If there is one thing to try in Bude, it is surfing. This stretch of the Atlantic coast gets a reliable, beginner-friendly swell, the beaches are sandy-bottomed and forgiving, and the town has a proper surf culture without the crowds or the attitude of the bigger Cornish breaks. Whether you are eight or fifty-eight, Bude is about as good a place to stand up on a board for the first time as England offers.
Crooklets and Summerleaze are the learners' beaches. Both are lifeguarded through the season, both get manageable beach-break waves, and both sit right by the town so you are never far from a hot chocolate when the Atlantic reminds you it is not the Med. Widemouth Bay, just south, is the other classic, a long open beach with room for everyone and several schools working the sand in summer.
Book a lesson before you go it alone. Bude's surf schools are friendly, cheap and genuinely good, and a two-hour group lesson — board, wetsuit and a patient instructor included — will have most people riding whitewater by the end. It is the fastest, safest and most fun way in, and the instructors know exactly where and when the beach is working. VisitBritain's overview of the wider region is handy for planning a surf trip around the coast.
Respect the sea while you learn. Always surf on a lifeguarded beach between the flags, never paddle out alone as a beginner, and learn to spot a rip current — the schools drill this, and it matters. The Atlantic here is powerful and the tides are big; treated with respect it is the most fun you can have in a wetsuit, treated carelessly it is genuinely dangerous.
And give it more than one go. Almost nobody nails surfing in a single session — the joy is in the slow progress, the first proper ride, the ache in your arms and the salt in your hair at the end of the day. Build a couple of lessons into a Bude week, hire a board for the days between, and you may well leave with a new obsession and a reason to keep coming back to Cornwall.