Conditions were not ideal at the weekend the BSUPA Putsborough but the results are in.

Marc Hambridge reports:

A fair amount of time and organisation and planning had lead up to the competition weekend. Friday night registration was fast approaching and we were ready to host the 1st round of the BSUPA National SUP Surf Championships at Putsborough Sands in North Devon. A good turn out for Friday night registration hosted at Eddeys Lodge in Woolacombe with a great atmosphere the conversation soon turned to the forecast, conditions were looking really flat………

Saturday morning registration was at Putsborough Sands between 7-8am when we arrived there was a moderate NW wind blowing onshore to be fair its the worst direction for the wind to be in for this location but on a positive it had created a 1-2ft wind swell so conditions were contestable.

Considering the forecast we had fantastic support form the competitors 39 of the 50 entrants had registered. With the Sundays forecast looking uncertain the competitors were briefed that we might be looking at a single elimination and have a result by the end of the day…

Running order for the day was going to be the first heats of the Open Mens followed by the Ladies then the juniors.

Although the conditions were not ideal some of the top level riders were making it look a lot better so there was no hiding in excuses from the rest of us…….

I went and checked the forecast at lunch time to see if there was going to be any kind of a wave for the Sunday unfortunately it had dropped even more so that dictated that we would have to round things up on the Saturday. This meaning that there would not be enough time or waves to run a reportage for the riders that had not progressed through the first heats. Not what I had wanted, I am a rider and competitor myself so know how disappointing this can be, as a lot of the riders had traveled along way to take part. So when possible its always the best option to give those riders the opportunity to rejoin the main fleet and get at least another chance to show the judges they deserve to progress. This turned out to be the right call as Sunday was flat as I have seen it for a long time “Inverted” word be a good word to use…. The final heats were fairly tight with some of the juniors that had entered into the Open Men’s Fleet progressing to the last stages knocking out some of the more well established names.

Saturday night gathering was entertaining the thought of no competition on the Sunday allowed some to let loose and have some fun down at the Thatch in Croyde.

Big thanks to Bob Freshwater and Norman Wright and their team of judges.

Thanks too for all the support from those that attended and the sponsors.

Official Results:

Open Mens
1st Aron Rowe
2nd Matt Barker-Smith
3rd James Arnell-Smith

Open Ladies:
1st Nikki Graham
2nd Marie Buchanan
3rd Rachel Ince

Open Jnr:
1st Blue Ewer
2nd Tod Sawyer
3rd Finn Gambin

Photos: Rockerline