Here is the link for all the latest results, images and live scores. ALL PICTURES ARE HERE
http://www.eurosurfing.org/eurosurf/
EUROSURF 2009
JERSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS
Sunday saw 3 Channel Islanders in action in the finals. Conditions were extremely difficult on the down tide with Sam George facing 1-0ft surf on podium 2. After the high of winning his Senior man semi final heat in mushy 4ft the day before, George battled hard and finished in 4th. Clayton Lidster also struggling in the small surf but bagged a 2nd in the Masters. Winner of the day went to Ben Skinner in the longboard who demonstrated all the skills to become European Champion.
Shelly McFarling reached the Semi finals of the Ladies event with Arlene Maltman reaching the Quarters. In the Body Board David Speller and Scott Harben also reached the Quarter final stages with Delia Baker in her first ever event on a body board reaching the semi finals. Gordon Blake reached the Quarters in the Longboard and Piers Gould was the only open surfer to reach round 3
After a week of competition, finals day saw 1-2ft waves at the Watersplash giving the best surfers in Europe a chance to showcase their skills. Lucas Garcia(Sp) and Dani Garcia(Sp) dominated the senior man final and Masters respectively. Alize Amaud(Fr) took home the Ladies title with Manuel Centeno(Por) taking the mens Body Board. Catarina Sousa(Por) won the ladies body board and Ben Skinner(Chi) took the Longboard title. The Open saw a wave by wave battle between Mario Lopez(Sp) and Vincent Duvignac(Fr). All surfers in the final demonstrated top to bottom surfing at the highest level. After a slow start, Duvignac(Fr) smashed his way into the lead eventually taking the Open title.
France took the Team award
and Spain tool the Fair Play award
The Jersey Surfboard would to
thank all the teams that came to Jersey on its 50th anniversary year
and key sponsors, AIB Jersey, Deloitte, Watersplash, Collins Stewart Wealth
Management, The Jersey States and Laneez Surf Shop.
Special thanks to all the Eurosurf contest team- Simon Watkins, Cirsty and Robin, Eduardo, Doug Creedon , DJ Lummy and Colin Crowther. This team were on site everyday at 6.30am everyday. Finally well done to Roley McMichael and the CI team. Good job
Team positions below
1 |
France |
10580 |
|
2 |
Spain |
9395 |
|
3 |
Portugal |
8700 |
|
4 |
England |
7580 |
|
5 |
Channel Islands |
7460 |
|
6 |
Morocco |
7000 |
|
7 |
Wales |
6505 |
|
8 |
Ireland |
6180 |
|
9 |
Holland |
6022 |
|
10 |
Germany |
5317 |
|
11 |
Switzerland |
3815 |
|
12 |
Sweden |
4183 |
|
13 |
Belgium |
1658 |
|
|
|
After 3 days of extremely small waves competition suddenly went into overdrive as one of the favourites to take the Eurosurf Open title was knocked out of the competition on day 5.
Damian Chaudoy, recognised as one of Europe’s most promising young surfers, was beaten into third place by just over a single point in one of only a handful of heats completed yesterday in St Ouen’s Bay.
A high scoring opening wave from another Frenchman Romain Laulhe ensured he carved his way into the quarter-final of the main event with a total of 13.33.
However, as with so many of the other heats in this year’s European Championship the second place qualifying spot changed hands in the final stage of the round with Chaudoy finshing on 7.67 and therefore missing out to Mario Lopez of Spain on 8.60.
He was due to meet England’s Alan Stokes in the next round after he stormed through to win his heat in 16.94 as France’s Vincent Duvignac pocketed second place with his efforts earning 13.00 points.
With little action over the last few days organiser Dave Ferguson from the Jersey Surfboard Club expressed his frustration and said: ‘It’s very disappointing that we haven’t completed more of the event but we are in the laps of the gods.’
Day 6 saw
a change in weather as strong
south westerly winds started battering Jersey’s West coast. From mere 1ft surf
on the down tide the uptide saw 3-4ft surf which gave ample opportunity for
surfers to perform high scores. Masters, Senior Man, Ladies, Body Board and
Open heats were completed leaving day 7 for the finals.
Dani Garcia (Sp) and Paulo Rodrigues (Por) are looking sharp in the Masters along with local legend Clayton Lidster (Chi). Local surf shop owner Sam George(Chi) is setting himself up nicely for the Senior Men Title chased by Tyson Greenway (Eng) and Lucas Garcia (Sp)
In the
Open division Spain has 3 surfers in the semi finals with 2 from France, 1 from
Portugal and 1 from England.
