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World Championships Of Surf Kayaking 2011

posted 11 Nov 2011 09:35 by Matt Thomson

It all started for me when I was asked to join the England team earlier this year. The months that followed we arranged the flights, car hire and accommodation in America. The venue was at Nags Head on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and we flew into Washington DC from London Heathrow. It was about a 7 and a half hour flight and after that we had to drive for about 6 hours to get to the house we were renting with some other people in the team. Most of us were all on the same flight so we were all able to be around to help each other if it was needed. We got to the house at about midnight on the 28th and got to bed about one. We had about 6-7 hours of sleep and then everybody was moving around so we got up and met a couple of the team for the first time and then we all went down to the beach to see what the conditions were like. That day was just going to be for getting used to the surf, getting all the boats checked out to make sure they met all the rules, getting the judging stand set up and for all the competitors to get used to things. The surf was very small but it was quite fun . I went out for a couple of hours in both boats. Later on, after the boat check in, we went off shopping to get lots of sun cream as it was extremely hot, in the 80s Fahrenheit, also some mosquito repellent as there were lots of them! We all had to be back for the team parade in the evening and after that was a meal at the pier next to the competition site.

Next day was the first day of competing, round one of the team event which saw lots of good rides and placings for the England team. I was in the junior short category with two others. The surf was quite small that day and not that powerful but I had a couple of good rides and came second although I kept catching an edge which I think was partly because of nerves! At the end of day one England were in 1st place and it was nice feeling that one had done something to help it get there.

Day two and round two of the team event, which was the semi finals, started with some quite nice surf. It was a bit bigger than the days before and everybody went out for a surf before everything started and catching a wave was a matter of making sure that you weren't dropping in on anybody and then weaving your way around the surfers paddling out! I was first heat on, in the junior long this time, so after paddling in to get a bib I paddled out and waited for everybody who wasn't competing to get off the water or to move out of the competition zone. When it all started there were some fairly good sized waves coming through and they were the kind that I do best on so I was able to get some nice rides with lots of turns in. I won the heat which I was very happy with as I had felt I had done well. At the end of the day three teams moved in to the final, England in first place, Basque in second and the US West team in third.

Day three the individual event started and I was competing in the junior short and long. But I wasn't going to be surfing in the long boat that day as it was going straight to a semi final. I was not on till the end of the day in the short boat so I had all day to watch people surfing. There were some very good waves surfed and some big moves scored. In the men's short lots of people were going for big moves off the lip like airs and pan-ams. At last my heat came up and we got on the water. I think we had some of the best waves of the day. There were quite a few big ones coming through and some really nice rides to be had. I had a couple and then I had a bit of trouble catching the waves so I didn't have that many but I did well enough to come 2nd which was good enough to advance me into the semi finals.

Day four of the competition started and it looked like I wasn't going to be surfing that day as all I had left were the semi finals of the junior long and the junior short and they wanted to do all of the semi finals on one day if they could. But it was nice to have a drive around the area and to watch everybody surfing.

Day five and I was in the junior short first. The surf was getting a bit bigger and I had some really nice rides and actually managed to get an air but failed to land it so it didn't score that well. I came third which wasn't good enough to get me into the final which was a shame but I felt that I had surfed well so I wasn't too disappointed. Later on I was in the junior long and again I had a couple of nice rides but only came third and didn't make it into the final. This left me in 5th place over all in the juniors.

But there is always next time!!

Day six was the Team finals and the Teams in it were, England, US West and the Basque.

It was a very exciting day watching all the surfers compete and the level of surfing was very good. At the end of the day the Basque team were in first place with England in second and US West in third.

