One Board, Two Worlds, snowboarder Mathieu Crepel’s latest project, born out of a crazy wish, to bring together his two passions and to ride the mountains and the ocean with the same board…no bindings, no fins.
From the first prototype created « just for fun » in renowned shaper Axel Lorentz (Pukas)’s workshop to the reality of a hybrid, handcrafted board, the result is just awe-inspiring. « One Board, Two Worlds » takes us from the waves of the Basque Country to the mountains of the Pyrenees, for a hitherto unseen blending of these two elements which are so dear to Mathieu.
For this film, Mathieu aims to get back to the simple things ; no objectives of high performance, just the pleasure of enjoying these two worlds and getting back to the very fundamentals of boardsports.
For the production, Mathieu, accompanied by videographer Guillaume Arrieta, shot everything within a radius of only 100km. For the snowboard sections, they stayed in a mountain hut in the Pyrenees before coming back down to the ocean to shoot on the waves.
Eithan Osborne, Josh Moniz, Becca Speak and Luana Silva set their sights north and head to the land of bitter cold waters, relentless winter storms and endless natural wonder – journeying through a place where local wisdom often tells the truest story.
A short film directed by Ben Weiland and Elli Thor, and produced by Billabong Ambassador and outdoor photographer/filmmaker Chris Burkard.
Press play to follow the crew’s adventure and watch the full edit.
As experience of running the Jesus Surf Classic for the last 29 years shows, the surf forecast and weather conditions don’t always play ball, so the organisers have to juggle what can be surfed throughout the weekend bearing in mind the wide range of age groups to cater for.
This year’s event was no different, and despite the forecast of some challenging conditions, it was decided to go ahead with the event, but sadly without the younger age categories of Under 12s, Under 14s and Under 16s; these competitors were greatly missed but the right call in the end due to the inclement weather.
The Christian Surfers crew set up the marquee and contest site on Friday night, so by 8 am Saturday morning the coffee was on, the T-shirts and programmes were ready to be handed out, and the contestants and their support teams were greeted with big smiles from the volunteers.
The first heats got underway at 8.30am with the Men’s quarter finals and rolled on through until just before 4 pm when the Men’s final was completed. Action on the beach was pretty hard work for the judges and the beach-based crew at times, with strong southerly winds and driving rain but they, as well as the surfers and their supporters, were determined to see the event through, wrapped up warm and basically continued to smile throughout.
The surf during the day was actually pretty clean with southerly cross shore winds and swell picking up to about 3 to 4 foot which made for some fantastic surfing throughout. Unfortunately, as this was a rescheduled event, a number of those who had originally entered were unable to make it so entries were smaller than we would normally have, particularly in the Under 18 girls and the Women’s Open, but understandable given those constraints.
First final of the day was the Girls’ Under 18s, which saw a new name on the trophy with North Devon’s Belle Betteridge surfing really strongly throughout and taking the victory ahead of Newquay’s Tegan Blackford, who just beat her sister Eva into third place; a big well done to Alexandra Husson and Boe Howell in fourth and fifth places respectively.
The over 35s (Masters) final is always really well contested at this event, and we love having this older category present. This year was no different with Simon Nicholson taking the victory for the first time over Rob Watson and local boys Jordan Reed and Scott Rannochan (great to see Scott competing again after all these years)
From there we moved to the Boys’ Under 18s final which, as you can imagine, was stacked throughout the whole event and Sam Hearn, before he leaves for Portugal again, took the title in a very tough heat ahead of Beau Betteridge, Jowan Pegg and Alex Townsend, who surfed so well throughout.
Next up was the Women’s Open final, by which time the tide was getting a little bit high and was reducing the opportunities for high-scoring waves. Bude’s Emily Currie took the title ahead of local girl Belle Betteridge, with Tegan Blackford in third and Alexandra Husson in fourth. A very well contested heat with good sportsmanship throughout. The final final went right down to the wire with Bude’s Barnaby Cox taking the win for the first time, over Jowan Pegg, Wales’ up-and-coming star Patrick Langdon-Dark, and Alex Townsend, again all surfing so well throughout.
The presentation took place outside the marquee under ever-blackening skies and Contest Director, Phil Williams, introduced Chris Clark (Dailybread Surfboards) who shared a little about his life and his experience cycling a tandem from John O’Groats to Lands End, and about the rhythms of life and faith that were so important to him during that time.
