Final winners of Quiksilver Welsh championships

QUIKSILVER Welsh Nationals 2009

Swansea’s Lloyd Cole and Beth Mason bothtook home their respective titles in this year’s QUIKSILVER Welsh Nationals. Inthe Women’s final Beth Mason lead the way and surfed some critical lefthandersto take the title. In the Open, Lloyd’s surfing had flowed throughout the eventand this continued in the final with him nailing two big scores making the Opentitle his for the 3rd time.

After last year’s amazing weather and wavesall at WSF headquarters were bracing themselves this year for a weekend ofhowling onshore gales and rain. Surely we had cashed in ‘luck’ vouchers lastyear …. hadn’t we? Maybe not……someone had had a word with somebody somewherebecause once again forecasts for both weather and waves looked fantastic ….well, at least for Saturday and Sunday… !

Saturday dawned with a chill in the air butthe predicted swell had arrived at Freshwater West right on cue with solid4-5ft, glassy waves breaking into Middle Bay. The contest kicked off at 9.00amwith the ten 1st round Open heats running on twin peaks simultaneously sharingthe Middle Bay arena for an electric start to the contest.

As is so often the case when the swell isoverhead at Fresh West the paddle-out is long and un-forgiving. This no doubtcontributed to a few early round upsets as no one was exempt from Fresh's furyas we saw last years finalists and favourites Greg Owen and Harry Cromwelleliminated early, leaving the door open for some new faces to enter the fold.With the tide pushing in and the swell continuing to build Middle Bay providedthe Open surfers with solid walls in which to perform and a natural amphitheatreoffering spectators a ring side ticket to all the action. Llantwit’s StevePhillips was turning heads with his new school approach, whilst Pembroke's RyanThomas was in giant killing mode beating Owen, Cole and Kibblewhite on route tothe quarters.

With the Open given a well earned breatherit was the Juniors turn to showcase their skills with local lad Jack Crispleading the charge with some committed surfing along with Josh Hughes who wascertainly looking like the man to beat. Attention shifted from the youngstersto the Women's event, so often over looked when the waves are pumping in favourof the men, director Bateman was keen to put our girls through their paces andtest their metal in proper waves. To their great credit the girls put in plentyof effort, Olivia Jones typifying the commitment leaving the water bloodied andshaken and forced to retired hurt. Once again it was British Champ Jo Dennisonand Beth Mason who led the charge with typical gutsy displays. Open Round 3 hitthe water late on in the day. What seemed like some of the best waves of theday saw current champ Cole came up against Vaughan and Newquay based Welsh GromJosh Hughes, who was surfing in his 5th heat of the day! The guys went to towntaking apart the left handers on their forehands with a series of high scoringwaves that saw Cole and Vaughan progress at the expense of Hughes who onlynarrowly missed out. A fitting end to an action packed day of good surfing.

Sunday began as Saturday finished. Finesunny weather and good waves at Freshwater West, although the north-west breezewas taking the edge off temperatures reminding us all it was still early May.

Having studied the charts it was clear thatMonday offered little in the way of quality waves and certainly the potentialfor heavy rain making the 3ft sets on offer on Sunday all the more appealing.The call was made to complete the event by running two peaks for most of theday, which although hard graft for the officials certainly made"surf" sense. 

Nine other categories had their firsttaster of competition, with the very young and the very old all keen to stakeclaims as title contenders. With so many heats happening at the same time it’salmost impossible to recall all the action. Standouts include Ryan Tomas, LukeCromwell, Max Payne, Tom Good and Rob Webster Blyth but everyone can be proudof their performances in the testing conditions at Freshwater.

 A fitting moment to the whole contest perhaps was when theGroms U12 final paddled out on the north peak as the Masters final paddled outon the south peak. With only 50yards or so separating 50 years of surfingexperience all the hard work over the weekend seemed very worthwhile.

For one young lady this year’s event was aparticularly special moment. Having missed last years event due to "thathead injury" as well as missing the European Championships, Gwen Spurlockwas more determined than ever to prove she was back to her best which she didin spectacular style taking out the Girls U18 title.

 The U18 Boys had been some what of a headache from the startwith only the slightest margins separating one from the other. With Schofield,Tucker, Reimnitz, Crisp, Good and Hughes all pushing the performance bar upwith every heat, it was a right old tussle. In the end it was Josh Hughes whoout performed the rest with his powerful style suited perfectly to the head highlefts.

