A Cornish surfers' website has stopped providing its most popular service - its surf reports - until its users stump up the cash and support it needs to escape extinction.

Surfingcornwall said it is "running out of money. Fast." An attempt to raise advertising revenue and sponsorship for the website failed, as did a message to users asking for support. Without investment, the site will shut down on March 6.

Mark Picken, who manages and designs the site, has emailed users to say that if they don't offer cash or practical help, they will have to "waste time and money driving from beach to beach trying to find the best surf".

"We have taken drastic action," he said. "We are not letting anyone see the daily surf report unless they give us the support we want."

The website's plight illustrates the difficulty of keeping an internet venture alive in the current climate.

Mr Picken said surfingcornwall only needs about £5,000 to keep the present service alive for another six months. But he would like to secure a good deal more funding, using his site to promote tourism in Cornwall and to help local businesses.

But as a niche site with only 15,000 page impressions a month, he has found that advertisers are not interested.

"The advertisers we've approached are looking at sites that get 2m impressions a month," he said. "We've tried Red Bull, as they're into surfing, and BT's Genie, as it uses a surfing logo. We've also tried the big surf companies, like Rip Curl and Aloha."

Mr Picken will make a last minute effort to save the site by appealing for EU funds from the South West Investment Group. He has also considered a subscription charge.

Useful site:
Surfing Cornwall: Surf Report