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SOUTH WALES WAVE CLASSIC

We dispatched John Carter on a mission to witness the magic (or mayhem) of the South Wales Wave Classic! The forecast for Friday looked pretty average, but the wind gods must have been feeling guilty; because Trecco Bay delivered! What started as a doubtful day turned into a full afternoon of full throttle, contestable conditions all drenched in glorious sunshine. Naturally, after a day of high flying windsurfing action, the only logical next step was to rehydrate; with beer. The Coney Surf Beach Café became the unofficial après-windsurf HQ, and word on the street is that a few sailors finished up on local nightclub dancefloor! Wales delivered a truly legendary session, both on and off the water!

Photos: John Carter: Click on any pic to enlarge!

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JC

Just a couple of days before the South Wales Wave Classic, the forecast took a nosedive from epic to just about average. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that this part of Wales has a habit of overdelivering on underwhelming forecasts, especially with a westerly wind and clear skies. Event organizer Jim Brooks-Dowsett wasn’t fazed. In true optimist fashion, he gave the green light, so I packed my bags and hopped on a Great Western Train to Cardiff, followed by a local connection to Bridgend on Thursday night. Jim had sorted a caravan for me and some of the crew at the mega Parkdean Resort (Apparently the biggest caravan site in Europe!), conveniently situated right next to the beach. I finally arrived at 11 pm, just in time to miss last orders at the bar… devastating. The next morning, excitement got the better of me; I was up at 6 am, buzzing to check out the event site. I took a stroll down to the beach, hoping to get a sneak peek at what the day had in store.

Down at the beach, I would have to say that it looked pretty grim. The tide was low and on its way out, there was barely a wave in sight and the wind was ten knots at best on the outside! With a huge spring tide draining the water and swell out of the channel it looked like we would have to wait for the pushing tide for any hope of suitable conditions.

At least that gave us time to grab a coffee and bacon bap at the awesome Coney Surf Beach Cafe and for the crew to get prepared. By 10am, the skies had cleared and the wind was definitely picking up. The local remained confident that Trecco would deliver! The riders were suddenly getting their boards and sails down to the beach and a bit of a rigging frenzy ensued.

By the time we had the skippers meeting it was already blowing 20 knots and the tide would soon be switching and hopefully paving the way for what swell was out there to build. Just after midday action was underway with the first round of the men’s single elimination, followed by the first women’s heat. As the day progressed and the tide filled in the action started to heat up progressively. Most of the heats were scored with two waves and one jump with waves ranging from waist to head high and most sailors powered on 4.5m to 5.3m sails.

By mid afternoon, the conditions were pretty decent and the competition started to heat up as we approached the men’s single elimination final. With the event not counting towards the overall BWA ranking a few of the higher ranked sailors had opted out making the fleet a fun mixture of Pro’s and amateurs on the water vying for bragging rights. Tope seed Ben Page was no doubt the stand out sailors in the semis but there were also some solid performances coming from the likes of Louis Morris, Nick Welsh and Luke Smith as it boiled down to the men’s final. Meanwhile the three women entrants, Izzy Adcock, Ping Yin and Georgia Stolliday were getting their moneys worth running five finals during the course of the afternoon.

DOUBLE ELIMINATION

Once the men’s single was done and dusted the judges wasted no time going straight into the double elimination, with the weather in the late afternoon a mixture of brilliant sunshine, dark and broody clouds and some incredible rainbows as the tide pushed in. The heats continued right through until around 5.30pm when the wind finally died. There were some solid wave towards the end of the day and Ian Whittacker emerged from the double elimination into 5th place.

BEN PAGE

“When we first arrived, I did not have very high hopes for any conditions, but Jim and the local guys were convinced it was going to pick up. To be honest when the tide changed, the swell went from six inches to shoulder high. It was really good fun in the end.

Definitely in the part of Wales there is a bit of a funnel effect when it is sunny and westerly. We ended up being well powered on 5.3m, which was significantly better than the forecast. We were very nicely surprised at the way this spot delivered. When we all set off to come here, we knew the forecast was pretty underwhelming. I think we were very fortunate to get those conditions on that forecast. We could not really have hoped for better given the cards we were dealt. That was as good as we could have hoped for. It was awesome to have a starboard tack wave riding event in South Wales.

I used a 5.3m Goya Banzaii Surf. I love that sail, It is really good for me as it is a bit softer than the old Banzaii. It is the best sail I have ever had to be honest. It has made quite a bit of difference to my sailing. I was riding the new 88L Goya quad. The 88 is my big board which is 10L bigger than my weight. That for me is the golden big board size. The new Goya works really well with the Leon K4 fins in it. It loosens it up a bit for me. Especially in conditions like we had at Trecco Bay where we were having to work it a little bit. I was sacrificing a bit of grip so I could turn tighter. That was a good pairing for smaller waves. I had a 15 stiff Leon at the back and an 8cm in the front. They are more of a straight stiff fin to kind of imitate that G10 style fin. It was very nice for the conditions we had where you wanted to turn as tight as possible.

It was a fun day. It was a bit of a Student Windsurf reunion for us. There was myself, Nick Welsh, Louis Morris and Luke Smith in the final. We were all sailing here ten years ago! I went to Southampton Uni, but I ran the student windsurf series for four years. Jim and I used to run student events here in Wales. The last few years I was judging so only watching the sailing sat in the van. So, it was really fun to be able to sail some heats here!”

The competition will wrap up on Sunday so check back with the BWA for all the final results.

BWA 

SINGLE ELIMINATION RESULTS

1. Ben Page
2. Louis Morris
3. Luke Smoth
4. Nick Welsh

WOMEN’S ROUNDS AFTER FRIDAYS ACTION

1. Izzy Adcock
2. Ping Yin
3. Georgia Stolliday

PS! If any competitor / anybody is interested in any prints / digital downloads from the event please contact [email protected] !!!