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.
South Coast Surf Competition
While at the South Coast Surfing Championships at the weekend this trophy reappeared having not been seen since the early 90’s. On the trophy there are little shields listing all the previous winners going back to 1973. We would love to find out who the winners of the championship were prior to 1973 and obviously all the winners since. The last one on the trophy is Stuart Jones in 1991. I remember Craig Sharp winning it back in 1994 and Johnny Fryer was also a winner of the South Coast too. Please let me know if you have information of any others.
South Coast Surfing Championships
Individual Winners
Presented by
The Shore Surf Club
1973 – Eric Davies – Shore Surf Club
1974 – Roger Preston – Wessex Surf Club
1975 – Guy Penwarden – Wessex Surf Club
1976 – Rodney Sumpter – Shore Surf Club
1977 – Guy Penwarden – Wessex Surf Club
1978 – Guy Penwarden – Wessex Surf Club
1979 – Guy Penwarden – Wessex Surf Club
1982 – Paul Wiltsher – Shore Surf Club
1983 – Nick Schofield – Brighton Surf Club
1984 – Guy Penwarden – Wessex Surf Club
1985 – Rob Vaughan – Harbour Surf Club
1986 – Nick castle – Wessex Surf Club
1987 – Brian Haugh – Shore Surf Club
1990 – Dereck Dear – Wessex Surf Club
1991 – Stuart Jones – Isle of Wight Surf Club
I also have come across a report from the 1994 South Coast Surfing Championships held here at Niton on the Isle of Wight and have copied it here.
South Coast Surf Competition
After being postponed twice because of the lack of competitors and then surf, the South Coast Surf Comp was finally held on the weekend of November 19 & 20. Surfers from the Island and mainland competed at Niton in a good size wave 2 – 6 foot, helped considerably by the S.W. 5 – 6 wind.
There were a total of 30 competitors, a small number having travelled from ‘over the water’. The competition categories were Longboard, Open and Junior. The Longboard and Open had 4 heats – 1st and 2nd placed surfers going straight into the semi finals – 3rd and 4th placed surfers going ino the repercharge. The Juniors had the semi final and then a final.
Open – The tide had dropped back considerably, and the waves were a good deal smaller than they had been earlier on when the semi’s were held. A close fought competition with the eventual winner being Craig Sharp, beating the 1991 South Coast winner Stuart Jones to second place. Third was Ross Williams and fourth Paul Blackley.
Longboard – Three mainland surfers – Matt Terry, Simon Wilkins and Eric Davies along with well known Island surfer (and surf club chairman) Ray Hutchings, made it to the final. Another close contest, the victor being 1st Matt Terry, 2nd Eric Davies, 3rd Simon Firley and 4th Ray Hutchings.
Junior – 1st Ross Williams, 2nd Craig Sharp, 3rd Nick Dennington, 4th Ian Wardle
Other category winners were Richard Balding – Junior Longboard, Johnny Fryer – Cadet, Nick Dennington – Youth, Master Longboard – Eric Davies.
The competition was sponsored by Sola, G & S clothing and Offshore Sports. The winners and runners up receiving prizes ranging from bags and sweatshirts to vouchers for £20 .00-£100.00 to use to purchase a new Sola wetsuit.
The owners of the Castlehaven Caravan site were very hospitable. Snacks and hot drinks were very welcome amongst the cold surfers and damp spectators.
FULL LIST OF RESULTS
Open
Craig Sharp
Stu Jones
Ross Williams
Paul Blackley
Longboard
Matt Terry
Eric Davies
Simon Firley
Ray Hutchings
Juniors
Ross Williams
Craig Sharp
Nick Dennington
Ian Wardle
Longboard Master – Eric Davies
U16 – Nick Dennington
U14 – John Fryer
Junior Longboard – Richard Balding
Open Master – Eric Davies
Comments about South Coast Contest
Oops!! – Everyone saw the ten foot sleeper, bobbing past Castlehaven on Sunday everyone it seemed except for Ray!! CRASH ! Ray did a neat little manoeuvre straight into the path of the king sized log. Consequence, one flattened fin! Must be the underpants!!!!!!!!!!!
Watch out Paul!! – Picture the scene Sunday morning – earlyish! One cafe with stripy awning, one orange VW Camper with Roof Rack. BUMP one cafe without awning, one VW Camper with roof rack and smashing stripy awning. UMM Men Drivers
Testy Rigsy! – Chris – you ‘performed’ really well on Sunday morning, when Big C sent you out to test the paddle out and strong rip. Shame you didn’t ‘perform’ so well in the heats – what happened?
Unlucky – Recently returned from living in Newquay – it was almost a foregone conclusion that with his longboarding skills, Alan Reed would reach the longboard final. Or so it would have seemed. Unfortunately after two unintentional interferences, one in the first heat, and second in the semi’s it was a shame to se him knocked out.
