15 year old Ellie Turner from Bude just finished second in the first WSL Pro Junior of 2017 in Caparica, Portugal.
“I’m really happy, I’ve got three more years on the Junior series so hopefully I’ll have plenty more opportunities to win a final,” Turner said. “I tried to get the waves that had a bit of wall, it was pretty tricky but occasionally there was a fun one.”
Turner is leading the British charge in the Pro Juniors, and at 15 has huge potential for a bright future and plenty of titles.
Pics @surfsolutions
Here’s what Ellie had to say about making the final.
How do you feeling coming 2nd in the Women’s WSL Caparica Pro Junior event?
Super happy! I’ve got three more years on the Junior series so hopefully I’ll have plenty more opportunities to win a final!
Did you have any particular expectations or goals going into this particular event?
I was just hoping that I would get a solid result to start off the year. I was hoping to try and get atlas to the quarters. I just wanted to see how far I could get.
What was the surf like for this event?
At the start of the event the waves were super fun and clean, but going in to the semis the waves got really small, it was still pretty fun though.
How did you find the final?
The final had pretty difficult conditions, with really small and onshore waves to contend with. There were still a couple of waves around and I didn’t mange to get some scores. I got two good waves, one with one turn and the other with two.
What surfboard were your riding?
Recently I’ve been using all my new Fourth Surfboards, shaped by Luke Hart but for this contest and the conditions I surfed my 5’8 DHD, it’s a magic board!
Last year you won pretty much every event you entered in the UK, so how does it feel competing in Europe in the Pro Junior events?
In the Pro Juniors every heat is like a final, especially compared to competing in the UK. In the Pro Juniors every one is REALLY good! You have to be really consistent to get through your heats and every heat can feel pretty tricky at times.
Looking forward to the rest of the year, are you going to be doing all of the Pro Junior events?
Yeah I plan on doing all the Pro Juniors this year, which is really exciting.
Getting second place in the first event of year is amazing! Does this change you goals for the year and do you even have any particular plans or goals for the contests?
I’m just going to try my hardest in all of the contests and see how it goes! I would hopefully like to get into the top two, but if I don’t, that’s ok! I’ve still got three more years on the Pro Junior tour!
How did you prepare for this event, with it being the first proper event of the year and what have you been doing all winter?
I spent all winter surfing in Indonesia with my family.Training and surfing loads ready for the competitions.
For all the girls – especially those in the UK! What advice would you give any keen surfers wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Surf as much as you can and make sure you keep consistent.
How did you get into surfing?
From a young age my Mom & Dad always took me on surfing holidays. It’s always been a family thing, surfing with my Dad, brother and sister.
So if you have just clicked through from social media you have just been looking at a photoshopped motion version of a photoshopped shot (above) that went around the world many, many times.
It began as a very real and very late drop for Kai Lenny photogpraphed by ace French water photog Bastien Bonarmme. The real shot with real colour you can see below. The original actually made the cover Surf Sessions 30th anniversary issue, Surfing Magazine (RIP) and Tracks.
The real thing
But apparently that wasn’t good enough and some bright spark photoshopped it into an unbelievable late drop and posted it for likes on his social channel. (Without crediting either photographer or surfer.) From there millions of surf fans liked and shared it around the globe. Surfers, surf fan pages, Facebook, Instagram all reposted with little thought to the guy who took it, or even if it was real. It basically went wild. I don’t know if surfers were sucked in, or knew it wasn’t real but didn’t care. It was amazing to watch.
Then, just as we thought that may be the end of it, last week another Facebook page sent it off for the motion blur treatment, and well, here it goes again…
We contacted Bastien first time round for his thoughts and he was very philosophical about seeing his work go global with no payment or recognition. “At first I was annoyed, then I actually sold the real shot off the back of the coverage so that was ok…”
Second time round, well we thought we’d just tell the story and hope some of you out there will follow his Insta page; @bastienbonnarme
Award-winning Cornish lager, Korev, is to continue its partnership with Britain’s top national surfing event, becoming key sponsor of the 2017 UK Pro Surf Tour (UKPST).
Signing up as Official Beer of the tour, Korev will be supporting UK-wide events for the cream of UK surfing talent across 2017, with the season kicking off at Watergate Bay in May.
The UK Pro Tour, which formed in 1998, is the only series of professional surf events held in the UK and highlights the quality of surf across the country at the same time as raising the performance level of British surfers in a number of events. These events are held in some or the best locations, from the world class waves of Scotland to the popular seas of the South West coast.
“The Tour began in 1998 with the aim of raising the profile of British surfing and proving a uniform event platform to raise awareness of surfing stars to the surfing industry. It has gone from strength to strength over the years and we are really pleased that Korev is on board as a key partner again for 2017 to help us develop the tour further.”
Dave Reed
Tour Manager for the UK Pro Surf Tour
“We are delighted to be continuing our partnership with the Tour. We were involved in and witnessed some superb events last year that were such a fantastic advertisement for British surfing. We look forward to working with the team at UKPSA again to bring the Korev brand to life and promote the Pro Tour which plays such a pivotal role in building popularity and awareness of the sport.”
Jeremy Mitchell
Marketing and Communications Director at St Austell Brewery
The first scheduled event of the tour, Surfaced Pro, will be held at Watergate Bay on the weekend of May 6-7. The tour will then continue into the summer months, with events in Scarborough; Newquay’s Night Surf at Fistral beach; Lynmouth; Llantwit Major; and Thurso.
