Scottish Lowland Comp May 2nd 2015
hosted at Belhaven by Coast to Coast
Thanks to http://www.tonymarshphotography.com for the photos
Was a super fun comp with a large turn out. We where greeted with nice 2ft cross shore surf that stayed contestable all day!
The SUP surfing event kicked off first with a collective of very talented SUP surfers travelling from as far south as Newcastle. Some great SUP surfing went down with the Newcastle lads ripping in the heats and the final and Nick competing well with Simon for the top honours, a pretty radical top turn lay back clinching it! It was really great to see the standard these guys are at in the SUP surfing - a great first step locally to improve standards!
Finalists of the SUP category. This is one of Scotland’s first SUP contests and the start of a journey for Scotland in competitive SUP. The SSF hope to send a Scottish team to ISA SUP events in 2016
The Juniors was the next final to go and it was a really competitive affair with all three finalists trading good waves, switches and decent rides in difficult conditions. Elliot though had a great drop on his first wave gaining the nod overall and the junior title! We are pretty stoked too as these three groms are all 12 or under and part of the Coast to Coast Junior development team - looks good for the future!
The next final was the ladies event. This event was well attended with ladies from as far as Thurso and Peterhead coming down to compete with the local girls. In some very close heats, the finalists all came from the south east. Yvonne who had surfed a blinder in the semi finals form dipped slightly in the final to finish forth, Sarah got some great waves but just couldn’t quite stay the pace with Anna and Phoebe. Anna really pushed hard against Phoebe (who’s in the current Scotland team) and was ahead for parts of the final but Phoebe used all her heat knowledge and outscored her rival with slightly more critical waves and some nice cross steps and switches to win.
The mens Longboard event saw 18 competitors take part and with a great overall standard it was hard to make the semi final let alone the final, special mentions to Jamie Marshall, Russell Henderson and Rinaldo (last years champ) who all narrowly missed the final. Kev from Edinburgh though showed sparkling form in his first longboard making the final with some great surfing in the heats and semi finals but in coming up against Josh and Sam (both previous winners) and an inform Tim the final proved a step to far (next year!). In a very competitive final the three brothers pulled a wide arrange of tricks, from helicopter take offs, nice cross stepping, hang fives, mini floaters and some great combo turns and a couple of head stands! The lads went Toe to Toe literally with Tim coming out on top and winning the title for the first time. The Longboard mens title is always super competitive and the winner has to surf really well, in this years events Tim didn’t disappoint surfing well through the entire event! Whos next year champ? as no one has ever retained the title with 4 different winners since its start in 2011!
This year we also looked at bringing in two new categories, the whitewater master and an expression session. The idea for both is to encourage competitors of all standards the freedom to just get involved and try things with innovation and fun being rewarded. This year Stefan and Clover won best wipe out awards, with Kev and Annabel getting most rad move. This is something we will look to continue!
Finally we’d just like to say a massive thank you to all the judges, who without their dedication the comp is just not possible and also photographer Tony Marsh for his great photos and everyone who turned up to make it such a socially inclusive event building a pretty laid back but talented local surf scene! We hope to see you next year!
SUP Surf
1st Nick (Newcastle)
2nd Simon (Newcastle)
3rd Jo (Northumberland)
4th Steve (Gullane)
Junior Surf
1. Elliott (Dunbar)
2. Michael (Glasgow)
3. Clover (Dunbar)
Ladies Longboard
1. Phoebe (Edinburgh)
2. Anna (Edinburgh)
3. Sarah (Longniddry)
4. Yvonne (Dunbar)
Mens Longboard
1. Tim (Edinburgh)
2. Sam (Dunbar)
3. Josh (Dunbar)
4. Kev (Edinburgh)
Most Rad moves Kev and Annabel
Best Wipeouts Stefan and Clover