Guadaloupian
body boarders, Jeremy Amoux and Martin Mouradian representing France are
matched up in semi final heat 14. Portugal, Morocco and Spain make up the semi
final places.
In the
Ladies semi final heat 22 Sarah Beadmore(Eng) squares upto Adelina Taylor (Sp),
Shelly McFarling(Chi), and Maria Abecasis (Por) and in heat 23 Joana Rocha
(Por) faces Alize Amaud (Fra), Johanna Defay (Fra)
Kick off for finals day will be 8am and with a 37ft tide anything could happen..
JERSEY CHANNEL ISLANDS DAY 4
JERSEY SURFBOARD CLUB
Shakespeare once wrote ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’. In the case of the Eurosurf 2009, would there be any swell ? Not a chance. Contest organisers spent all day wondering if there would be any contestable surf, constantly deliberating over the conditions and studying weather charts minute by minute to come to the conclusion that there will be no surfing today at 3pm. Competitors and judges were ferried to and from St Helier twice to see if the contest could continue but the final decision sent them all back to their hotels giving them an opportunity either to relax or go sight seeing around the island.
Legendary photographer Thiery Organoff from Seignosse, France here in the island covering the Eurosurf has been jumping in his hire car exploring all the hidden bays and coves whilst the surf has been near to non existent and is hoping to go out on a fishing boat tomorrow. Artist in residence, Mike Etienne, is still working on his masterpiece on the notice board ready for the finals day on Saturday
Spirit amongst the teams is still high with all seeming to be enjoying themselves regardless of the surf conditions. However there is indication that swell is on the increase for the weekend.
David Ferguson Jersey Surfboard Club
Eurosurf 2009
St Ouen’s bay / Jersey C.I
Tuesday 29th 2009
A day for Longboarding on Day 3 of Eurosurf 2009
The competition entered it’s 3rd day at St Ouen’s Bay, with one
to two foot waves making conditions difficult to surf in. Only a morning’s
session worth of surfing could take place before events were called off for
three hours due to a lack of swell.
Of the action that did take place, Switzerland’s Thierry Andre notched
up the highest score in Round 1 of the men’s longboard heats, his 12.73 ride
comfortably taking him through to the next round. Irish surfer Stephen
Kelleher, who qualified in Heat 8 with a score of 5.70, said, “It was really
difficult out there because the surf was really small, but I got through okay.
It was a bit sketchy at the start so I’m glad I got through.” Thierry Andre,
pleased with his performance, explained, “Conditions were very small and it was
very windy, but it was still surfable on a longboard. It was quite similar to
the surf I get in France, in Biarritz, with such small waves.”
Further longboard heats took place until contest organizers decided to delay the contest until the higher tide. Bats and balls were on hand to keep teams warm on the beach, whilst the Moroccans wearing traditional djellaba’s were dancing and enjoying sounds from their native country. Artist in residence, Mike Etienne is painting a murial on the noticeboard next the Watersplash giving onlookers something else to enjoy as it evolves into a depiction of this years Eurosurf environment.
Following the delay the contest was re-started at high tide where the
waves improved, giving Ben Skinner in heat 11 a chance of beating Antoine
Delpero, the French reigning champion. Even after a very high scoring heat
where both surfers demonstrated a high degree of technical skill, mixing
traditional and contemporary surfing, Delpero in the dying seconds scored an
8.5 to take the heat. Both executed hang 10’s , 5’s and drop knee turns with
excellent cross stepping. This was possibly the best showcase surfing of the
whole day, enjoyed by the team members and spectators on the shoreline. Remy Arauzo,
from the strong French team scored a high of 16.17 with Gordan Blake also
joining him and fellow CI longboarder Ben Skinner into Round 3, who also showed
good competitive spirit, securing a second place in Heat 14.
Only two heats were completed with the ladies body board with Gemma
Harris from Wales stealing the highest score of 11.66 today.
Due to the swell being small, all other heats are being postponed until
Wednesday, where surfing will commence on both podiums at 8am.
Stevie Burns, manager of the Irish surf team,
said, “Today the conditions aren’t very good but for the first couple of days
they’ve been pretty good. Jersey’s a nice place to come to, the weather’s been
nice but the surf could be a little bit bigger.
