The Isle of Wight Surf Club Frost Bite Series – Event No 2
Congratulations to all involved, another great event. Compton had very challenging conditions for the competition but once again we were treated to a very high standard of surfing from all who took part. The onshore waves grew in size as the day went on and all the competitors had their strength and endurance tested as a lot of paddling was needed to get out through the waves and to get themselves to best place in the line up, which seemed to continually move about.
The Longboarders were up first with the majority of contestants heading to the outside to try and get the set waves. This may have been a mistake as they didn’t seem to be making it through to the inside and early on Matt Harwood seemed to see this, taking a few waves on the inside right through to the beach. It definitely looked very hard to find some good waves early on and a few very frustated faces came up the beach after the first few heats.
The Juniors were up next and now there seemed to be a waves making it through from the outside. This only made the paddle out even harder and the boys struggled in the difficult conditions, but eventually picked off a few waves.
When the Open started the waves had picked up and they were competing quite far out. There were some good size sets coming through but it still looked very hard to find the best spot to line up. The Open saw 4 heats with the winners of each heat going through to the final. One of the heats saw Chris Mannion, Andrew Tyrrell and Alan Reed against each other. This was going to be a very closely contested heat and didn’t disapoint. Andrew and Al pushed Manni all the way but Chris held on to his lead.
The final was Douglas Richards (sporting a moustache rivalling anything I ever saw in the old World War II movies I used to watch with my Dad as a kid), Matt Harwood, Chris Mannion and Joe Truman. Matt got straight into the final catching a few through to the inside but I think his mind was on getting into his pyjamas and watching X-Factor as he didn’t seem to be able to find any of the set waves. We saw Joe treat us to some of his lovely style with some beautiful cutbacks but I think by this time hyperthermia was setting in and we didn’t see him perform at his best. Dougie and Manni got the best of the set waves that came through putting in some big moves with Dougie coming out the winner. But Manni definitley came out of the water with the best spiked punk hairstyle that I definitely think Al was quite envious of (ok I admit, and any of us lacking in that department).
A Full report and all the results coming soon.