Shag Rock blowhole, nr Perranporth — 'full-frontal', from exposed ledge

Some powerful blowhole jets and many lesser ones heard from a very 'full-frontal' and exposed viewpoint on a narrow and exposed cliff ledge. From this perspective, the acoustics are really interesting (noticed especially if you listen with good headphones), and the whoomphs and sometimes impressive spray splashdowns have a very clear, 'present' type of sound — intimidatingly close!

To hear this to best effect you need high-grade headphones, and to have the volume setting about 9dB above a sensible normal level for a realistic rendition of symphonic orchestral music.

The page presenting my first recording from the tip of the Shag Rock headland, on 11 January 2014, gives a relatively detailed description of that real 'wow' experience in gathering January dusk.

I made this recording on 14 April 2015 on the tip of the Shag Rock headland, near Perranporth, Cornwall, UK, first starting a recording from the spot beside the 'breathing' fissure (listen to my first recording of that), though with little activity of that feature this time, and then got looking around for somewhere I'd not tried before, which could give me a new recording perspective upon the blowhole. So far all the recordings I'd got of it were not completely direct views of it, and so it always had a rather muffled and subterranean sort of sound. What if I could find a viewpoint that gave me a really direct view of the blowhole position?

I edged round some minor prominences on this tricky rocky terrain to just a little on the east side of the blowhole, and found a really thrilling view of it open up, looking along the cliff face to the blowhole location — the catch being that the best spot to put the recorder was on a pretty narrow and very exposed ledge that one could relatively easily scramble down to, but would mean 'curtains' if one had a slip or stumble.

As there appeared to be no real alternative, apart of course from simply not making the recording, I chanced it, taking things slowly and carefully, placing the recorder down there and then returning to the top to bide time till packing-up time.

One thing I haven't mentioned before in my Shag Rock blowhole recording pages here is that the blowhole system there is complex, with three vents of which I'm aware, and possibly more. The middle one is the 'biggie', sending up powerful and loud jets at a steep angle. The south-west and north-east vents send mostly quiet and very diffuse jets at a very low angle, making a breathy whispered roar. I'm not clear as to what extent the vents represent independent separate blowholes or are all part of a complex single system. Certainly sometimes just the powerful middle vent blows off on its own, and often the side ones blow off while the main one does more or less nothing.

In this recording the swell is mostly pretty modest, so the number of strong main vent ejections is limited, but we can often hear the north-east vent quietly sending its diffuse ejections in our direction. But when the stronger central vent jets do happen, we know all about it.

Incidentally, during this recording for a while I was watching with some amusement a cormorant on the water really close to the main vent, and looking absolutely bewildered, turning its head around one way, then the other, swimming about in a really confused manner as though terrified. Poor thing — big waves they must be used to, but sudden towering extremely loud roaring jets of water would be another thing entirely!

The arrow in this photo does NOT point to the exact location of this recording, but to the position of the other one being made then. To locate this recording's position, mentally reposition the arrow to a little behind and to right of its current position, and a little below, so it's the other side of the blowhole vents.

This recording taking place. -- Yes, that is a dispersing remnant of a blowhole jet you can see! Actually a thin sea fog shrouded this view, and I tried using the haze removal function in Photoshop Elements, and for this purpose I prefer to share this 'clarified' version, as it displays the blowhole ejection much more clearly. It's more grainy, though, so not so suitable for viewing at larger sizes.

Techie stuff:
The recorder was a Sony PCM-M10, with Røde Deadkitten furry windshield (original, more effective version), and it was placed on a Zipshot 'mini' tripod (not what you see in the later photo here).

Initial post-recording processing was to apply an EQ curve to compensate for muffling from the furry windshield, and much more recently it's had stereo widening / sharpening processing to 200% width with A1 Stereo Control VST plugin, then a 7dB EQ tilt away from the treble (straight line from no change at 100Hz to -7dB at 8K) to compensate for the treble overemphasis caused by the stereo widening.

Please remember to give this recording a rating!