Wavelength Surfing Magazine

The session ended with the tide filling in and we all parted company just in time as our cars were next on the list for a parking ticket. Bank holiday weekend and crowds descend on Cornwall and the water, the swell got choppy and fun and sunny but nothing special, a weak East Coaster reared its head but faded as quickly just pushing a bit of wind slop down the right side of the country. As Run To The Sun revellers had fun with water pistols this goose chase was rapidly winding down, it hadn’t gone to plan, but you can’t actually plan such a thing you just go with the flow and in this case the flow had meant Cornwall and not anywhere a bit more interesting. 
It didn’t quite finish there though; buffed by the powers that be at the BPSA, an opportunity arose to cross the channel to Jersey along with Britain’s finest surfers for The Kangaroo Poo Watersplash Open. The charts looked as

good for there as they did for anywhere so it was a ridiculously early start to get a fast ferry from Weymouth in Dorset to the fine sunny isle of Jersey.(Above: Lee Bartlet throwing some tail on the sunny Isle of Jersey) The Condor was packed and the two Jumbo Jet engines churned us out into the gloom to what seemed like a marathon channel crossing. But in what seemed like no time, St Peter Port on Guernsey flashed past in the misty gloom skirting St Ouens Bay. On the way to St Helier we could just pick out a bit of white water on the beach. Disembarking onto the quaint little tax haven was like arriving in the Promised Land, the mist cleared, the temperature rose and a gentle two-foot swell started to build on the push. Easky boy Cain Killcullen (Left) was already at the beach and was soon joined by Joss Ash and his Welsh travelling companion and shaper Carl Whelton. The boys spent a couple of hours ripping into the small peaks, nothing special but refreshing after the early start and ferry crossing.Next day and my eyes surely deceive me but there is a two foot plus glassy building swell, a bit weak but interesting despite the low tide. Now there’s been a fair bit of bitching about the BPSA on t’internet recently what with all these bloody foreigners coming over and winning, it’s a damn disgrace. But here’s the thing, sure it ain’t perfect but it’s a start. It gives British surfers a
chance to get into some decent competition and win a bit of cash, I suppose us Poms have got to whinge about something though. So the contest kicked off in semi decent waves, until a typhoon swept in and the surf returned to regular contest format, cold and onshore, but still pretty contestable.

There were moments when I started to wonder what the hell I was doing on a beach watching mush, but as Lamiroy confirmed whilst watching the semis, contests are strangely addictive affairs which keep sucking you back in against your will. The actual contest went something like this; in the open Reubin Pearce was on fire all weekend and progressed pretty easily into the final. The standard was high even in the shifty conditions yet there was the usual controversy; in the men’s semis it appeared to the laymen on the beach that Saffa Lu Whittaker had destroyed his heat and won, when in fact he’d come third leaving Stokesy and Mark Harris (Right) to progress to the final, Lu was less than pleased. The final pitted Reubin, Mark, Stokesy and Oli Adams against each other. Reubin left little room for error and took the final with Stokes second, Oli third and Mark fourth. Ireland’s Nicole Morgan took out a second successive contest in the women’s, Matt Capel took the juniors and lanky 16-year-old Tom Butler the groms.
The after party raged, Oli was barely out of his wetsuit when he was stuck into his first beer, good stuff! Him and the Mullins brothers led the charge on the free Fosters before taking it long into the night, causing a few minor disturbances along the way. They arrived at the beach the next morning to find their boards and car exactly how they had left them after Oli’s final heat, that is unlocked and boards scattered around the car park. So that was it, the goose chase over, as the condor slipped past St Ouens Bay I had time to reflect on what had been a very shit three weeks of surf. It’s just a good job we’ve got a few decent riders in this country otherwise you’d have just been checking out ten very blank pages.Big thanks to all at the BPSA, Kangaroo Poo, Freerange, Fosters (tastes so good when it’s free), and the Jersey tourist board for the last bit, and for the Sports Vision crew for sorting out my ferry.