits the Arnside / Kent and Bela tidal bores 2017

Antony ‘Yep’ Colas, left his native France to holiday in the U.K. and visited Arnside and Sandside in Cumbria during June 2017. Antony photographs and surfs tidal bores around the World, and has some of the greats under his belt including the mighty bores on the rivers Amazon (Pororoca, Brazil), Qiantang (Silver dragon, China), Kampar (Bono, Indonesia), and Batang Lupar (Benak, Malaysia), to mention a few.

On 23rd June 2017 I was honoured to meet Antony at Arnside and we chased the bore past Sandside, up the River Bela, and witnessed the Kent bore fizzle out by Sampool Lane, near Levens Hall. There was an extremely energetic South Westerly wind which resulted in the bore passing Arnside pier about 30 minutes earlier than expected. There was a modest bore as it wasn’t a particularly large spring tide, but it did travel fast. We chased it to Sandside where it passed with a train of ‘whelps’.

Antony had previously had a hunch that the bore may travel up the River Bela and stop at the weir. To see if this was the case, we moved on further up Sandside and did indeed witness part of the bore ‘split’ and travel up the mouth of the River Bela. We then drove on and parked up on Marsh Lane near the weir. From here we watched the Bela bore encounter the weir and slam into a drainage valve. You can hear the two bangs it made as the drainage doors slammed shut when the bore hit them. The doors prevent the tide from flooding the area that is being drained. It took just a few minutes for the tide to top the weir. It was strange to see the weir flow in reverse.

We then drove past Levens Hall and down Sampool Lane, parked up and walked down a footpath by the river. The bore was now very small and undular, and seemed to fizzle out as it passed us. We expect the bore may travel a little further up river on higher spring tides, but the rapids near Levens Hall will probably prevent it going any further.

Antony visited the bore again the following day and used a SUP (Stand Up Paddle) to navigate the bore quite some distance.

Date filmed : 23rd June 2017

Expected high tide at Arnside : 9.79m @ 12:19

The bore passed Arnside Pier at 9:58

Passed Sandside, by the main road at 10:23

Entered the mouth of the Bela at 10:31

Reached the weir at 10:40

Finished near Sampool Lane at 11:17

All times BST (GMT+1)

If you are interested in other bores of North West England, search YouTube for : tidal bore rob bridges

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