“Our surfers haven’t performed particularly
well in some divisions because we’re used to bigger waves in Ireland, so that
doesn’t suit us too well. However, we’re still in there with a few surfers so
we’re hoping for the best.”
And what does he make of his team’s medal
chances this week? “We’ve got a couple of people here capable of getting to the
final so yes, we’re always hopeful of getting as many people into finals as we
can and getting up the leaderboard of European surfing.”
“Surfing is very popular in Ireland,
particularly along the coastal regions, where it’s become huge in the last ten
years. Ireland is a premier surf destination now for big-wave surfers all over
the world, so obviously the Irish kids are seeing it on TV and going surfing.”
John McCarthy, senior representative of the
Irish surf team, said, “The conditions here in Jersey today have been
absolutely awful but hopefully as the tide comes in they might get a little bit
better. Other than that its been nice weather and nice waves.”
“It’s not like Ireland, where on the west
coast we get a lot of waves and a lot of reef-breaks, making it a paradise for
advanced surfers.”
England’s Alan Stokes said, “The swell here’s
been quite small but the sandbanks on the beach have actually been quite good.
They’re only small waves but the shapes have been good so it’s been good for
surfing, and Jersey’s a nice place.”
“As a surfing destination, it’s definitely up
there with some of the best places in the world because it’s quite a
competitive wave.”
“I haven’t had to adapt my style too much
because we get similar waves back home and so I’m used to these sorts of
conditions.”
And who does he think is their biggest
competition when it comes to winning medals? “I think the French have certainly
got a good team, but in these conditions it can come down to just one wave in
the twenty minutes because most of the time its small then every now and then
you can get a pulse of two feet to chest high waves, and that can turn the heat
completely around.
“You could be in last place with ten seconds
to go and then you get a freak wave and all of a sudden you’re in first. That’s
the scariest thing in small conditions like these.”
Coming from Newquay, surfing was always a
natural choice of sport for Stokes: “It’s the sport of the town
Joe Mayes and Claire Campbell
Jersey Surfboard Club
EUROSURF 2009 WATERSPLASH DAY 2 28/9/09
Conditions still remain small but have had little affect on the standard of surfing. Surfers are performing to the best of their ability executing top to bottom turns with the odd reverse 360 thrown in. Body boarders are finding it difficult in the small surf but are competing hard on podium 2.Damien Chaudoy(Fr) seems to be handling himself well by bagging the highest scoring wave of the day with a 9.87 sending him into the next round. Hugo Pinheiro(Por) in the open bodyboard proved a handful on podium 2 and Dani Garcia (Spn) in the masters produced the highest scoring combo in this division.As the forecast is still unclear the competition moves on into day 3. Day 1 saw glorious sunshine . However in day 2 the sunshine disappeared leaving competitors and spectators braving cold north easterly winds all day and as for the surf, It seems to be picking up on the down tide . Its all to play for.
JSC
EUROSURF 2009 WATERSPLASH DAY 1 27/9/09
Spectators were given a real
treat on day 1 of the European Surfing Championships 2009. St Ouens bay was
seen in its true glory bathed in glorious sunshine accompanied by a consistent
small swell that completed round one of the Open,Senior Man, Ladies and
Longboard categories. The standard of surfing was exceptional with the athletes
competing across two podiums at the home of Jersey surfing, The Watersplash.
Channel Island surfers
battled against the best in Europe with Christian Boletta, Shelly Mcfarling and
Piers Gould gaining 1st places in their round one heats. Arlene
Maltman, Ben Skinner, Gordon Blake, Sam George all achieved 2nd
places with only Mark Durbano and Mark Le Moignan gaining 3rd places
in round 1 forcing them into the reparcharge round. Renny Gould and Scott
Eastwood have straight buys into round 2 with David Speller,Scott Harben, Delia
Baker and Clayton Lidster to complete round 1 of their categories on Tuesday.
Competition is fierce but the Channel Island team are holding their own.
Piers Gould reflecting on his heat said “ Glad to be back in a major competition and its great to be back winning heats. I am feeling really good at the moment and ready for day 2”.
Shelly Mcfarling and Christian Boletta put absolutely everything into their
surfing which showed in their results.
Team morale is high with
everything to play for on day 2.
France and Portugal are the front runners at the moment with team Maroc showing some real class. Over 50 heats were finished on day 1 with near 1000mins of judging.
DF
