Mumbles Gower Oceanfest
The waves were small but contestable and the weather ranged from marginal to bloody nice and back again several times throughout the weekend (I think you would call it "typical Welsh weather ").
There was a good turnout of local competitors as well as surfers from as far afield as Cornwall, Jersey and Ireland. And to add a really exotic flavour there was even a Japanese and an Australian entrant - although it turned out they hadn't travelled too far as they both now live in England.
The show got off to a flying start on the Saturday morning with a few big guns being drawn in the early heats against some of the local boys. To most people's amazement local lifeguard and part time SUP rider Chris Vaughan put in a stellar performance and took down two of the biggest names in the contest in Aussie Gareth Grand and ex British no.3 Jim Richardson.
This seemed to set the trend for the day with the local surfers dominating in most of the heats.
By the end of day one, it was Chris Vaughan who was still in pole position closely followed by Connor Griffiths, Pete Hutch and myself.
Sunday morning dawned to a slight improvement in the swell so the organisers wasted no time in getting the contest under way. First in were the longboarders who revelled in the improved conditions. Some fine performances where going down all morning, and the judges were earning their money trying to separate the surfers. Next up, it was the hotly contested SUP division. With the tide now coming in, the waves were the best they had been all weekend and a fantastic display was put on by all competitors to the delight of the spectators.
Some of the biggest cheers were saved for the ladies division which was a very entertaining, nail biting affair which saw Miros Richardson holding down the lead for most of the final only to be pipped at the post by Abby Ekin-Wood!
And last but not least it was the turn of the Junior Longboards who also put in some pretty awesome performances that belied their young age.
With the event drawing to a close, it was only left to the event organiser Jay Doyle to announce the winners and present their trophies before everyone retired to Langland brasserie for a celebratory (or in some cases a commiseratory) drink
After two hard fought days of competition, the winners were
Ladies SUP
1st Abby Ekin-Wood
2nd Miros Richardson
3rd Mel Stone
Open SUP
1st Chris "Guts"Griffiths
2nd Chris Vaughan
3rd Connor Griffiths
Junior Longboard
1st Connor Griffiths
2nd Will Pountney
3rd Josh Hocking
Open Longboard
1st Connor Griffiths
2nd Chris Vaughan
3rd Will Pountney
A big thank you must go to all the people who helped make the contest a success, including Jay Doyle (organiser), the judges (Robin Bramhall - Head Judge, Gary Parsons, Paul Prosser, Nick Newton Williams and Terry Glass) and the Sponsors (Coreban, Starboard and Guts Surfboads)
