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Gul Bodyboard Open - Report (Click here for pictures from the event.)
La Saline, St. Ouen’s Bay
Sunday November 14th 2004
Good clean 2ft surf and a perfect offshore wind provided fun conditions at La Saline, at the Northern end of St. Ouen’s Bay, for members of the Jersey Bodyboarders competing in the new club’s inaugural event, the Gul Bodyboard Open.
An early start was in order to catch the best wave conditions of the day. This meant the juniors were all suited up and already paddling out for their heat before 6.45 a.m. on what was possibly the coldest morning of the autumn so far. The perfect little peaks hitting the high tide sand-banks at La Saline were ideal for the junior bodyboarders who impressed the judges with some nice manoeuvres. The standout being Phil Le Neveu who smoothly connected a series of 360 spins, with a couple of good rolls off of some nice sections too. These waves scored highly with the judges securing Le Nevue his first ever contest win. The runner-up spot went to David Speller who performed a mixture of both prone and drop-knee rides, one of which included an almost completed drop-knee 360 on a nice left-hand wave. 3rd place went to the younger Steven Lewis who will have gained some good experience from this first club event.
The Open division followed next, running to a contest format new to surfing in Jersey. As used at specialist events on the world bodyboard tour, the new format goes against the usual knock-out elimination style format seen at most surf contests, in favour of a streamlined event where each of the competitors surf a heat in which their waves are scored by the panel of judges. Each competitors top three scoring waves from that heat are then added together to form that surfers score for the overall event. This works perfectly for Jersey and the islands large tidal range, by enabling the club to run events at some of the islands premier surf spots, including those, like La Saline that might only work for a few hours at a time.
The format proved a success as the Open division bodyboarders revelled in the opportunity to compete in the small but well shaped waves at one of their favourite bodyboarding spots. It was pre-contest favourite Clint Loake who lived up to his reputation by scoring the highest scoring wave of the day on his second ride, performing 2 reverse 360 spins, followed by 2 rolls, scoring 25 out of a possible 30 points from the judges. A couple of good back-up rides with combo manoeuvres was enough give Loake the win with a final score of 55 points.
Colin Crowther sitting further down the beach fought back with the second and third highest scoring waves, pulling two rolls on one nice left-hander, and finding a good bowling section for a solid roll on another, to finish in 2nd place with 49.2 points.
3rd spot went to club Chairman Peter Bolam with 35.5 ponts, who pulled a few nice spins to push Simon Watkins back into 4th spot on 31, ahead of Sean Ellis in 5th and Gary Le Neveu in 6th.
Juniors
1. Phil le Neveu 60.5 points
2. David Speller 27.5
3. Steven Lewis 6.5
Open
1. Clint Loake 55
2. Colin Crowther 49.2
3. Pete Bolam 35.5
4. Simon Watkins 31
5. Sean Ellis 16
6. Gary Le Neveu 13.2
The club would like to thank Gul for their support for this event and for helping the club get off to a positive start.