CI SURFING: A rough ride, by George!

CI SURFING: A rough ride, by George!

Organised by the Jersey Surfboard Club the competition began with the open and longboard divisions, in unorganised but solid 5-6 ft peaks.

The Open final produced a great display from Sam George, who performed two huge powerful re-entries on two of the biggest set waves of the heat to take the title.

The battle for second was close, with André Le Geyt, winner of the recent BBC Children in Need Channel Island Surf Classic, held in Guernsey, finding a long, manoeuvre-filled right-hander to finish runner-up ahead of Jon Carden.

Ben Chapman finished fourth – and it was his tube ride in his semi-final with the highest-scoring wave of the championships, that was the highlight of the day, scoring nines from the judges.Said George: ‘I was very pleased to win, especially the Open competition.

I’ve won the longboard twice before but the shortboard (Open) title has eluded me so far.’And it was great to be able to do the two competitions in two different surf areas.

Saturday’s conditions were about 4 to 5 ft surf, almost unheard of for a competition in Jersey, wind direction was good and it was a new swell, so it was very enjoyable.”It was important for me to win the CI championships, it’s pretty much the biggest competition in the Channel Islands.

The Open is the big one and I’ve had long time ambitions to win it – I’ve dreamed of winning since I was about 16.

‘My father was champion in his heyday and Masters champion until a year ago – nice to keep it in the family.’A dropping tide at Secrets and a shallow sandbank provided some heavy surf conditions for the longboarders.Piers Gould led throughout until George snatched victory at the end when he found a high-scoring wave to give him his second title.

Joe Davies performed well to take third ahead of Michael Charlton.Sunday morning’s conditions – gale force south-west winds and driving rain – decided the move to St Brelade but did nothing to dampen spirits.In the U14s, held in rough, 2-3 ft surf at the Pole Rock, stand-outs in the early rounds were Liam McFarling and Guernsey’s Jacob Warr.

Both surfed consistently to ease their way through to the final, where they were joined by Bradley Ferguson and Jake Elms.

It was won by the impressive Warr, ahead of McFarling who is fast developing into one of the most-improved juniors on the local surf scene.The experienced Arlene Maltman dominated the ladies’ final, picking off the better set waves to win while the bodyboard final was closely-fought, with Colin Crowther just edging Simon Watkins into second.

Former European Champion Dave Ward put on a good performance to win the over 45s.

with a long, peeling right-hander helping Pete Chapman into the runner-up spot.The Masters division for over-35s was won by Mark Durbano with James Carden finding a good scoring back-hand wave to push Dave Ferguson into third.The most exciting final of the day was in the under-18s where Josh Letherbarrow and Fabian Baker went wave for wave, with high scores throughout the heat and the lead changing after each wave exchange.

As the seconds ticked away, and with Baker ahead, Letherbarrow found a fast right-hander with two big manoeuvres to grab the title.In the day’s final heat, for the senior men’s final for over-28s, Durbano almost pulled off a double after finding a tubing inside wave to secure high scores, but pre-contest favourite Piers Gould, who had been struggling through most of the heat, bust a big re-entry manoeuvre right at the end of his allotted time, to push Durbano into second.

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