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.
South Coast Movie Shorts
Here are a couple of short movies taken at the South Coast Surfing Championships 2011
Video by Joe Briscoe
Image and video care of Jeremy at Wight Review
Adrian Howell
Here is the sequence of Adrian Howell from Shore surf Club’s nice little wave just after the final
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.
Manni’s Monster Madness
Apologies for the title, it’s almost as bad as something out of one of the tabloids but I couldn’t resist. I have just been going through the Masters heats images and thought this little sequence needed to be shown even though the image quality is really poor. Everyone was watching as the first heat of […]
Juniors – 2011 South Coast Surfing Championships
Day 2 of the South Coast Surfing Championships saw an early start at Compton Bay for all involved. After the postponement of the competition on the Saturday and swell due to build overnight, Matt Harwood had asked everyone to be at the beach for 7am for a 7.30am start.
I briefly checked Freshwater Bay on my way to Compton and the swell had definitely arrived. When I got to Compton there was a debate as to whether the competition should be moved to Freshwater Bay or even Niton. I was keen to have it moved to Freshwater Bay but the general opinion was for it to stay at Compton as the bay was out of control (later I was informed that a few guys had attempted to surf Freshwater Bay and had taken an absolute pounding). Matt made the right choice and opted to stay at Compton and start with the Juniors at 7.45am.
As the heats were being read out a huge set came into Compton and it looked really heavy. Extra safety precautions were put into place with the competitors being briefed about how to signal the beach if any of them were unhappy. There were definitely a few concerned faces but water safety was on hand from Chris Mannion and James Ranson if needed.
At one point James Ranson lost his board and was left with a long swim to the beach. Chris Mannion took great delight in this, and paddled over to give James a ride back to the beach telling everyone he had had to rescue James too. James got his own back later by becoming the 2011 South Coast Open Champion.
The Juniors were encouraged to stay on the inside and catch the re-formed waves but the rip still ensured that water safety guys was kept busy when competitors were swept too close to rocks or the wreck. One of the Juniors made it out the back and managed to catch one of the set waves, but it was before his heat had started and he then took about 10 waves on the head before deciding to come in and surf the re-forms with the other competitors.
As the Junior heats went on, the waves on the inside were getting better as the tide pushed up and they put on an impressive performance. Future South Coast Champions were really making the most of the inside waves. The Juniors surfed through to the Semi-finals and then had a break with the final scheduled for the mid afternoon.
The weather was awful with drizzle for most of the day and it was so dark you would almost think it was the middle of winter. This didn’t seem to put people off coming to watch as the car park was completely full and cars were parked all down the road along the grass bank too.
The Girls Junior Final saw IOW Surf Club’s Kirra Bell against Lucy Howell from Shore Surf Club. A brand new NSP surfboard sponsored by Rapanui was up for grabs in this final and both girls started well catching lots of waves. Eventually Lucy got the better for Kirra finding a couple of waves with a short clean wall on the inside to become Junior Girls 2011 South Coast Champion.
It was an all Island Final, and with the boys getting some free surfing in at lunchtime you could see we were in for a great final. It was fantastic to see the the future of Island surfing with Robin Forrest, Matt Townsend, Dom Arnold and Thomas Francis battling it out, wave for wave to become the South Coast Champion. Robin Forrest came out on top with a couple of great waves coming off the bottom and hitting the lip, sending spray everywhere.
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.
South Coast Surfing Championships
The South Coast Surfing Championships is on again. Presented by the Isle of Wight Surf Club and Rapanui, the event is set to be the weekend of the 15th and 16th October 2011 with a back up for 2 weeks later the Halloween weekend (29th-30th October). The Wight Surf History is proud to say we are heavily involved in helping and supporting this event throughout.
The event is hoped to be held at Compton, Hanover Point, Isle of Wight but this will obviously depend on waves and weather. Entry to the event is limited so beach entries on the day will down to the discretion of the organisers.
Entry fee is per division – £10, Juniors (Under 18) – £5
Entry will include a free limited edition organic Rapanui t-shirt
The Divisions will be:-
Open
Junior (Under 18s)
Women
Masters (35+)
Longboard
Best Surf Club
The Isle of Wight Surf Club are having some great prizes hand made especially for the competition and numerous prizes have been donated from sponsors.
Q&A with Johnny Fryer
I always remember seeing Johnny down the fields at Compton surfing from dawn until dusk, and then in 1994 I think a few people began to notice his amazing talent as he became best cadet in the South Coast Surfing Championships at Niton. Johnny grew up surfing on the Island and last year became the first Isle of Wight surfer to become British Champion. I decided to put the questions out to the local schools and sports clubs to see if the youngsters would be interested in asking British Champion and Isle of Wight born Johnny Fryer any questions.
Davina age 7: What is your favourite surfboard?
Johnny: I have quite alot, and its hard to choose a favourite. I have one that I won the English championships and the British championships with, so thats probably my most precious. But its fun to have lots of different ones for different waves.
Abigail age 8: What is your biggest surfboard?
Johnny: My boards aren’t very big (not like the old school longboards). My biggest one is about 6’6ft long.
Will age 9: What was your very first surfboard?
