...after not long back from the Canary Islands and returning to find N.Devon covered head to toe in a blanket of snow, the thought of competing in Croyde surf clubs Steve Mckewan contest on a cold, wet winter morning in January didn't seem that inviting! especially when greeted with a solid six foot swell with a nice strong on shore wind to back it up!! ...but once spotted in the car park it was to late to sneak back off to bed, so it was on.
The morning saw the juniors battling it out in the testing condition and after witnessing one too many juniors getting the
hiding of their lives, the open riders huddled together (mainly for warmth!) and put together a plan . So once the last of the juniors had finished washing up on the beach, the open surfers convinced the judges to move the rest of the comp round the corner to the point which up till now had never hosted a contest, much to the dismay of the junior surfers who by this point had developed gills. The idea of moving the contest round to the point was based on once we had made it out of the pinball gully, was that we would have a lot less kicking's and a little less paddling. Come the final we found once we were out of the gully there was that much water shifting down the point that the paddle out was more like an iron man contest, then once out the back I thought I might be sneaky and take the inside line on the peak and proceeded to paddle deep, only to be caught out by a large set that seemed to last for about fifteen minutes. All up it was a testing final, which saw me walk away with second place. It was good friend and one of N.Devons top surfers Ossian Plesance that walked away with first place, racking up two high scores that became too hard to beat in the testing conditions. In the end it might of been a rite c*** of a day, but what else ya gonna do on a day like that? sit on the couch watching re-runs of scrubs!? actually that sounds like an awesome way to spend the day!! For the full story and results of the contest then click here
As for any other news, top rider and big wave charger Andrew Cotton has headed out to Ireland with N.Devon ripper Lyndon Wake to chase down some heavy swells, so if your keen to read up on joyriding, jet ski's and dick fights then walk this way ....Cotty's blog or Lyndon Wake's BBC blog
