British Open 2011

 

The forecast wasn’t looking good for the weekend but when we got to the car park at 8:15 I had a pleasant surprise.  The weather wasn’t brilliant but the surf was a couple of feet though messy.

After the briefing at about 9:30 the first heats started.  I was entered in the Junior HP, Junior IC and the Open.   Unfortunately the car park was up the hill from the beach so to get to the beach (or back to the car) one had to walk  down (or up!) through quite deep sliding sand which was very hard work.  So I tried to limit the number of times I needed to go up and down the path!

My first heat was a bit of a disaster.  It was the open and for some reason I just couldn’t get on a good wave. The waves were pretty powerful but it was fairly easy to paddle out.  Unsurprisingly, I placed last.  The tide was right in and was ebbing when everything started so when my next heat started it was quite far out and the surf had dropped off quite a bit. This heat was important because if I wanted to get into the quarter finals I had to win the heat or place second to get in to the last chance heat.  Sadly, I only just lost out with a third.

I now had to wait till late in the afternoon for the Junior IC and I had a good chance to watch all the other good surfers ripping it up.

 

When the time came for the Junior IC final the tide was right out and in some places it was dumping right onto the sand, a danger of  breaking boats if one wasn’t careful! There was only a final as not enough people entered to need any heats before hand.  I made a mistake and caught some waves that didn’t really have a shoulder to them so I didn’t score as high as I think I could have done.  Though I had a few nice exit moves.

The rest of the heats had to wait for the next day (Sunday) as we were running out of time.

There was meal organized at a local pub, which was really nice just what one needed after a days surfing!

After the meal there was a prize giving for the classes that had run that day which included Junior IC, Ladies IC, Mens IC and Masters IC.  I came 4th in the Junior IC with Aidan Brackenbury in 1st place after really ripping it up.

 

Next morning we all gathered at the beach for 9:30 and everything started.  I went out for a free surf while the first heats were running as the Junior HP, which was all I was entered in that day, wasn’t on till about 11:30-12:00 as it was second from the end.  The surf had picked up from the day before and now the weather had taken a turn for the better although the wind was still quite cold.  My final at last arrived and the surf had dropped of again as the tide went out but there were still some nice waves coming through.  The sea was now getting a bit crowded by all the surfers and body borders who were taking advantage of the nicer weather so one couldn’t surf as well as one wanted to.  We had to look out for where the wave was taking us and several times I had to stop and get off the wave so I wouldn’t hit anyone.  At the end I was happy with what I had done.  Then I had to wait on tenderhooks for the prize giving.

At the prize giving I came 3rd in the Junior HP which I am happy with.  Now I have to get lots of practice in for the next comp’ which is in two weeks time.  The Results are below.

 

 

Results