Day seven the wind had changed direction so the surf was different for the individual finals and it looked like it wasn't easy work. I think everybody was pushing themselves a lot and it was nice to have a good place to watch them (being on the pier). Everybody did very well - full results are to be found here.

http://www.worldchampionshipsofsurfkayaking.com/2011/10/07/victory-at-sea-full-individual-results/

Day eight we had a fun 'iron man' comp' in which you had heats of about four and the one with the most impressive wave moved on to another heat. It carried on like that until you had only two left and they surfed against each other for first place and Jorge from Argentina won. The awards and closing ceremony were that evening and it was very nice as actually they took place just across the road from where we were staying! Everybody had a good time and several people got thrown in the swimming pool!

The next day was our last day at the comp' site as we and most of the England Team were flying back home on the tenth. So we drove around and had a relaxing day in preparation for the long drive to Washington DC airport and then the flight back.

Next day we got up fairly early having about a six hour drive to the airport and we got there with plenty of time to spare, which was nice. After a seven hour flight and collecting our kayaks we then went out to find our car and to find that it was very windy, cold and overcast. A big difference from the 75 degrees Fahrenheit and clear skies that we had in America!

We all had a good time and I for one am looking forward to hopefully going to the next Worlds which are being held in Australia on the Sunshine coast.

Congratulations to the Basque Team for winning this years Worlds!

JTG

Ireland 2010

posted 28 Nov 2010 08:26 by James Uren

Ireland 2010

October saw the end of the surf kayak competitions with the Home Internationals and British Open held in Portrush, N. Ireland.

We arrived in Portrush on the Monday evening just in time for boat scrutineering. Then a quick scramble to find our accommodation and back to the Playhouse for the opening ceremony with the Mayor of Coleraine.

Looking at the swell reports the Homes was scheduled to run on the Wed/Thurs. With the Tuesday free we met up at Portballintrae and had a good four hour free surf session! In retrospect this wasn’t great tactics as I gained a good hand of blisters for the week!! The afternoon gave us a chance to explore the area so we headed to the Giants Causeway and Dulance Castle and generally acted like good emmets would.

The competition was held at Whiterocks beach, this was a nice sandy beach with a consistent peeling wave and a great Tea van in the carpark! Thursday saw a bigger swell come through so Harry and I headed up to Portballintrae again, after much deciding whether it was a good idea to get in.. we did. After catching a couple of screaming waves a set came through which caught me on the inside and Harry about quarter mile offshore with no way of getting in. All the boardies got out and after that we thought it best to head back to whiterocks!

Home Internationals were all wrapped up on the Thursday. The competition was very close with only a few points in it as we went into the finals. The playhouse hosted a surf film evening that night and the final results were read out with England with 53 points and N.Ireland in second with 54 points! England retained the Home International Trophy for another year. Full points were:

1st - England - 53 points

2nd - Northern Ireland - 54 points

3rd - Republic of Ireland - 107 points

4th - Scotland - 108 points

British Open Individual comp started on Friday with over 50 people entering in various classes. In the rounds i got a 3^rd in my first heat with a 2^nd place in the HP Rep which was luckily enough to get me through the semi finals but unfortunately didn’t make the HP final round.. but theres always next year! The entry fee included a Friday night meal in portrush but couldn’t party too hard with the finals coming up on the Saturday morning.

Saturday saw 3 hours of finals which saw some very impressive surfing! People were being judged on wave selection and dynamic movement by linking manoeuvres well. There was a maximum of 10 waves judged and your top two scores were added to make your score. This meant that it was worth waiting for good waves to come through. Rounds were 15mins and the finals were 20 mins long.

Saturday night had the prizing giving followed by a rather messy evening out! Luckily the hour change was in our favour when it came to checking out the next day! Though tidying our room after drying a week’s worth of wet kit was a bit of a challenge with the hangover! Then there was a quick free surf then back to Cornwall .... via the Guinness factory in Dublin of course!!

A big thanks to all the organisers who put on an awesome week of events as well as a very well organised competitions!

More photos at and results at :

http://www.nisurfkayak.com/

And a click here for a video of some of the weeks surfing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKhMUXxjqfw

The Handicap and Black Rock Surf Competitions

posted 5 Aug 2010 23:30 by Matt Thomson [ updated 5 Aug 2010 23:36 ]

James Gossan has written the following review of June's Surf Comp.

