Report:
This year is the third year in four that this event has run, the planned event in 2007 never run due to difficulties in gaining permission to access the beach for any competitive sports at the time of year planned to run the contest.
Wednesday evening and all the prizes have been collect, all permissions/licences received, all competition equipment is in my garage and now it just comes down to getting people to register! Surf sports are peculiar in that they are inherently difficult to get people to pre enter for, surfers tend to only want to surf when there is surf but from an organisers point of view this can be a nightmare if you have no idea of how many people you are going to have turn up and how many categories you are going to run until the day of the event if makes it very difficult to organise anything.
I have some pre-entries and make and educated guess about who might turn up, the event this year clashes with the world cup qualifier in Mundaka and so a lot of the guys are away but there seems to be a lot of new competitors asking about the contest.
It is time to get onto the blogg site and e-mail to spread the work “the event will be on” magic seaweed is giving it 4 stars and 8 foot at 12 seconds period so there will defiantly be contestable conditions. I make the decision to limit entries to each category so as to help with reorganisation of the event. The entries come in thick and fast so it looks like we are going to have a big event.
After several late night trying to work out how to run 9 categories with 25 entries in the open categories we are ready to go, lets just hope the surf is good!
Saturday morning 0630 I arrive at the beach and am welcomed by perfect surf!!! Doug from sunset surf welcomes me with a mug of tea and I get the preparations under way.
All the competitors arrive on time and after a briefing we have the first heat of the water. We start with the open round one and some great performances in surf of shoulder to head high. Throughout the day the surf never chooses to disappoint with a long period swell giving plenty to time to paddle out and some big slow sets coming through everyone was coming back to the beach with a story to tell.
The whole competition ran without a hitch and everyone managed to surf lots of heats (some competitors such as Garry Adcock managed to surf seven heats in total).
We also have a ski category which was great to judge as they probably has some of the best waves of the day and showed what an exciting and complementary sport wave skiing really is.
A special thank you to Nikki and Caroline for their tireless tabulating of results and ensuring the event did not grind to a holt. Also special mention to Naish equipment who provided the prizes. And last but by no means least the guys at sunset surf who let us use their café and a base and were so warm and welcoming throughout the day.
Also thanks to all the competitors who traveled to Gwithian and without whom the event would not have been possible.
Ladies Final
All welcome, best prizes for newcommers
Bring BCU membership number, paddle, BA, helmet (plastic surf boats can be borrowed for a small fee with prior arraingement, please contact me for details)
Briefing 8.30am at the Sunset Surf Café at Gwithian Beach. http://www.sunsetsurfshop.co.uk/£6 Pre Entry
For more details on surf kayaking contact
visit:
http://www.bcusurf.org.uk/
43 Messack Close
Falmouth
TR11 4SH