As well as the traditional trophies and prize money, there is also a very special prize which the event gives out each year which is the Spirit of the Event award; nothing to do with what people have achieved, just something that sums up giving something back or the right attitude throughout. This year it was awarded to Norman Wright (he of Hotdoggers’ fame) who gave up a spare weekend due to the BLU event being cancelled and came over to Croyde with his truck and judging tower and spent the day on the beach with the team which really helped us, especially when the winds picked up and the rains came down hard. The trophy is in memory of a very special man, Phil Pechonis, who passed away and he would have definitely agreed with Norman winning this year.
There was lots of positive feedback from all the competitors, probably helped by the fact that the barbeque kept them fed, along with amazing fresh cakes, hot coffee, surf movies and the marquee that sheltered everyone from the storm. Contest Director Phil explained how it had been a tough week but being a man of faith, he felt God guided him to make the call to hold the event, as he has been guided over the last 29 years.
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
The Christian Surfers’ team can’t wait to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Jesus Surf Classic next year, hopefully with a skate park and everything else, over one weekend mid-September – date to be confirmed. A true weekend of celebration. There are so many people to thank including Parkdean for letting us host the event there, the Met Office, Surfline, the volunteers from around the country and from the local churches, the cake bakers, all those with key roles in the running of this contest, as well as the RNLI, water safety lifeguard Zach, and, of course, Norm with the truck, and Merry and Iain who organised live music during the afternoon.
The Christian Surfers crew are already well underway in planning this weekend’s Jesus Longboard Classic based around the Tubestation in Polzeath and, with 90 surfers already booked in, it looks like being a really busy but exciting weekend. If you want any further information about Christian Surfers, go to christiansurfers.co.uk
These recent sessions prove that the sand banks are groomed and ready for the Quik Pro France 2021. Featuring: Jorgann Couzinet Kauli Vaast Aritz Aranburu Kyllian Guerin William Aliotti Vincent Duvignac Leo Paul Etienne Thomas Debierre Sam Piter Nelson Cloarec Teva Bouchgua Remi Derepas Paul Bayle
Manchester given the green light, wavepool for Deal, Kent in the pipeline..
Manchester
The McKinney Group has been given the green light by planners to build a £60m surfing lagoon in Manchesters TraffordCity. The facility will run a Wavegarden, in the ‘Modern Surf’ complex complete with café/restaurant terrace, pop-up beach bars, surf shop, and changing facilities.
Managing Director Billy McKinney said: “We’re delighted that Trafford Council has approved our proposals for Modern Surf and are very grateful to local residents for the extraordinary level of support we have received. Modern Surf will complement the already excellent leisure based activities in TraffordCity and help to inspire the next generation of surfers and athletes. We hope to create 100 jobs when operational as well as supporting many more during the construction phase.
Meanwhile daarn sarf plans have emerged for a Wave Garden to be created at Betteshanger Country Park, near Deal, in the transformation of a former colliery. The application for the Wave Garden and hotel could be submitted early next year and if approved, construction could start in 2022 and delivery in 2023.
Chief executive of Quinn Estates Mark Quinn said: “We want to create a Wavegarden which is a unique surf facility and experience. There’s none in the south east of England and you’re only allowed one in each key area and this would be the one for the south east.
“We anticipate that we could be looking at transforming our visitor level numbers from 170,000 a year towards 700,000 a year with the creation of this facility.
“It creates hundreds of jobs and creates a huge amount of opportunity for every type of person to be able to join in and enjoy the benefits of surfing, body boarding, all the things this wave garden allows you to do.”
Betteshanger Country Park includes 230 acres of land and is situated on the former Betteshanger Colliery, which was the largest coal mine in Kent and closed in 1989.
Birmingham
The UK currently has Surf Snowdonia and The Wave Bristol, but plans are also going in for Southport, Edinburgh, London, Bournemouth, Milton Keynes and Coleshill near Birmingham meaning there could be 10 facilities by 2024!
Honolua Blomfield (HAW) and Edouard Delpero (FRA) claimed respective victories at the Cuervo Surf Ranch Classic in beautiful form. The prevailing winds seen on Day 1 gave way to clean conditions throughout Finals Day as Blomfield and Delpero put on a show to secure big wins. This result gives both victors 10,000 valuable points toward the rankings and their hunt for a 2020/21’ World Title.
