Dave Reed & the WSL deliver the goods at the Boardmasters Surf Festival 2015

Dave Reed & the WSL deliver the goods at the Boardmasters Surf Festival 2015

by Sam Bleakley

The Newquay sky hung like a dripping cloth over a sodden Atlantic yesterday, but the Boardmasters was concluded in style as four foot waves rolled in, veined with greens and blues. A strengthening southwesterly wind riddled the lineup in foam heads, but sets clustered and span off as long, rippable rights. Contests may have their detractors, but organisers, sponsors, contest directors, volunteers and judges work tirelessly to bring events to fruition, and those competing meet the best in their field, and this pushes performances to new levels. Whatever the conditions, everybody must meet the challenge and that is a great motivator. This years event gathered a full buffet of UKPSA Men’s and Women’s shortboarding and WSL Men’s and Women’s longboarding.

Newquay local Luke Dillon came out gun’s blazing for the shortboard final having

advanced through every round with slick combinations of racing, powerful turns. His cat-like agility showed exquisite timing and torque, reaching perfect pitch through radical turns, leaving the faces with watermarks. But it was Hodei Collazo, from Zarautz, Spain, who took the Men’s Open Presented by Carve with sharp, decisive moves, slicing the water like a matador, leaving huge fans of spray. His powerful style was matched with great confidence and poise, and watching groms will have been deeply inspired by his model technique.

Eighteen-year-old regular-footer Peony Knight from Croyde sealed victory in the Rocket Dog Women’s Open with quick, linking turns. All four finalists (including Sara Taylor, Keshia Eyre and Lucy Campbell) played the waves rail to rail, manoeuvre to manoeuvre, and pulled off explosive, committed surfing. It was a pleasure to watch the performances.

In the WSL Women’s Longboard Presented by SurfGirl, Reunion islanders Alice Lemoigne and Justine Mauvin battled it out in the final with footwork and flow. These two are at the vanguard of a new wave of female French longboarding. Alice Lemoigne created rhythm from the choppy waves, gliding through noserides and turns with top-drawer brilliance to take the win. Bude's Emily Currie took an excellent third place. If she posts a solid result at the next European WSL Women's Longboard event in Vieux Boucau, France (18-20 September) she should quality for the WSL Women's World Longboard Championships tentatively scheduled for Hainan China in December.

The WSL Men’s Longboard semi finals gathered Ben Skinner, Adam Griffiths and French brothers Antoine and Edouard Delpero. These international competitors continue to shape a longboarding of the future while retaining references to great style. They are removing the limits of where longboarding can go, and relish in the mix of approaches the WSL contest format embraces. In their respective heats, both Adam Griffiths and Ben Skinner adopted great posture through long hang tens and flexed low into outlandish vertical re-entries, but didn't luck into the linking peelers they needed to advance to the final. Good wave selection was essential in the shifting rights and the Delpero brothers picked out the long open peelers to perform crisp and critical noserides, followed by rifling turns all the way to the shoreline, everything linked and coordinated.

Edouard Delpero was on-fire, in invincible form in both the short and longboard divisions. The Frenchman is a hyper-talented shortboarder, recently free-surfing his way with flair through India and Indonesia captured in his BePresent video series. He made space in cramped, tight sections in the shortboard event, connecting critical snaps and explosive aerials, roundhouses and huge floaters at breakneck tempo. Result: third place. Following the shortboard final, Edouard paddled out in the longboard final with his older brother Antoine (two times ISA World Longboard Champion). Edouard found the best greasy green walling sections, hitting the nose with control, racing up the faces in honking solos, cutting back and finally hitting the sand as a final flourish for first place, now ratings leader in the European WSL Longboard Tour.

While the conditions were not the best, the winners tuned into to every expressive drop of water, and found moments of grace and power by linking manoeuvres. Maybe the secret to winning is to be charged with desire and live the moment with no excuses. Contest surfing will always be full of surprises and the best improvisers usually come out on top. Riding waves in contests is about timing and speed. The hottest competitors surf right in the pocket, just off the beat to make things interesting. Contest surfing is not about stating the obvious, but pulling off the unexpected through improvisation. Necessary silences are suddenly punctuated by perfectly timed clusters of notes as vertical turns to capture the attention of the judges, or a single shimmering note, like hanging ten, getting tubed, or performing an aerial, creating intense space and being rewarded with high scores.

These worthy winners join an impressive list of Boardmasters champions at Fistral, an event that has been running since 1981. It was Britain’s first high-profile professional surfing contest and linked into the then International Professional Surfers (IPS) tour. The inaugural victory was split between Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew and Cheyne Horan. Radio 1 also held a roadshow on the Fistral beach car park with 20,000 attending to see Tony Blackburn. In 1982 Ian Cairns founded the Association of Surfing Professionals (known as the ASP, and recently morphed into the World Surf League, or WSL). In 1983 the Fistral event marked the first ASP World Tour contest in Britain. Tom Carroll took the £15,000 first prize purse, and five years later would sign the first million pound sponsorship deal with Quicksilver.

Dave Reed, a talented local surfer, earned the opportunity to judge the event in 1983. He was invited again the following year when Martin Potter won. Dave achieved the highest rating on consistency for all judges at the event and was selected to become a world tour judge. Reed stayed with the expanding ASP for the next twelve years, making him British surfing’s main man inside the structure of modern global professional surfing. He subsequently launched the UK Pro Surf Association (UKPSA) gaining global respect as a world-class event manager and contest director.

 Mike Newling and Joey Buran at the 1984 Fosters Surf Masters, Fistral. Photo Alex Williams.

1986 Fosters Surf Masters, Fistral. Photo Roger Mansfield.

The ASP Fistral event winners through the neon-lit 1980s included Tom Curren in ‘85 and ’86, Martin Potter again in ‘87, Damien Hardman in ’88 and Barton Lynch in ‘89. There were, however, two major changes to the structure of the ASP tour in 1991, which had a major impact on the Newquay leg. Beginning in 1992 there was a WCT (World Contest Circuit) and WQS (World Qualifying Series). The WCT had the worlds top 48 male and 18 female surfers, while top finishers on the open WQS could qualify for the WCT the following season. The two tier tour now meant that ASP organisers could be more selective about where they staged the events. Instead of locations being chosen for their commercial value they were picked for their surf. The ASP also had a major satellite TV sponsor, which meant the number of people attracted to watch at the beach became less important.

“Unfortunately Newquay was not on the list,” said Dave Reed. “We are a good location in commercial terms but not so good for surf.” Newquay would have to stage a WQS event. Mark Occhilupo won the new WQS in 1992 and by 2000 the contest became known as the Boarmasters. Russell Winter was the first Briton and European to win the event in 2002, at the time Europe’s only WCT surfer. It was his first ever WQS win and marked a long awaited triumph for a British surfer in an international shortboard contest. Over time the Boardmasters has lost it’s role as a WQS event, so this years WSL Longboard division marked a deserved return of World Tour surfing to Fistral, Surf City UK.