As the sun rose over the contest area, we were greeted with some stonking waves in the 6ft range with wild offshore winds. With some of the biggest names in British surfing and over 170 competitors across 13 divisions the weekend was set to be action packed. The excitement and level of froth around the contest site was electric that not even the driving rain could dampen. From the wee grommets to the slightly older veterans, everybody was amping. A double peak structure was introduced to cater for the sheer amount of competitors and the scene was set. The Open division and Under 14 boy’s kicked off the running order in the pumping waves.
Day One
It was evident that Reubyn Ash was going to be a threat from the get go, sticking a supercritical, tail high air rev with flare and supreme style. Other standouts from day one in the Men’s Open included Jayce Robinson and Newquays Luke Dillon. It was extremely inspiring and a real pleasure to see the standard and progression of British surfing really being pushed to the limits with various above the lip manoeuvres.
Other standout performances included local hero and all round legend, Peony Knight in the Women’s open. Using all of her local knowledge and skill, she picked off some of the waves of the day and surfed them with flow and power, lining up some extremely critical, high scoring turns.
The junior categories were all hotly contested with likes of Angus Scotney, Will Bailey, Seth Morris, Noah Capps and Liam Murray Strout keeping the judges on their toes with high scoring heats. Seth Morris in particular had us buzzing from the spectator area, his effortless style and ability, go way beyond his years and it was really refreshing to see such a laid back, down to earth grom with such a bright future ahead of him.
Day Two
Day two saw more favourable conditions with clean 4ft super rippable waves, light winds and a glorious appearance from the sun. With all of the early rounds being wrapped up on day one, it was down to the business end of the comp, with the finals to be played out through all of the divisions. The dual peak action was in full flow, the surfers were going punch for punch in the sea, the was sun shining and the Korev’s were flowing (advantage of a comp having a beer sponsor), it was a cracker of a day. The vibe around the site was one of old, with everyone getting amongst conversation and amping on the conditions.
There were some upsets in the Men’s Open with the likes of Alan Stokes and Oli Adams both missing out and getting KO’d early doors. This gave an opportunity to two of the younger surfers in the open, Luke Dillon and Miles Lee-Hargreaves to make their way to the final. Luke’s been on an absolute tear this year with a European Pro Junior title and a second place at this year’s Boardmasters, and went into this final with confidence and a smile. The other two surfers joining Miles and Luke were Jayce Robinson and the in-form Reubyn Ash. As time went on and more heats were drawing to a close, final time came about and thanks to the pushing tide the peak for the finals was directly in front of the eager crowd.
[su_carousel source=”media: 31024,31023,31022,31026,31021,31073,31072,31054,31038,31037,31036,31011,31013,31014,31015,31019,31020″ limit=”17″ link=”lightbox” height=”200″ title=”no”]
Finals
The atmosphere during the finals was absolutely bubbling with a huge crowd overlooking the peak, with shed loads of “Oh’s” and “Ah’s” as the surfers were fighting to be crowned British Nationals champion. The groms were in first and Seth Morris took the bull by the horns and putting on a show for the large crowd, surfing waves that were well over head on the lad from Wales. He took out the final combing two high scoring waves and was crowned U14 champ.
In the Women’s open there was only one champion and its was the local gal, Peony Knight who put in one of the manoeuvres of the comp, whacking one off the top and throwing buckets of water. Luke Dillon took out the Men’s open narrowly edging out Jayce Robinson. You could tell that Reubs was hunting for that air section only to be denied by the high tide conditions. The full results can be seen below.
A huge shout-out must go to Surfing GB for putting on such a successful event. If this is what the future holds for competitive surfing in the UK, it’s only a good thing and could see progression within Britain jump leaps and bounds.
British National Surfing Championship at CroydeIn case you missed it, or are not based in the south West, check out this BBC news article about last weekends Surfing Great Britain National championships held at Croyde beach.
Posted by Surf South West on Monday, October 26, 2015
Results:
U12 Girls
1st Bonita Whitelock
2nd Eve Sharp
3rd Jem Cogger
U12 Boys
1st Kade Penny
2nd Luke Barfield
3rd Thoma Reeves
4th Sam Taylor
Girls U14
1st Ellie Turner
2nd Lily Mandeville
3rd Ffion Hughes
4th Nyah Whittinghm
U14 Billabong Boys
1st Seth Morris
2nd Will Masterman
3rd Noah Capps
4th Barnaby Cox
The Caravan Club U16 Girls
1st Kitty Brewer
2nd Mischa Maguire
3rd Ruby Breadon
4th Amy Dyer
The Carve Visionaries Europe U16 Boys
1st Liam Murray Strout
2nd Kit Innes
3rd Logan Nicol
4th Cieran Hughes
The Caravan Club U18 Girls
1st Peony Knight
2nd Emily Currie
3rd Flora Lawton
4th Georgia Timson
Santa Cruz skateboards U18 Boys
1st Angus Scotney
2nd Will Bailey
3rd Max Payne
4th Rhys Barfield
The King’s Arms Georgeham Masters division
1st Mike Young
2nd Paul Kirby
3rd James Jones
4th Jonty Tucker
The Billy Budds Seniors
1st Johnnyy Wallbridge
2nd Alex Chisholm
3rd Benjamin Chapman
4th Steve Ley
The Veteran Division
1st Drustan Ward
2nd Dave Renaud
3rd Anthony Kilday
4th Darren Burrett
The Caravan Club Womens Open
1st Peony Knight
2nd Emily Cuurrie
3rd Lucy Campbell
4th Ellie Turner
The Star Surf Camps Open division
1st Luke Dillon
2nd Jayce Robinson
3rd Reubyn Ash
4th Miles Lee Hargreaves
More from Surfing GB