Johnny: ha ha! it was a pink “pop out” board. with black paint splashes on. made by ‘circle one’ if anyone still has it i would love to get it back. It was so heavy and dangerous for me…I was only 6 years old.
Millie age 9: What is the biggest wave you have ever surfed?
Johnny: I’m not exactly sure, probably about 20ft. But surfers messure waves differently by about about half…so we would call it 10ft.
Alyssa age 7: How far away from land is the furthest break you have ever surfed?
Johnny: Some places in Indonesia you go out on a boat to the reef which can be about 1 mile out.
Saskia age 8: Do you have favourite food or any special diet when you are competing?
Johnny: Do you have favourite food or any special diet when you are competing? No special diet, but i just try to eat good, clean food, and lots of it so I’ve got a lot of energy. I love ice cream and chocolate as well though!
Becky (Gymnastics coach): Who initially taught you to surf?
Johnny: I never had lessons, I just always remember enjoying surfing even when I was about 3 years old. I wish I had lessons, it would’ve saved me making a lot of time mistakes in the early years.
Holly age 7: How fast can you go on your surfboard?
Johnny: I dont know. It depends how fast the waves can push you. alot of the time when you surf you try to slow yourself down to stay in the right place on the waves, so its not really about going as fast as possible. But maybe about 30 miles per hour in really big waves.
Emily age 5: What is your favourite manoeuvre?
Johnny: I love getting barrelled, where the waves breaks over you and you stand inside the tube. Its the best feeling in the world.
Bailey age 8: What is you favourite break on the Island and Worldwide and what is your favourite country and why?
Johnny: What is you favourite break on the Island and Worldwide and what is your favourite country and why? My favourite break on the Island is the far end of Compton towards Freshwater. This is where I spent most of my time learning. In the world my favourite waves are in scotland and the Islands north of Scotland, but it’s a bit cold sometimes!
Callum age 11: Who or what inspires you?
Johnny: Family and friends, and people who pursue their goals and get the most out of life.
Ed age 15: Where was the first place you ever surfed and how old were you?
Johnny: I think it was at Compton Bay. I used to surf on polystyrene surfboards when I was about 3 years old, but my first real board was when I was 6
Craig Sharp
Craig Sharp is an Isle of Wight born surfer and now businessman of Pocean Vacations, Surfing and Self Catering Holidays and in less than 3 years employs about 30 people. Pocean life offers a wide range of surfing hoidays alongside activity holidays in Portugal. Pocean Life is located in the cultural town of Ericeira, which boasts some of the best waves in Europe.
Craig’s business was recently featured in an article in the Telegraph ‘Business in Lisbon: opportunities for British companies in Portugal’.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/europa/7566879/Business-in-Lisbon-opportunities-for-British-companies-in-Portugal.html
During the early Nineties the surfer on the Island leading the way was Stu Jones who was starting doing airs and seeming to get amazing speed out of any wave he rode. But not far behind him was a young Craig Sharp was starting to turn heads.
November 19-20th 1994 was the South Coast Championships and it was being held on the Isle of Wight. Stuart Jones was the last Islander to win it in 1991 and it was all set to be a great event. The event was held at Niton in good size waves helped by a force 5-6 south west wind. The final was between Stuart Jones, Craig Sharp, Ross Williams and Paul Blackley. Paul and Ross didn’t get a look in as Craig and Stuart battled to become champion. It was very close but the young Craig came out on top to become the 1994 South Coast Champion.
I managed to get hold of Craig a few weeks a go and this is what he had to say;
I have just sat down to think about the IOW surf scene and what it all meant to me growing up on the island. So here we go:
I remember skateboarding at Shanklin pier around 1990… At this time just a few of the boys surfed liked Edd Thompson , Dave Grey and Paul Wilson. They were the Shankers boys and I watched them from the pier end where we all used to skate.. To be honest at that time I preferred the skate scene as I just thought the surf looked kind of slow.. However after a little persuasion from Edd Thompson I managed to have a session down at Wight Waters on the foamies.. Well of course one wave was all it took for me to be totally hooked. I then asked my mum to buy me a board sooo she did and it was from Raf .. A 6.8 critical section., thanks Rick !! So I surfed everyday until dark and on all conditions.. I would call Edd every day about the surf and we became the shakers groms hahaha..
I really grew into the surf when I started to go to Niton.. I think the wave made me a better surfer as it allowed me to do turns which I always watched in movies from the likes of Kelly Slater, Luke Egan and Shane Dorian… They were the guys for me.. But I must say Stu Jones had an influence over me to perform, he was a radical surfer and I looked up to him for that, so I really wanted to beat him in a competition which came about in the south coast championships.. I was so pleased to win the event on the island it was a special surf scene for all of us at the time.. What a great day !!
After that I journeyed onto some amazing surf trips with Blackley, having surfed some of the best waves in NZ and growing up mentally as a surfer, I was now ready for the surfers path. Since The IOW I have competed in competitions around the Globe which have provided me with a lot of fun and at times financial rewards but the main thing for me today is that surfing is a lifestyle and without the Isle of Wight none of this would be possible. Thank you to all the surf breaks on the Island and all my friends who were of my life. Now I am in Portugal still surfing and making my life from the surf so come on boys lets do an IOW surf session in Coxos..