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.
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.
Early 90’s Cornwall Surf Trip

I rememver an early 90’s surf trip to Cornwall when it seeemd that half the Isle of Wight surf community made the trip down to Newquay. There was a Competition on and Ray Hutchings, Al Reed and others were all competing. In my VW Camper was Chris Blackley, Shaun Baxter and Scott Holley all on one of their first surf trips to Cornwall. I was working at the Isle of Wight County Press at the time and good friend and County Press photographer Pete Boam was looking for a lift to the West Country, so he joined us for the trip down. Pete brought some great refreshments for the trip and as soon as we departed the ferry the partying had begun. By the time we dropped Pete off somewhere the Cornwall and Devon border it was already getting messy. It was freally good to get to Crantock and be able to properly join them.
In the morning we drove straight to Fistral to see what was happening and try and find everyone. Aaron Rogers was already there with a Red Transit Van with what seeemed like half the Island surf community on board. Jamie Isaac was there with Mark White and Jamie was stood in the middle of the car park trying to do some juggling. Jamie’s skills at juggling were not the best and he soon got lots of stick. Eventually a desicion was made to head elsewhere to get some waves, as with the contest on Fistral was rammed with people. I think most of us surfed at Crantock, where we caught up with Stu Jones, Tristan May and Steve Padley. I don’t remember the surf being particularly memorable but that night at the Bowgie Inn in Crantock was one to remember (Or Not). I do remember we had some food in the pub and then went into the Nightclub. It was packed and they finished the evening with Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam and Nirvana and I can’t believe there wasn’t a fight. I think a few people squared up but I don’t remember anyone getting hit. We carried on back at the vans and it turned inot a really hazy night.
In the morning you could tell who were the seasoned pros at surf trips and camping in vans and cars at beach car parks. Being up early and first to the public toilets after a heavy night of Cornish Ale and Pub Grub was a must, and to remember to bring your own toilet roll. When I saw Mark White walking back with his bog roll and a big smile I knew there was going to be alot of groans later.
There was a bit of disagreement over where to surf that morning and we all got split up. A few of us went to Perranporth in search of some clean waves but it was a lot smaller. Mark was sure he would find better waves further south but Jamie decided to stay and surf with us. After a fun surf we decided to follow Mark down to St Ives but it was just big and messy. We decided to head back to the Island and maybe get a few waves at Bournmouth on the way back.
When we got back to the IOW ferry Jamie suddenly realised that he had left his ferry ticket in Marks’ car. We had all the boards inside the van and so got Jamie to climb in amongst all the board bags and sneaked him on board the ferry.
My memory of this trip is a bit hazy and I’m not sure what year it was but the night up at the Bowgie in Crantock was one to remember, hopefully these pics may jog a few more memories.
The History Wall

Gallery of the images that were displayed on the ‘history wall’ at the opening wight surf history exhibition