Here’s your visual update of what happened at Skeleton Bay yesterday shot by locals on the 8th June with international flavours like Benji Brand, Koa Smith, Aritz Aranburu and Cory Lopez. Another day of memorable waves being ridden.
Dale Staples wins the 2017 edition of the JBU Supertrial by powering through some of the biggest and deepest barrels of the day in firing surf at Supertubes.
n firing surf at Supertubes, Dale Staples from St Francis Bay won the 2017 edition of the JBU Supertrial by powering through some of the biggest and deepest barrels of the day. Staples was in rhythm with the ocean from the start, picking up all the best waves on his route to the final.
It was a cold and blustery JBay morning, but there were sets at first light and the contest organisers showed no hesitation in calling the event on. As the freezing offshore wind picked up, so the invited surfers hit the perfect lineup, with consistent six-foot waves pouring through.
Former Championship Tour surfer Greg Emslie was a surprise elimination from round one, after leading for most of the heat. Greg caught a particularly long wave, and after his final turn and kicking out, found himself facing a huge set in front of the reef. “I got caught inside by a big set and pushed onto the reef,” said Greg. “By the time I surfaced from the first wave there was another one, and more behind it. I hit the reef again and eventually got washed all the way down and came in.”
Former event champion Dylan Lightfoot and defending champion Steven Sawyer did not disappoint however, and both won their first round heats. With a wildcard into the Corona Open JBay as well as $10k (R127k) up for grabs there were some determined performances in the breezy conditions with no one giving any quarter.
WQS competitor and perennial Supertubes standout Dale Staples from St Francis Bay shone during the first semifinal. With the swell still rising, Dale found some deep barrels, including one ridiculous 10-point barrel ride at the Impossibles section to emerge with a near-perfect heat score of 19.93 out of a possible 20 points, throwing away a 9.7 as his third wave.
“It’s really good to get such great waves for a contest,” said Dale after his heat. “That ten-pointer was a nice set wave. It looked like it was going to run off away from me, but it actually held all the way to the end.”
Staples continued his form all the way through to the final, which turned into a barrel frenzy as Supertubes, one of the best waves in the world, delivered wave after perfect wave throughout the afternoon. Staples jumped into the lead early on in the final with one incredible double tube ride, followed by a second high scoring ride, and his lead was unassailable from then on.
Mikey February from Cape Town has been having an excellent season but couldnt find the good ones out there and finished in fourth place. Local surfer Matt McGillivray had been looking good all event and some had him touted for the win, but he couldnt match Staples incredible tube riding. Former event champion, a fit and determined Dylan Lightfoot from JBay, found some of the biggest waves of the final, but was unable to string together enough combination moves to get close to Staples, who won the final with a comfortable lead.
“After I got that early one I was feeling really good, and it’s always great to bank a good score in the beginning, ” said a jubilant Staples on the beach afterwards. “Then I got that second nine, and I was stoked and hoping that it would just go flat.”
The wind was howling offshore the whole day, and quite a challenge for all competitors, but it actually worked for the victorious Staples.
“The wind was actually beneficial for me in this event,” said Staples. “It was like the wind was just holding the main barrel section up the whole day. Some of the barrels looked like they were going to shut down on you and then they just opened up in the wind.”
First prize in the JBU Supertrial consists of a wild card into the Corona Open JBay, $10k (R127k) as well as the valuable Championship Tour competitive experience that comes with it.
Kouga Mayor Elza Van Lingen was in attendance at the event and was rapt with the action in the water. “I’m so proud of all the surfers in he competition, and proud of the fact that we were able to host such an amazing contest,” said Van Lingen. “There is nowhere else in the world where we can run such an event, and I can’t wait for this all to happen again when the JBay Winterfest comes to the town of Jeffreys Bay next month. I hope to see you all there.”
The Corona Open JBay has a waiting period from 12th – 23rd July, and is part of the JBay Winterfest.
Final Results:
1. Dale Staples (St Francis Bay).
2. Dylan Lightfoot. (JBay).
3. Matt McGillivray (JBay).
4. Mikey February (Kommetjie).
“It’s only a flesh wound!”
Rich Thomson fought with a “small shark” at Bantham after it bit him on the thigh.
“I turned round and saw this little shark was on my thigh and wriggling its head side to side
“I hit it on the head and it swam off.
“My hand was cut to pieces. I had a quite a sizeable bruise about three inches across,”
He told the BBC the shark was about 1m (3ft) long
Typically he got no sympathy from his missus after coming home late from the surf.
“I went home and told my wife I was late because I had been bitten by a shark,” he said.
“She said ‘I’ve heard that one before.”
And no sympathy from the kids he teaches at Kingsbridge Community College who now call him him “Sharkbait”.
“It won’t stop me going back in the water and it shouldn’t stop anyone, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Experts think it was a baby smooth hound and may have been confused by the murky river run off… A big wave rider may or may not have blamed a women on her period in Derriford.
Obviously it is shark story season, but given the amount of grief Rich has had from his missus and pupils we are giving him the benefit!
Get well soon Rich! We think you are officially the first surfer to be attacked by a shark in the UK!
Maybe set some extra homework for those pesky kids though, huh?
The best, or maybe the worst, thing about social media is you get all the action direct from the front line via news feeds almost as the action happens. When Indo gets this good it’s debatable whether this is a good or bad thing. Good if you are there, or on your way over, bad if you are STUCK IN A FUCKING OFFICE!
Anyway, I have rounded up see of the better moments so you can either tease or torture yourself as you see fit. Enjoy!
