A Stiff onshore breeze rendered the three to four foot surf bumpy and unpredictable for the IW Surf Club’s 17th annual competition at Compton Bay on Sunday, but an increasingly high standard of surfing was displayed as the competition progressed.
A close first heat saw Clive Richardson, Graham Skelley and Steve Williams proceed to the next stage in favour of Wayne Bradley, Mike Smith and Gail Sheath, the only lady competitor.
Heat two produced and clear winner in Ray Hutchings. Barney Barnes and Dave Downer knocked out Roger Butler, Colin Graham and Dave Jacobs, thereby joining Hutchings in the final.
Meanwhile, a thriving junior section enabled the club to stage a special event for the under 16’s in which they demonstrated the rapid progress made this summer. A worthy winner of this section was Paul Blackley who was presented with a trophy.
Conditions for the senior final improved with the diminishing wind, making for smoother if slightly smaller waves. Hutchings, Richardson and Williams quickly established themselves with good, solid surfing in the available action, and a close result became likely. Barnes, Skelley and Downer all surfed with competence but were eventually outclassed. Richardson consolidated his earlier success with several long, left and right breaking waves which earned him thrid place. Williams, riding a conventional single-fin board, and Hutchings, on a tri-fin design, were closely matched throughout the event. It was Hutchings , however who edged ahead in the closing stages with a right-breaking wave, tightly ridden earning him a high score.
Final placings awarded by judges Dave Jacobs and Ann Macpherson were –
Write up from the IW County Press 5 October 1984 (thanks to Gail Sheath for sending this in)
(The only image from the competition is of Paul Blackley, most of the other images were taken around the same time)
This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2012 at 4:57 am. It is filed under The Eighties and tagged with 17th, Ann Macpherson, Annie Macpherson, archive, Barney Barnes, beach, blackley, blog, Clive Richardson, Colin Graham, Competition, compton, Compton Bay, contest, Dave Downer, Dave Jacobs, Gail Sheath, Graham Skelley, history, IOW, IOW Surf Club, Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight Surf Club, Mike Smith, paul blackley, people, photo, photographs, portrait, Ray Hutchings, Roger Butler, single fin, steve williams, stoked, Sunday, surf, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, swell, tri fin, waves, Wayne Bradley, wetsuit, wightsurfhistory. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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