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Eight travel to UK to compete in championships
by George Mojo
03/10/2007:// Eight Channel Island bodyboarders travelled to the UK to compete in the Smith & Williamson Solomon Hare British Bodyboard Championships.
The championships run by the British Surfing Association and the British Bodyboard Club, was held at Porthtowan beach on the north coast of Cornwall.
The event saw its largest ever entry, which included all of the top names in British bodyboarding.
The event started in great 3ft clean surf . Unfortunately though, the latter stages of the event were held in small 1ft surf, and the call had to be made to postpone the remainder of the event at a time when three Jersey competitors were very well placed, with David Speller reaching the under 18's final, Dan Garton in the under 14's final and Colin Crowther, aiming for his 5 British final, in a good heat draw for the semi-finals of the Seniors (over 28).
Day one kicked off with the Open division which saw some tough heat draws for the Jersey competitors, with Peter Bolam, Greg Sanderson, Colin Laurent and Phil Le Neveu all failing to progress from their heats.
In the under 18's division, David Speller surfed excellent to progress through to the semi-finals against England's Nathan McCabe and Jo Hone. Speller kept up the good form in the semi-final scoring strongly with some good moves, including a nice air roll, which helped Speller progress through to the final along with Hone.
Le Neveu again was unable to find his usual form and missed out on the better waves in his first round heat failing to advance. Also going out was Pascal Quemener who went for one big roll, but just failed to make the landing, missing out on the points needed to advance from the judges.
In the drop-knee division, Jersey's top drop-knee rider Colin Laurent struggled with the weak waves, which were breaking during the stage of tide in which his heat was held. As the heat drew to a close a couple of bigger waves came through, which saw Laurent finally make his mark, performing a really strong re-entry on one of the biggest waves of the morning. Unfortunately though, on the very next wave, one of his rival competitors landed an even more critical re-entry, just as the end of heat hooter sounded, signalling Laurent's exit from the competition.
Bolam was back in the water next, for the first heat of the Senior division. A tough heat which contained two former British champions Rob Barber and multiple British Champion Danny Catten. Bolam performed some nice 360 spins, though the speed of Barber and Catten's manouevres were too strong for Bolam.
Next up was Colin Crowther, who had spent the whole day on the judging panel for all of the other divisions. Crowther surfed strong to advance through to the semi-finals with some solid rolls, plus a reverse 360 off of an oncoming section, a manoeuvre which had been scoring well with the judges throughout the day.
Day two dawned with small 1-2ft surf with a very strong offshore wind funnelling down the big valley which leads to the beach. Despite an early practise session from Crowther and under 14's competitor Dan Garton, it soon became apparent that as the tide started dropping the wind was going to flatten off what was remaining of the diminishing swell.
After a long wait, the Contest Director made the call to run the under 14's final to see how it progressed. 13 year old Garton up against England's Sam Newby, George Hawken, Ed Hone and Callum Morse, struggled with the tiny waves. Nevertheless, as all the competitors struggled to complete any manoeuvres at all against the wind and weakness of the waves, Garton performed a tidy 360, putting him right into contention for the title.
After the final, a meeting was called amongst all the officials, and it was decided that the heat would be void, as the waves weren't really contestable and fair to the competing bodyboarders. The decision was then made to suspend the rest of the Championships too until a later date.
Contest Director Rob Barber said it was with great regret that the decision had to be made, and a lot of consideration was taken as to the high cost of travel, which was involved to enable the Jersey competitors to take part in the event. However one of the aims of the British Bodyboard Club was to showpiece bodyboarding in good waves. He added that he really hoped the three Jersey bodyboarders remaining in the competition will be able to raise funds to enable them to travel back for their finals and semi-final, which are likley to be held at the beginning of November.
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