Meanwhile in Mexico…
Meanwhile in Mexico…
Photography by Andy Holter
The Surfaced Pro, now into its second year of competition, champions the cause of equality among its competitors with both male and female participants receiving equal prize winnings. Instigated by students at Cornwall College Newquay, who plan and implement the event as part of both the Surf Science & Technology & Marine Sports Science degree programs, welcomes in a new era in professional surfing and further changes the traditional norm by having each surfer’s highest wave score doubled, awarding powerful, impressive wave scores over an accumulation of “safe” rides.
The Surfaced Pro is also the first stop on the new Nerf Clash of The Groms Tour, which covers 4 exciting events on the UK Pro Surf circuit, making stops at Watergate Bay, The UK Schools Surf Championships, The Thurso Surf and The Clash of The Groms finale, giving our new generations of surfing talent an important pathway to hone their competitive skills and promote fresh talent across the UK.
Day: 1 of competition saw large crowds gather enticed by the solar warmth to watch our junior surfers progress through their preliminary rounds with notable surfing talent naturally emerging as our victors, super grom Gabe Llewellyn demonstrated his growing level of skill & energy passing through the first rounds of the Under 12 Open with style. Bude’s Ellie Turner, having returned from the Biarritz ISA World Games & finishing 2nd on the Ripcurl International Grom Search placed her new tour experience to work trumping early rounds in the Under 16 & Under 18 Girls divisions
In a heavy-heated first round of the Men’s Open saw top surfers Alan Stokes & Johnny Fryer matched in their heat, surfing head to head in a charge for an early first place with Johnny taking the heat just 3 points ahead of Stokesy & New Zealand’s Jay Quinn made an impressive entry into our UK competition scoring big in his round: 1 heat.
With a total of 6 heats in this Men’s Open first round, more renowned names ascended the ladder with Gordon Fontaine, Reubyn Ash, Jayce Robinson, Liam Murray-Strout and Joss ash all joining the lists for the title.
The 2nd day launched immediately into the exciting semi-finals of the junior divisions with Seth Morris scoring our first Highest wave achievement of the event with a 9.5 point wave (one judge awarding a 10) in his Under 16 Boys semi-final heat.
Round: 1 of the Women’s category saw Jess Tuckman and Ellie Turner progress through to the next round alongside Emily Williams, Georgina Lewtas, Tehillah McGuinness & Emily Currie. In his Men’s Open Round: 2 heat, Reubyn Ash succeeded in smashing the highest wave score for the entire event, scoring a lofty 9.93 wave.
The sun returned for our climatic finals & the waves peeled in a myriad of greens & blues in front of the crowds, with Nerf darts & Personnel Solutions frisbees decorating the skies as our The Surfaced Pro finalists took to the water.
Early smiles were seen from our Nerf clash of the Groms competitors as our commentator Nick Williams gleefully roused the crowd’s cheers as our winners returned from their aquatic stadium. The tempo rose as our heats climbed in surfing stature through the stylistic performance of our female competitors and grew to a roaring applause as we finished on the ultimate event of the Men’s Open.
Presentations on the beach were the call for the day, basking in the beautiful evening sun and young competitors just as eager for their gifted Nerf guns as the titles themselves clambered around the staging ground. Following a respectable minute’s silence for recent events further afield, UKPSA Director Dave Reed, Matthew Sherratt from Personnel Solutions & Cornwall College’s Brender Wilmott awarded our Contestants their prizes and crowned our Personnel Solutions Surfaced Pro & Nerf Clash of The Groms’ Champions.
We would like to Thank our fantastic event sponsors for their support and we look forward to seeing you all at the Smart Parking Night Surf 2017
Results:
Under 12 Open
1st: Gabe Llewellyn
2nd: Nikita Petrov
3rd: Eli Perrins Davies
4th: Flynn Gillespie
Under 14 Girls
1st: Lauren Sandland
2nd: Asha Sykes
3rd: Tegan Blackford
4th: Alys Barton
Under 14 Boys
1st: Sam Hearn
2nd: Alex Townsend
3rd: Bertie Norman
4th: Jake Arrowsmith
Under 16 Girls
1st: Ellie Turner
2nd: Lily Mandeville
3rd: Tegan Blackford
4th: Ffion Hughes
5th: Alys Barton
Under 16 Boys
1st: Noah Capps
2nd: Barnaby Cox
3rd: Seth Morris
4th: Max Hudson
Under 18 Girls
1st: Ellie Turner
2nd: Mischa Maguire
3rd: Lily Mandeville
4th: Rosie O’Neill
Under 18 Boys
1st: Seth Morris
2nd: Kit Innes
3rd: Noah Anstis
4th: Kam Matthews
5th: Barnaby Cox
Women’s
1st: Ellie Turner
2nd: Emily Currie
3rd: Tehillah McGuinness
4th: Georgina Lewtas
Men’s Open
1st: Jobe Harriss
2nd: Jay Quinn
3rd: Jayce Robinson
4th: Reubyn Ash
What is it?
An opportunity to qualify straight to the European Gromsearch final which will be in October 2017.
Rip Curl will award 2 spots (1 boy and 1 girl) straight to the European final for the surfers under 16 YO (born at the latest in 2001).
How: Post an instagram video (1 mn maximum) using the: #GiveMeAWildCard and tag: @ripcurl_europe
Deadline:
August 31th.
Results release:
We will announce the winner the September 15th via @ripcurl_europe’s Instagram
Who:
All European surfers from up to 16 YO (born in 2001 at the latest).
Judging criteria:
The judges (Vincent Duvignac, Pauline Ado and the Rip Curl Crew) are going to judge your video on these different criterias (20 points total) :
1-Global performance (15 points)
Commitment and degree of difficulty, innovative and progressive manoeuvres, the combination and variety of maneuvers, speed, power and flow
2-Originality, creativity and fun (5 points)
