Matt Harwood gets 2nd at The English Nationals
Congratulations to Matt Harwood for getting 2nd place at The English Nationals. The Masters Results from the English National Surfing Championships with P20 Sun . Masters 5 Dale Lowe 4 Matt Thomas 3 Paul Barrington 2 Matt Harwood 1 Martin Connolly
2011 British Interclub Championships
The Isle of Wight Surf Club team headed down to Woolacombe last weekend for the 2011 British Interclub Championships. Matt Harwood had put together a strong team with Doug Richards, Josh Jupe, Chris Mannion, Mark New and Craig Sharp joining him. This years event was being scored differently to previous years with only one day to fit everything in and there was only one heat for each team member. During free surfing the boys looked good, but during the heats they couldn’t seem to find the high scoring waves. Local knowledge paid off for the teams from Devon coming out on top. With the Island scoring 2nd’s, 3rd’s and 4th’s in their heats it wasn’t enough for a podium this year. In the Masters category the old timers in the team faired better, Craig and Chris showing that experience was the key coming 2nd overall.
2011 British Longboard Club Championships
Saturday 5th November at Saunton Sands, North Devon finally saw the 2011 British Longboard Club Championships take place. Alan Reed recently crowned British Masters Longboard Champion was there as part of the Masters team for the Hotdoggers Surf Club from Saunton North Devon. Al has been a member of the Hotdoggers club for over 10 years (Sadly the Island has yet to put a Longboard team together).
Each team member had to surf in a 25 minute heat with 12 teams competing from Scarborough , RN/RM , Bristol , Shore Surf Club, and the Hotdoggers. Al was up in the second heat and took 1st place in his heat helping the Masters team to 2nd place overall.
Sponsers of the event were; Second Skin, O`Neil, Cordural Lines, Dudleys , VW , BLU, Blacker Surfboards , Thatch , Errant Surf Travel. Indo Boards , Animal , North Core And Monster.
The Trophy presentation was at Cook Island, this was also the Hotdoggers End of Season Bash, 6.00pm til Midnight; a Carvery for only £6.50, a free bus from Barnstaple with pickups enroute returning at midnight, trophy presentations, raffle and DJ. Cook Island was just up the road from where I was staying so I dropped by for a quick pint and it looked like the Hotdoggers know how to through and end of season do.
Masters – South Coast Surfing Championships
As the Masters heats started everyone was watching to see what the rips were like, how heavy it was and if there were any makable waves out the back or whether the inside was the go. Chris Mannion was up straight away catching one of the set waves, the conditions looked very difficult and quite heavy, but Chris showed there were some sections to be found. The early heats found a lot of the competitors only catching one wave. Joe Truman got wave of his heat but it was the only wave he caught but enough to progress through to the next round. Jamie Whittle decided to stick to the inside and got two nice waves to the beach. Jamie came in from his heat thinking he hadn’t sone enough only to find that the other three competitors had only caught one wave each.
The final was another all IOW Surf Club affair with Chris Mannion, Joe Truman, Stu Jones and Jamie Whittle heading out into slightly better conditions than the earlier rounds and the sun was almost coming out from behind the clouds. Joe got some lovely waves right to beach, making the most of every section, showing his lovely trade mark cutback and tailslide and almost making a couple of 360’s giving him 1st place. Chris made some big re-entries but it wasn’t quite enough to beat Joe. Stu Jones had a slow start but found a nice wave on the inside right at the end of the final to take 3rd place with Jamie picking up 4th.
Al Reed British Longboard Masters Champion
Congratulations to Al Reed, becoming the 2011 BLU (British Longboard Union) Masters Champion at Gwithian last weekend.
[Al Reed – 2011 BLU Masters Champion]
The fourth and final event of the 2011 British National Longboard Championships was held this weekend at Gwithian Beach in 3ft surf and offshore conditions. With the Open, U18 and Ladies divisions already decided on points by the third round of the series, the last remaining event attracted a good turnout with the runners up of the other divisions fighting for places in the top ten.
Following on from worries resulting from a marginal weather forecast for the weekend, and the likelihood of severe weather on the Sunday, the event was run in one day in what turned out to be highly contestable , albeit cool sunny and windy conditions.
The Masters entry surpassing the Open entry in this hotly contested division.
With only 700 points between 1st and 5th overall, it was all to play for. The event was won by newcomer Alan Reed (Isle of Wight) with Colin Bright (Wales) coming 2nd and Russ Pierre (Sennen) taking 3rd place. Last years Champion, Keeno Keenan( Devon) took 4th Place. This meant that the series winner was Alan Reed with Colin Bright 2nd, Keeno Keenan 3rd and Eric Davies (Devon) 4th .
Full Press Release here;
2011 British National Longboard Championships Press release
Alan Reed Wins Masters Division of the BLU at Perranporth
A huge belated congratulations to Alan Reed for winning Masters of the first event of the 2011 British Longboard Union at Perranporth in mid April.
The competition was blessed with quality waves, great weather and a huge turnout. There were over 80 competitors competing in different divisions in the chunky peaks at Perranporth. The Sunday saw some real quality waves as you can see from Al’s pictures.
The Masters final was between the previous years winner Paul Keenan, Chris Harris of Skindog Surfboards, Vic Danks and Alan Reed. Alan’s effortless style that we all know saw him ease to victory.
Ben Haworth took the open division ripping to victory and overturning an inform Ben Skinner in the final. Ben’s father who had ties to the Island back in the early 80’s recently came to the Island to showcase his movie of ‘Devon Lanes and Longboards’ at our movie night last October.
Event winners were:
Open: Ben Haworth (North Devon)
Ladies: Candice O’Donnell (Newquay)
U18: Josh Le Marquand (Jersey)
U16: Arran Bright (Wales)
Masters:
1st Alan Reed
2nd Chris Harris
3rd Paul Keenan
4th Vic Danks
Sponsors for this event were;
Watering Hole Beach Bar
Bathsheba Surf shop in Perranporth (Junior Sponsor)
Old Guy’s Rule (Masters Sponsor )
Gul Performance Apparel (Ladies Sponsor )
Hendra Holiday Park
SurfTalk
Splashography
It was a perfect start to the 2011 British Longboard Union Tour and we would like to wish Alan all the best for the rest of the year.
2010 QUIKSILVER BRITISH NATIONAL SURFING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Johnny surfed consistently throughout the event in the small but very contestable surf. He showed his true competitive spirit and knowledge to be crowned British champion, and took home a Gibson Les Paul Studio guitar as the champion’s trophy. Jayce Robinson & Oli Adams both surfed well in the final but it was Johnny’s day.
3rd for Al at the 60’s Stylemasters
The Stylemasters is purely for 60’s boards, only surfboards dating to before 1970 are allowed to be ridden. Surfers go into a draw to pick one of the 10 boards for the competition. Bilbo’s, Dewey Webber, Harbour are just some of the boards that are available to ride, some of which are quite heavy. Rollercoasters, Cavemans & El Telephonos as well as other vintage moves are what score the points in this competition. The rules are no leashes and to try and surf as stylishly as possible without losing your board.
Not until you try to surf one of these boards yourself do you realise just how talented these guys are.
Isle of Wight Surf History
Here is an excerpt about the Isle of Wight from Roger Mansfield’s new book ‘The Surfing Tribe’ A History of Surfing in Britain’ Roger Backhouse and his friends Mike Hutchinson, Sid Pitman, Ben Kelly and a handful of others are attributed with being the first island residents to start surfing in 1964. They picked up […]