Pegleg Bennett is a regular fixture on the Perranporth scene. You might’ve spotted his distinctive yellow VW van rolling around the village or his surf tent set up on the beach. Known for his world-champ AASP (Association of Adaptive Surfing Professionals) status and for competing in the 2023 series of Survivor UK, Peg’s a staunch advocate for getting everybody, regardless of age, ability and challenges, out on the water.
His surf school is a popular option among locals and visitors who want to explore what they’re really made of. But let’s take things back to the beginning. Pegleg underwent an amputation on his left leg when he was 13 months old, earning him the nickname that followed him through his childhood.
Always the first to crack jokes about his prosthesis, Peg decided to make things official and take the moniker on legally in 2016. Hence, when people ask: “Is your name really Pegleg?” he can answer – with a wink – “Certainly is”.
I met up with Peg one morning during his daily surf check to talk to him about all things surfing, Perranporth, reality TV and land/sea/air adrenaline chasing. Peg’s van rolled up just after 8am up at Droskyn, by far the best spot to get a bird’s eye view of how the surf’s looking for the day ahead. Instantly recognisable, his yellow custom Volkswagen T3 was a passion project during Covid’s lockdowns. He performed a complete nut-and-bolt rebuild, stripping everything back to his precise requirements and raising the suspension along the way so he could be sure to put it through its paces across the sand: “It’s definitely not factory! People notice it all the time.”
We checked out the surf for the day ahead and, alas, it was looking pretty flat. A stickler for giving his customers the most bang for their buck, Peg won’t run his lessons unless there’s a decent wave to be found and the conditions are totally safe. “We don’t take the decision [to cancel lessons] lightly, but safety and positive experience are priorities”. It results in a lot of administrative work, contacting customers and moving lessons, but “customers wouldn’t achieve anything in [flat] conditions, so it’s best to wait.”
Surviving Survivor
After accepting the day wouldn’t hold much in the way of waves, we settled in to talk a bit more about Peg’s experience on BBC’s Survivor back in 2023. I asked him what he’d do differently if he had his time on the adventure reality game show again. “Uh, win it?! Not come as far as the final and then not win it? Nah, I suppose something I’d do different is be a bit more of a backstabber, that was the hardest thing. That kind of social game. I’m a very upfront person, so I did struggle with all that, being sneaky and conniving, I’d rather keep everybody on side.”
And this approach clearly paid dividends, as Peg still keeps in regular contact via a group chat with his castmates. “Tinuke came down [to Cornwall] and so did Lelani. I see Lee whenever I’m in Ireland, seen Doug a couple of times as well, got together and had lunch with Hannah while I was up in London last. Yeah, I made some friends for life.” We moved on to talk a bit more about Peg’s love for Perranporth and what his favourite things are about living and working here. “Well, it’s the community, really. Especially in wintertime, everybody kind of comes together again. Sort of, end of October I suppose? We meet up in the pubs, discuss the summer, find out how everybody’s done and who’s got the money to go away on holiday. Who’s staying for the winter. Yeah, and it’s just the backup. There’s always someone there. ‘I gotta lift a fridge, can anyone help?’ ‘Yeah, I’ll be round in 10 minutes’. If you’ve got a problem, it really is a community. It’s not just a bunch of people all living in one place.”
But living and operating a surf business in Perranporth is about practicality, too. “Perran picks up any swell going. So, coaching here, I’m pretty much guaranteed waves. Unfortunately, at times we’ve got too many waves and too big waves, which we’ve got at the moment. It’s absolutely pumping through!”
I lost him for a minute here as he craned his neck to check out a particularly large set coming through. “But yeah, the catchment area as well, it’s a big place. It’s big enough to accommodate the three surf schools that are here. We can all earn a living off it and enjoy what we do. For me, it’s being in the ocean and that’s why I surf coach. I don’t go to work, I play. I get to pass on my knowledge of a lifetime’s worth of surfing to other people and hopefully get them hooked. ”
And what about Perranporth as a place to live?
I wanted to know how Peg sees our town, with the eyes of a local. “What we get to see as locals living here is the true beauty of Perran. Anyone can rock up, sit up here, look down the beach and say ‘Oh wow, that’s beautiful’. Living here, you don’t just see it, you feel it and it brings you back to that community thing as well. We feel it through the community, we feel it through the people that live here that are invested in it. They’re here, living it, seeing all the seasons of Perranporth. For me, my favourite months are October and November. It’s still relatively warm. Obviously it’s quietened down a bit. That’s traditionally when our swell season starts as well. So we start getting Peg waves! We see beyond just the prettiness of it and see Perranporth for what Perranporth is.”
I asked Peg if he could recount the best surf he’s ever experienced on Perranporth Beach: “Ah, every day I go surfing is the best day of surfing. Yeah, it’s my genetic makeup, the ocean. I truly believe that everybody is connected to the ocean or they’re connected to the land, right? The woods, the mountains, the forests. I’m connected to that big lump of water out there and any day I’m in that is the best day.”
We finished with me asking Peg how he’d sum Perranporth up in three words. I was expecting him to mull it over before proffering a handful of adjectives. But he hit me straight with “Jewel of Kernow”. All rights reserved to Mr P. Bennett if those in control want to take that on as our town’s strapline.
You’ll find Peg around Perranporth most days, either wetsuiting up by his van in the car park or in his tent on the beach when conditions are particularly perfect for lessons. pegsurfcoaching.co.uk