Thundering sea at Mussel Point, near Zennor

Invigorating and inspirational! — Thundering sea dramatics on the rocks at Mussel Point, near Zennor. So loud that you can't hear the powerful blowhole! — But how I enjoyed this wild and almost savage sea serenade while eating my packed lunch there! — However, if this is too aggressive a sound for your comfort, you may much prefer a version of this recording gently tweaked to make it sound a bit more distant and kinder on the ears — https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/684590/ …

In mid-September 2013 I first explored this wonderfully wild and atmospheric patch between St Ives and Zennor, Penwith, Cornwall, UK, just west of the little low grassy / rocky patch opposite The Carracks ('Seal Island'), which latter is a favourite spot for people to linger, and in late summer / autumn, to listen for the seals moaning there.

Mussel Point and the intervening weirdly named Economy Cove also get seals, but is mostly people-free. My main focus there has been the invigorating and inspirational sea dramatics around there when the swell is reasonably chunky. Mussel Point boasts one powerful blowhole and a cave with a powerfully booming cleft in its entrance, and the most hypnotically marvellous sea eruptions as its larger waves have magnificent arguments with the rocks and outcrops in their way.

That first time I came there exploring for recording opportunities, one thing that particularly grabbed me was a restful, comforting and yet also inspiring-feeling continual thundering sound, I think with an emphasis on a frequency range centred around 60–70Hz.

This was a generalized sound that was clearly caused by a particular resonance of this grassy slope. I made a lovely recording of that, with a modestly chunky swell, but more recently it was one of the many recordings that I regretfully discarded because of a shortcoming of the Sony PCM-M10 recorder model I was using back then. I was thus ever hankering after getting conditions just right to capture it with the PCM-D100.

Well, on 15 April 2023 I completely unexpectedly captured there a real hyped-up 'on-steroids' version of that soundscape, and this is it, with the recorder in a very similar position to that of the 2013 recording. You can hear the direct crashing and thundering of individual waves, but there's also this more generalized sort of thundering produced by the local acoustic resonance.

Advisory
Very likely many people listening with speaker systems will find the sound pretty horrible, with the generalized resonance amplified by room or/and speaker resonances. High-grade headphones are thus strongly recommended.
To hear this recording as I heard it, the playback volume needs to be 3dB (no more!) above a reasonable normal level — yes, it really is loud, as I heard it right next to the recorder!

Making this recording. Unusually, I've chosen to adjust my photos this time to give maximum detail in the white on the sea, which means accepting everything else usually being underexposed.

Yes, that is the recorder on its tripod, just below the decrepit barbed-wire fence.

Techie stuff:
The recorder was a Sony PCM-D100, with two nested custom Windcut furry windshields, placed on a Sirui carbon-fibre tripod with legs only slightly extended (to minimize interference from the very gentle breeze).

Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshields and correction for the D100's weakness in very low bass.

Please remember to give this recording a rating — Thank you!