How Surf & Skate Expo 2026 Is Uniting Cornwall’s Coastal Creatives

The UK Surf & Skate Expo returns to Newquay on 25 and 26 July, based at Newquay Sports Centre up on Tretherras Road, with a business day, Out of Office, running the Friday before on the 24th. The first Expo drew around 10,000 people through the gates last year. This one is bigger: more stages, a film festival running into the night, and a whole village of brands, ramps and food stalls.

Entry to the Expo Village is free. You still need a Village Pass to get in, and the talks, films and the Friday awards party are ticketed on top, but you can spend a full day there without paying for a ticket.

What's actually worth turning up for

The Expo Village is 7,000 square metres of surf and skate brands, food stalls, a forty-foot outdoor screen and a purpose-built skate ramp. That part is free with a Village Pass.

The Saltrock Vintage Showdown runs at Great Western Beach on the Saturday, 10am to 4pm. Sixteen of the UK's better surfers riding boards from the 60s, 70s and 80s, put on with Red Bull. You can watch it from the sand without a ticket, so it is worth the ten-minute walk down even if you never go near the Expo Hall.

First 80 people through the gate on the Saturday get a free wetsuit. Doors open at 9am. Do the maths on how early that means leaving the house.

Surfers Against Sewage are speaking at 2pm on the Saturday about Cornwall's water quality and what it means for the people and wildlife that depend on it. Free with a Village Pass. If you care about the state of the water you actually swim in, that one is worth sitting down for.

Concrete Waves skatepark is a five-minute walk from the venue and hosts skate comps across the weekend. Last year Tony Alva, the Dogtown and Z-Boys skater, spent an afternoon there before he spoke. That tells you the sort of thing this weekend attracts.

Local at its core

This is Newquay's event, run in Newquay, not bussed in from anywhere else. We're based at Lusty Glaze, roughly a ten-minute walk from the venue, so for us it's a stroll up the road. Newquay's own 10 Over Surf Shop screens films alongside the big international names. That's the part we like: the coast, the people who live off it, and a weekend that puts both front and centre.

What to pack

Newquay weather in late July does what it wants, so pack for two seasons in one day.

Our sherpa-fleece-lined all-weather changing robe earns its place after the vintage contest or a dip off Great Western, when you want to be dry and warm without trekking back to the car.

The recycled-polyester bucket hat keeps the sun off while you work your way round the Village stalls in the middle of the day.

For the film festival evening, when the temperature drops off the sea, a sweatshirt keeps you comfortable without losing the surf-ready look.

Getting there

There is no parking on site. Use one of the town car parks, or park at Concrete Waves skatepark and walk across. Newquay train and bus stations are both within a 15 to 25 minute walk, and Newquay Airport is a 15-minute drive if anyone is coming in from further afield.

The short version

• When: 25 and 26 July 2026, with the Out of Office business day on the 24th.
• Where: Newquay Sports Centre, TR7 2SL.
• Cost: Expo Village is free with a Village Pass. Talks, films and the awards evening are ticketed separately.
• Nearest beaches: Lusty Glaze and Towan are a short walk, Great Western hosts the vintage surf contest, and Fistral is a ten-minute drive.