The Handicap surf competition on Saturday was my first surf competition. It started with very small surf that wasn't very powerful which was a big surprise as I was thinking that it was going to be quite big and for my first comp. that wouldn't have been very good. The duration of the heats were 13 minutes each and everybody had at least three, which I was glad about as it took awhile for me to get used to the way of things - like more dynamic moves scoring higher than slower carving turns (at least I think it's like that!).

I only entered the HP class but the IC class looked very different and interesting so I'm going to try that next time. Towards the end of the day as the tide came in the surf dropped off and became quite dumpy and you had to wait for the sets to come in to get on a wave, and then you could only have short rides. When landing and launching one had to be aware of all the submerged rocks that the tide had begun to cover - unless you didn't mind your boat being scratched! The format was, you surfed one heat and had a break for another , then judged the next and then waited for your next heat, getting very cold in the process. This was very good for me as I was able to see what other people were doing to score well although all the rides were very short so I didn't have much time to concentrate on them.

Sunday, the Black Rock Surf Festival, was completely different. The waves were quite big and messy and harder to get on to. At the start of the day you couldn't get on the bigger sets as they went very steep very quickly so most of the time you pearled and if you did manage to stay on the wave you couldn't get a very good ride, or at least I didn't. The format was the same as the Handicap comp. in that you surfed one heat, rested for one and then judged one. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very nice and there was a cold wind so you got cold very quickly and there didn't seem to be enough time for changing to be worth while.

Both competitions were very well attended as about 40-50 people took part. Needless to say I didn't do very well but the rest of the club did very well especially Harry Uren who won the Handicap comp. JTG.

Whitesands Bay Competition 2010

posted 29 Jan 2010 09:32 by James Uren

After having 8 weeks off since the British Open Championships in Wales which ended the 2009 surf competitions we have launched into the 2010 season already! The competition was delayed by two weeks due the snow, which was a shame because the weekend it was originally scheduled for had some pumping conditions on the north coast but would have been far too cold to be sitting around between heats and judging. However the move of date was not in vein, as we arrived at the car park on Saturday 23^rd Jan we were met with the sight of 3ft lines rolling into Whitesands Bay.

Organisers decided to wait for the tide to start dropping before heats started because at the time the ridable sections were smashing into the rocks and there was a high chance of some very expensive mistakes! This delay was a nice chance to grab a coffee and some proper breakfast and catch up with the last couple months of paddling stories.

Following a quick briefing the first heat was on the water ready to go, the green flag went up and the day had started. The day moved along very quickly, because of the earlier delay all heats had to be made 10 minutes long (usually 15mins) and the finals 12 minutes, otherwise we would have had heats still going well after sunset! The huge dramatic cliffs at Whitesands made it an ideal place for the judges as they had a great vantage point to see the paddlers below but it did mean there was a fairly hefty walk down to the water and another short paddle around to get to the competition zone.

First heat up was the International Class (IC). I took this opportunity to sit and watch the first couple rounds to see where they were getting the best waves. Once on the water it was completely different, there seemed to be rocks everywhere! The waves were coming through cleanly and consistently with small ridable sections so the judges were looking for short swift dynamic movements. I am not used to paddling International class boats so it was very interesting trying to get used to carving without fins. Placing second in my heat was enough to secure me a spot in the Semi finals (which was directly after). The competition stepped up notch with some great paddlers coming out to the line up and sadly I didn’t make the mark for the Finals. Next out was the juniors IC, who are always worth watching to gauge the competition of next year! Some fantastic performances were displayed as it was a straight final so they all pulled out the stops to make sure they got maximum points.

Mens Open High Performance followed the juniors. In this class everyone jumped into their high performance toys, which come in all sorts of different styles and colour schemes. This is where the war of the boats starts, with other designers other then Mega getting their boats into the line-up eg. The Evolution by Future Kayaks designed by ex-world champ Darren Bason.