An impeccable showcase in the Final from eventual winner Blomfield stunned everyone in attendance with a Perfect 10 on her first left. The 22-year-old’s amazing style throughout the wave and ability to ride switch deep in the barrel to finish it off left fellow finalists Soleil Errico (USA), Avalon Gall (USA), and Alice Lemoigne (FRA) needing a near-perfect ride to catch her.
“This means a lot and it’s one of my favorite wins so far in my career,” expressed Blomfield. “I want to thank Soleil (Errico) for pushing me to pull out all the stops and do what I had to do to win. I’m just so happy to win this event and having so much fun. I’d love to get another World Title but it’s going to be tough with everyone competing so I’ll give it my all.” The Oahu, Hawaii, competitor slowly built her foundation throughout the day, notching near-excellent rides in each of her heats to keep her Final campaign alive. A marathon day, including six waves, tested the two-time WSL Longboard Champion but her grace under pressure paved the way to a massive win heading into the final event of the season.
Delpero claimed his fourth-career WSL win on a longboard in stunning fashion – overcoming a heavy-hitting Final including reigning WSL Longboard Champion Justin Quintal (USA), style icon Harrison Roach (AUS), and Longboard Tour veteran Kai Sallas (HAW). The Frenchman earned an excellent 8.33 to begin his Final campaign on the right and backed it up immediately with another impressive 7.67 – finding one of the deeper barrels on the lefthander in the event.
“It’s been super hard work and I’m fully enjoying this victory,” said Delpero. “Congratulations to all the surfers that pushed me to surf that wave at my best. There was definitely a lot of coaching coming from these tents as we had a lot of support. This is great and just so thankful for all of this. I can’t wait to get to Malibu and give my everything at that event and hopefully I can get another big win there if I can keep this momentum.”
Delpero claimed his fourth-career WSL win on a longboard in stunning fashion – overcoming a heavy-hitting Final including reigning WSL Longboard Champion Justin Quintal (USA), style icon Harrison Roach (AUS), and Longboard Tour veteran Kai Sallas (HAW). The Frenchman earned an excellent 8.33 to begin his Final campaign on the right and backed it up immediately with another impressive 7.67 – finding one of the deeper barrels on the lefthander in the event.
“It’s been super hard work and I’m fully enjoying this victory,” said Delpero. “Congratulations to all the surfers that pushed me to surf that wave at my best. There was definitely a lot of coaching coming from these tents as we had a lot of support. This is great and just so thankful for all of this. I can’t wait to get to Malibu and give my everything at that event and hopefully I can get another big win there if I can keep this momentum.”
“I feel really good about my result here and Honolua (Blomfield) held her own out there and did what she needed to do,” said Errico. “I highly respect her for that under pressure. Now I’ll just take this at a good time and try to win Malibu. I’m thankful I live in Malibu, and I know that wave really well so I’m stoked there’s a WSL event there to try and get a World Title.”
Australian talent Roach made a big statement with this runner-up finish and 8,000 points to his name heading in to the final event of the season ranked No. 2. Roach’s jaw-dropping, near-perfect 9.33 put him into the Top 4 with ease just behind Quintal and started his Final with a solid 7.50 on the left to start – but couldn’t find the 8.50 he needed as the last left ran away from him.
“I’m so happy to make it this far and be in those top sort of point ranges,” said Roach. “It’s important in these big events if you want to win a World Title and I certainly want to do that. I would’ve loved to win but I guess I peaked a bit early. Malibu’s a dream wave. Another perfect, long right and it’s great to go into the event with a lot of momentum. All things to be happy about.”
Great finishes from Lemoigne, Gall, Quintal, and Sallas garnered them equal third finishes after powering through a massive day of competition.
Now, these competitors prepare for the conclusion to their 2020/21’ season at the Jeep Malibu Classic presented by Havainas beginning October 3 – 13.
Cuervo Surf Ranch Classic Final Women’s Results: 1. Honolua Blomfield (HAW) 18.50 2. Soleil Errico (USA) 16.47 3. Alice Lemoigne (FRA) 13.10 4. Avalon Gall (USA) 12.34
Cuervo Surf Ranch Classic Final Men’s Results: 1. Edouard Delpero (FRA) 16.00 2. Harrison Roach (AUS) 14.30 3. Kai Sallas (HAW) 10.76 4. Justin Quintal (USA) 8.67