 The Women's final saw a three pronged Pembs shot at the titlefrom last years champ Jo Dennison, Siwan Rees and Joanne McHugh hoping to seeoff lone Swansea lass Beth Mason. The low tide sand bars of middle bay wasserving up some sucky long walls to the South ideal for the goofy footedDennison and Mason to go about smashing with their powerful styles. Rees andMcHugh opted for the North rights which proved their undoing as Mason andDennison picked up the consistently higher scores. In the final few minutesMason picked up a left that allowed her to perform a series of solid turnscompleted by a final re-entry that saw her wrestle the crown from Dennison.

The Open final followed a similar patternto that of the Women, with Cole and Vaughan opting to sit further south andMorris and Phillips heading north. Vaughanie got off to a flyer smashing a longleft with trade mark gouges which he quickly backed up with another similarride. Morris and Phillips also started strongly whipping the crowd into frenzywith some smart surfing, before Cole joined the party opting to take thecleaner inside runners. As the final progressed Phillips just couldn't findanother to keep his momentum going and finished up 4th.

Morris perhaps had the greatest opportunityto snatch the title picking off a bomb that clearly caught him in two minds.Having failed to fully capitalize on the first section a short tube followed;he then went for broke with a big close out re-entry but unfortunately Rhysfailed to complete. Vaughanie having got off to a quick start went and satpatiently out the back hoping to build upon his tally, but it wasn't to be asthe set he'd been waiting for caught him out of position and out of therunning. In the end it was Cole's smarter approach, flowing surfing andcommitted turns that sealed the deal. Having started slowly, Cole snuck into atasty one right under the nose of Vaughan taking it to the cleaners with afinal close-out reo landed right at the feet of the judges ensuring the titleremains in the Cole household for another year.

The award presentation began as twilightdescended upon another stunning weekend at Freshwater West. The local residentsea otter even decided to join the crowd to witness the crowning of this year’schampions.

Amongst the champions two special trophieswere awarded, first up was the Matthew Dyson ‘Surfer of the Contest’ award.Rhys Morris of Swansea took this home and seemed a very popular choice judgingby the massive cheer and applause from the crowd.

Legend Fluff, Shane Thomas and Jude Ryderfrom Pembrokeshire Surf Club awarded the Paul Ryder trophy to local surfer,Jack Crisp. Fluff gave a very stirring speech about the legend that is PaulRyder who sadly passed away last year. The trophy is a fitting reminder to anamazing surfer and a great personality who is missed by everyone involved inWelsh surfing.

As the sun finally set all that was left todo was to thank all those who helped to make the event possible with specialmention to Quiksilver – Liam O’Shea and Meena Rajput. The National Trust andPembrokeshire Coast National Park for the use of the beach. The WSF’s ErylMason, Stuart Bentley, Tom Anderson, Mark Vaughan, Lloyd Cole, Alison and DaveWilliams. All of our judges  andthose who mucked in to assist with the second peak, with special thanks to TonySampson and Head Judge Bob Freshwater. And finally contest director JamieBateman who once again gave up hours of his time for everyone else when he’drather have been surfing.

Results

OPEN

1. Lloyd Cole
2. Mark Vaughan
3. Rhys Morris
4. Steve Phillips    

WOMEN                                       
1. Beth Mason
2. Jo Dennison
3. Siwan Rees
4. JoanneMcHugh

SENIORS                                                     
1. Greg Owen
2. Chris Seage
3. Tom Anderson
4. Lee Morgan

MASTERS
1. SimonTucker
2. Brad Hockridge
3. Colin Bright
4. Andrew Pelosi

BODYBOARD                                                        
1. Mark Griffiths
2. Jack Hughes
3. James McGregor
4. Tom Hammett

LONGBOARD
1. Elliott Dudley
2. Huw Bentley
3. Martin John
4. Rob Webster-Blythe
5. Steve Horn

JUNIOR U18
1. Josh Hughes
2. Tom Good
3. Jack Crisp
4. Adam Reimnitz

 GIRLSU18
1. Gwen Spurlock
2. Olivia Jones
3. Mali James
4. Grace Roberts

LONGBOARD U18
1. Huw Bentley
2. Rhys Poulton
3.  Will Pountney

CADETU16
1. Tom Good
2. Max Tucker
3. Josh Hammett
4. OwainBancroft

YOUTH U14
1. Jack Davies
2. Dan Bresnan
3. Nathaniel James
4. Will Pountney

GROMU12
1. Max Payne
2. Aaron Bright
3. Ceiran Hughes
4. Owen Alexander