My first heat went through very well.. Or so I thought until I looked at the heat results and placed last. Little did I know the judges had penalised me as they claimed I had obstructed another paddler during the heat by dropping in. Which, of course, I disagree with but know better than to argue with the judges! Luckily there were `repechage` heats running which gave a second chance to get into the finals... with no luck. Second place in that heat was not enough to make it any further. Admitting defeat for the day, I got changed, finally getting some dry clothes on and took up a place judging for the rest of the day.

The afternoon went through with sun and surf until the finals were drawn up. This had a very impressive show of skills and moves by some of the best paddlers the country. Then after a short awards ceremony in the car park it was off down the road for Polo!

Anyone fancy giving a surf competition a go is always more than welcome! It is a discipline of kayaking that is growing and developing rapidly and the competitions are a great chance to be around like minded people and watch how other people are moving on the waves. The next competition is 24/25 April and is an ideal one to go along to. This one runs with a handicapped system, so if you’ve never competed before you’re in with a great chance!! But more on that one closer to the time. JU.

RESULTS:

Open HP (short boat)

1. Jack Horwell

2. Andy Hambley

3. Glyn Brackenbury

4. Andy Howlett

5= Dan King

5= James Hawker

7. Dan Green

8= Chris Hobson

8= Jowan Phillips

10= Philip Watson

10= Andy Wildman

10= James Uren

10= Denzil Pearce

14= Tamsin Green

14= Richard Uren

14= Steve Chivers

14= Pete Copp

14= Jon Mount

19= Jim Ottaway

19= Andrew Hawker

Open I/C (long boat)

1. Gary Adcock

2. James Hawker

3. Glyn Brackenbury

4. Philip Watson

5= Andy Hambley

5= Chris Hobson

7= Alan Owen

7= James Uren

9= Pete Copp

9= Andy Howlett

9= Jon Mount

9= Denzil Pearce

Junior HP

1. Jack Barker

2. Harry Uren

3. Aiden Brackenbury

4. Dylan Petherick

5. Daniel Mitchell

Junior I/C (long boat)

1. Jack Barker

2. Harry Uren

3. Aiden Brackenbury

4. Dylan Petherick

Masters

1. Gary Adcock

2. Andy Wildman

3. Steve Chivers

4. Andrew Hawker

5. Richard Uren

Sennen 30 Jan 09

posted 30 Dec 2009 05:42 by Matt Thomson [ updated 30 Dec 2009 05:57 ]

Penultimate surf of the year turned out to be a mixed bag. Regular 4 foot plus with larger sets coming in every 10 minutes or so, should have been fun. Unfortunately it was almost as busy as summer with a lot of boarders out making it difficult to get a clean ride without having to play dodgems. Going early to beat the rush didn't pay off but when the sweet patch came about 2 hours after high tide the water was looking less congested.

That said, everyone managed to catch some good rides, with John, James and Euan carving a path through the flotsam. My last wave in broke straight on top of me and popped my deck, filling the boat instantly. Another swimming demo to finish the session. Lets see what the final surf of 2009 has in store tomorrow.

Station Rocks Paddle, Sunday 6 Dec 2009

posted 6 Dec 2009 15:11 by Matt Thomson

A big, messy, blown out day on the North coast saw the Sunday surf taking place off the Station Rocks in Penzance. A reasonably reliable break when the winds swing round to a more westerly direction, the recent weather had bumped the waves up to a regular 3-4 foot with the occassional 5-6 footer. The wave period was a bit irregular, catching out the less experienced surfers (me!) on occasion, but giving them a chance to demonstrate their swimming prowess.

The exceptionally strong cross shore breeze meant that a regular paddle back towards the shelter?! of the harbour wall was necessary if you didn't want to find yourself ordering a pint at the Godolphin. All in everyone seemed to enjoy a good couple of hours on the water with Dan T capturing some great shots from the shore, a small selection of which can be found in the Gallery here.

Looking forward to next weekend, see you all there hopefully.

Aye

Matt

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