The announcement comes as rising UK female surf star Lucy Campbell from Woolacombe, who is sponsored by the Cornish lager, has just returned home from training in South Africa, and is preparing for the British season to get underway. We caught up with Lucy after her return from South Africa.
Lucy, when and where did you first start surfing? I started at home in Woolacombe, North Devon when I was about 10.
What are your aims for this year are you competing on the Euro tour? This year I’m competing on the World Qualifying Series and aiming to up my tour ranking. I’ll mostly be doing the European events as well as a few further afield… I’m also hoping to win back my British title!
Tell us a bit how you teamed up with Korev and how their sponsorship has helped you with your plans for the year? We are working on some exciting things this year, from filming to events and festivals. Competing on the WQS is expensive with entry fees, flights and so forth, so I’m really thrilled they are helping me to get to some of the events that I want to be competing at this year.
You’re travelling a lot, what are your five packing essentials? Cameras to capture the fun, TRX for training, sunscreen, laptop loaded with some good movies and coconut oil.
Which countries have you been to in the last year and how would you say surfing abroad has improved your surfing? The last year has been incredible, I’ve been to Costa Rica, South Africa, Australia, Tenerife, France, Spain, Portugal, Scotland and Ireland (yes, do they count!). As much as I love surfing at home it’s amazing to keep surfing in consistent waves, as well as exploring new, different types of waves.
How do you stay fit and healthy? It depends on the waves really, if it’s pumping and I’m in the water 2-3 times a day, I’ll just do some yoga to help recovery. When the waves aren’t so great I like to mix in some running, mountain biking and strength, conditioning/ balance work.
Korev – the traditional Cornish word for beer – launched in summer 2010 in a 500ml bottle, and on draught in 2011, has fast become one of the Brewery’s leading brands. It followed a wait of almost 160 years for St Austell Brewery to produce its first premium quality Cornish lager. Korev is brewed to authentic methods over 25 days using only natural ingredients and has established a loyal following for its clean, crisp taste. Korev is now also available in 330ml cans and bottles. For more information click here. Stay up to date with Korev festivals and competitions and follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
The WSL called in Kolohe Andino Felipe Toledo half way through the second semi-final due to a salmon and tuna feeding frenzy.
“The whole bay’s pretty full of salmon and tuna and everything’s feeding, so in amongst all that is a few smaller sharks and we’re just checking for larger sharks at the moment,” WSL head judge Rich Porta said during the wait.
“It’s turned into a full feeding frenzy in the middle of the bay. Safety first, we’ll bring the guys in for a 20-minute hold until the fish move out.”
“We saw all these splashes,; said Andino “And I don’t think either of us could really surf after that,” Andino told Fox Sports.
“I paddled over and said ‘I think there’s sharks out here’. I saw so many fish swimming under me and I know the big fish follow the small fish. They said we could go on hold and I said ‘OK’, because I couldn’t really think.”
John John went on to win the event using his trademark snap to dominate the event.
RVCA have launched their Spring ’17 line trunks. In line with the #balanceofopposites, they’ve created the Industry, Balance and Nature categories to represent the technical features and aesthetics of this season’s offering. With inputs from the creative minds of our Artist Network Program (ANP) along the latest innovations for comfort and performance, the new RVCA Trunks will fit your every-surf & beach day mixing style and comfort.
RVCA swim is without boundaries, without limits. Equally at home in the water and nowhere near it at all, our swim collection is designed for ANY girl ANYWEAR. Our classic fits get a fresh treatment in this latest colection of Women’s swim. From tried-and-true trianges with strap details to bralettes with sporty cross-backs, it’s all in store and perfect for poolside lounging, beach days and Anywear at all.
So here it is, the wave we heard about and have been harassing the lovely Spaniards to have go on since word got out they had cracked ‘The Cove’ – a barreling man made WaveGarden capable of delivering 1,000 barreling waves per hour.
At this point we are still not sure if that is 1,000 waves of this quality, or even if they could crank up the size a little, but it looks pretty sweet!
1,000 waves an hour is a lot, and that is the crucial part of the deal. Because at the moment, as far as we are aware, the most oft overlooked point from a punters point of view but most crucial aspect of any man made wave is how quickly they can subdue the wash created by the sled and set the wave back up for another rider. More rides equal happy customers and a better commercial model. Why? Because although you would pay £100 for a wave like Slaters right now, you wouldn’t want to pay £100 bucks for one wave an hour forever, right?
Currently due to the enormous amount of wash (check out the background in the videos) we estimate Slaters wave – which pretty much looks like the same tech as the Wavegarden with different bathymetry – can only produce one quality wave at period of around 14 minutes. Of course things may have changed since the last video, and as we aren’t on the guest list we have to guesstimate – Kelly?!! Anyway that is about four waves an hour, and the reason why you don’t see long videos featuring lots of pros rip slash tearing between tee offs.
The Wavegarden, as is, produces a softer wave (due to the sled and bathymetry) once every minute. It is a fun (as those who have ridden it will testify) ride, that doesn’t keep you waiting too long, but more importantly is commercial. As far as surfers and accountants are concerned this works. Sure it isn’t mini Snapper, but no one claimed it was. Just FYI A perfect, glassy WG wave at Snowdonia takes a period of three minutes in between waves to set up due to wash at the moment.
So the Holy Grail, or silvery cup of non specific religious origin, is a perfect wave with no wash. Rumours are that this is what ‘The Cove’ delivers. And if it does, it’s coming to a facility near you soon!
As soon as we get our tickets, we will let you know!