Little’un – Well done to ten year old John Fryer from Brighstone. He was by far the youngest and the smallest competitor in the competition. He surfed in tough conditions over the weekend, but came away with the prize for the best cadet surfer.
BANG, BUMP, CRASH, SMASH – To all those hits and near misses – which involved short boarders, longboarders, surf skiers and bodyboarders – COME TO OFFSHORE SPORTS for all your ding and repair kit needs.
Adrian Howell
Here is the sequence of Adrian Howell from Shore surf Club’s nice little wave just after the final
Longboard – South Coast Surfing Championships
When the longboard heats started the heavens open and visibility was really poor, but the standard of surfing certainly wasn’t. The recently crowned British Longboard Masters Champion Al Reed was up against some excelent surfing from Adrian Howell, Pete Symms, Nicolai Roterman and others from the Shore Surf Club but this was the four to progress through the difficult conditions to the final. During the final we were treated to drop knee turns, big floaters and lots of nose time. Right at the end of the final Al caught a wave out the back bringing it right to the beach hanging 5 for about 5 seconds during his ride. Adrian caught a lovely wave, stalled for a little cover up but sadly it was just after the horn had gone for the end of the final. Al Reed becoming the Longboard South Coast Champion with Adrian Howell 2nd, Pete Symms 3rd and Nicolai Roterman 4th.
IOW Rule at South Coast
Congratulations to the Isle of Wigt Surf Club for winning 4 of the 5 divisions and the overall club trophy at the 2011 South Coast Surfing Championships
Winner – 2011 Open South Coast Surfing Champion – James Ranson – IOW Surf Club
Winner – 2011 Masters South Coast Surfing Champion – Joe Truman – IOW Surf Club
Winner – 2011 Longboard South Coast Surfing Champion – Al Reed – IOW Surf Club
Winner – 2011 Junior Boys South Coast Surfing Champion – Robin Forrest – IOW Surf Club
Winner – 2011 Junior Girls South Coast Surfing Champion – Lucy Howell – Shore Surf Club
South Coast Surfing Championships – Day 1
The South Coast Surfing Championships started with registration at 8am sharp at Compton Bay car park. It was dark, gloomy and not exactly the biggest waves I’d ever seen. Many of the competitors must have been wondering what they were doing standing around in a car park so early in the morning with such tiny waves. After everyone had registered Matt Harwood called a postponement until 10.45am for a 11am start of the juniors.
Matt was very sure that by then the waves would be better and that the forecast for Sunday was for much bigger surf. At 10.45am Matt was right, the waves had got better but still not quite what everyone was hoping for. It was obvious that the Groms just wanted to get in the water and surf so the organisers made the decision to run and fun juniors competition on the Foam boards. A great turnout meant there to be 3 heats of 4 competitors in each heat (not quite as many as first planned as one of the mainland teams didn’t turn up).
First up was Matt Townsend, Robin Forrest, Dominic Arnold and Elliott Gray. The waves were very small and messy with a light south westerly blowing but the boys soon showed everyone that there were a few half decent waves to be ridden. Robin came out on top with Matt second while Dominic and Elliott came 3rd and 4th.
Heat 2 was Jamie King, Toby Greene, Ed Reed and Lucy Howell and they all started catching waves one after the other. A couple of the boys tried a few headstands while Lucy kept looking for a wave with a nice wall to it. The heat looked really close to call but Ed from the Island and Lucy from Shore coming out 1st and 2nd.
Heat 3 saw Thomas Louis Francis, Dylan Hamlet, Patrick White and Kira Bell. Kira stuck to the inside and had a bit of a slow start but eventually grabbed a few nice waves and pulled of switch foot to gain 2nd. The others battled it out on the outside with Dylan coming out on top by consistently getting long rides.
The Semi Finals were made up of two heats of three. Robin, Matt and Ed in Heat 1 found the waves had started to build and wave selection played a big part in the two Island boys Matt and Robin coming in 1st and 2nd.
Semi Final two saw Lucy of Shore battle it out with Dylan and Kira. Dylan seemed to make it look so easy and came home 1st with Lucy’s wave choice meaning she picked up 2nd place.
The Final was so close to call with all the Finalists picking off some really good little waves. Eventually Matt Townsend won by picking off three really good waves towards the end of the final. Dylan came in 2nd with Robin 3rd and Lucy 4th.
Alan Reed
Soon after this Al was surfing Porthleven with Dean Winter when he went too deep and got smashed into the reef. Al ended up quite battered and bruised and with broken ribs. A Pregnant Julie and Al had already decided to move back to the Island and at that point Al was desperate to get as much surfing in before they left. So even with broken ribs and feeling quite sore Al continued to surf, paddling into waves with one arm until they left for the Island.