Surf's up for Londoners

Most trends are easy to follow. Last summer's folksy gipsy look was no problem, no matter that the nearest we have to a prairie is Hampstead Heath. This summer, it's more tricky. With films such as Blue Crush, and fashion designers putting models in wetsuit dresses, the season's hottest look is surf diva.

I can get the tan courtesy of Clarins, the surf-swept hair from a bottle of John Frieda's Ocean Waves and the bikini from Prada. There's even a Gucci surfboard. But the wave machine at Archway pool just won't do.

Which is where a new company called Big Friday comes in. At 5.30pm on Fridays, the surf bus leaves Hammersmith and heads for Newquay for a weekend of sun, sea, surfing and the chance to hang out with tanned, toned dudes. My idea of heaven (except the surfing).

I pack everything: hairdryer, hair straighteners, five outfits, a pair of Manolos and a ton of beauty products all squashed into my favourite girly Topshop trolley case. Everyone else has a small rucksack. I spend the six-hour bus ride getting to know my fellow urban surfers. There are 12 of us, including Rhona and Kate, the two girls who run the company.

It's a great mix - our ages range from 22 to 35, there's an advertising executive, a lawyer and three South African lads - and us loners quickly fit in. The boys - loud, laddish and lots of fun - were hoping for a big weekend.

Their plan was to party and pick up girls. Oh, and get some surfing in too. For Miso, a 28-year-old computer programmer from Slovakia, this is his second trip on the surf bus. "I'm hooked on surfing now, and I love the bus. It's a great way to meet people."

Rhona and Kate, both 29, set up Big Friday after they spent their weekends taking friends surfing and realised how many people wanted to go. They still have their day jobs - Rhona in PR, Kate in an international development charity - and run the company in the evenings and weekends. "It's hard work," says Rhona, who has been surfing for two years, "but it's worth it to see so many people returning to London happy after a brilliant weekend."

We arrive in Newquay at midnight and have a few drinks in our surf lodge, the Aqua Shack. Outside it looks like a twee B&B, but inside it could be a Hawaiian beach hut. The South Africans carry on drinking but us girls are in bed by 1am.

The morning brings the part I dread: my first lesson. Surfing has never held any appeal; the closest I get to extreme sports is falling off the sofa reaching for the remote. Dressed in a wetsuit so tight I can feel my hands and feet ballooning, I realise how far from Miuccia Prada's surf-chic vision this is.

I look like a human sausage. At least it is a girls-only lesson. "I've wanted to try surfing for years, but after I saw Blue Crush I decided now was the time," says fellow novice Michelle, 35.

Sally Glissod, 21, a blonde, petite surf chick, is our instructor. "Girls take a bit longer to learn than guys," she says. "They spend time practising the technique. Boys just want to get straight in and do it."

I am perfectly happy to lie on the gorgeous Lusty Glaze beach practising my paddling since I'm hoping not to get my hair wet (I'm worried about what salt water will do to my highlights). But before long we are paddling out to "catch" our first wave.

I squeal pathetically as cold water rushes around my ankles. There's no time to worry about my hair - I'm instantly floored by a huge wave. I swallow several gulps of salt water and am nearly sick.

This is not glamorous. But, amazingly, I am not bad at all. Within an hour I am catching waves standing (okay, it was just a few seconds) and imagine tackling 20ft Hawaiian seas.

My sunscreen has washed off, my hair is a tangled mess and I've been walloped over the head by my surfboard, but I'm having a brilliant time.

By the day's end I'm convinced I could be a world champion. The other girls have left, but I am still out there, sitting astride my board waiting for one last wave. Forget surfing fashion, I think smugly, I'm the real thing and I've got "surfer's hands" to prove it (badly burned skin that stops at the wrist where the wetsuit starts). It could catch on.

I could have stayed in the sea all evening but there are cute surf dudes to check out. We go for dinner at the new and uberstylish Chy Bar. Newquay, until now a tacky seaside resort, is getting the up-market treatment - Rick Stein has bought a hotel on the seafront. After dinner we hit Belushi's bar, which is wall-to-wall with authentic surf hunks.

But all the sea, drink and clean air has left me virtually sleepwalking and even a couple of blond, tanned, muscular boys who suggest a nightcap can't keep me from my bed.

The next day I hit the shops. Newquay is the place to buy great surf gear - at one of the coolest places, Revolver, you can even get special boards shaped to avoid getting your hair too wet. It is here that I bump into Joanna Ulczak, Newquay's top female surfer and Britain's number three.

At 22, with long, tanned limbs and short spiky hair, she has the best life of anyone I've ever met. Her summers are spent in Newquay surfing and working in her parents' shop, before she heads for the waves of Australia, Sri Lanka or Costa Rica for the winter.

I want her life. But, too soon, I'm back on the bus. Everyone is exhausted and we barely speak except to vow that we'll be back. Surfing is fun and may be fashionable only this season, but come next summer, I'll still be out there, waiting for one last wave.

Big Friday (020 7793 1417, www.bigfriday.com) offers a variety of packages, including the Surf Divas, which costs £215, including wetsuits and boards.

A return trip on the bus costs £69.

g