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Rescheduled Jesus Surf Classic gets under way
by George Mojo
12/09/2006:// Organisers have been forced to reschedule five divisions of the Jesus Surf Classic because of a lack of surf.
Three finals were staged though at the 14th running of the event at Croyde Bay in North Devon.
A contestable wave arrived on the final afternoon of the event to allow the longboard, junior ladies and youth finals to be concluded.
The majority of competitors and spectators chilled around together at the contest site on day one, watching movies on the big plasma screen in the marquee, enjoying a BBQ, and watching or competing in the skate contest.
Games had been organised to provide entertainment, including a team volley ball competition, and paddle races during the afternoon.
The paddle races were not part of the main contest but were added in for fun and over 60 people took part with cash prizes for a number of individuals.
Despite the disappointment at the lack of surf there was an amazing spirit of camaraderie and it appeared everyone was enjoying themselves.
After a few prayers on Saturday night, a tiny bit of swell showed on the off shore wind on the Sunday morning.
By 12 o'clock the waves were rideable for the longboard competitors and the competition commenced.
This was followed by the youth division ( U14 ), with a new category, the Junior Girls (U18 ), taking place further up the beach.
The 3 finals were held in 2-3 feet of clean surf late Sunday afternoon with a high level of surfing shown by all those taking part.
The Junior ladies was won by Gwen Spurlock from Wales after a tight contest with Kathleen Speers from North Devon and Beth Mason, also from South Wales.
The Youth division was again closely contested, with Braunton's Alex Baker, who came 3rd in 2005, taking away the prize this year, with Toby Donachie 2nd ( 4th last year ). Harry Timson 3rd and Luis Eyre took the final prize in this group, travelling from Portugal to take part.
The longboards certainly made the most of the good conditions and again there was a tightly contested final. Local Ashley Braunton came out on top, narrowly beating Ben Howey, Eddie Wilson and Rob Blythe from Porthcawl. Rob is traditionally a short boarder, so well done for success at what is a new event for him.
There were lots of support at the skate contests on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday night there was a good crowd, bathed in the evening sunshine, for the awards presentation, and for one of the Christian surfers members sharing some of his thoughts on life.
Once again, Christian Surfers UK would like to thank all those who gave their time so freely, especially the 150+ volunteers who contributed directly to the running of the event. Thanks also to the spectators and competitors alike who were so willing to enter the spirit of the contest, even though the first day was flat.
The five remaining surf competition categories, Open surfing, Junior surfing (U18 ), Cadet surfing ( U16 ), Masters surfing ( Over 35's ) and Ladies surfing have been carried over until October 14-15 at Croyde Bay. This replaces the Bude Surf Classic, also run by Christian Surfers UK, which had just been cancelled.
In an on-going desire to help others less fortunate than themselves, over £300 was raised by a surfboard raffle, which included a raffle for a board donated by a Christian Surfers UK member from North London, and a draw for the board signed by over 100 of the worlds WQS surfers, which will be finally raffled later this year.
Once again the 2006 Jesus Surf Classic was a great success, although clearly all were disappointed that the 5 categories have had to be held over.
Apologies for those that never got to surf their categories.
The entries will carry forward to the next event and we look forward to seeing all these competitors at Croyde over the 14th and 15th October.
[TJ Barron en-route to victory in Macy's E-Series Event #1 at Maili Point]
[Tassy Swallow]
[Toby Donachie]
The second of three events comprising the Macy's E-Series, presented by ASP Hawaii, will get underway as early as tomorrow at Ala Moana Bowls, surf pending
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St Merryn’s Toby Donachie fought one of the hardest contest battles of his career this weekend to ensure that he retained his title as the Quiksilver King of the Groms
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