Saturday the 20th and Sunday the 21st of October saw the start of a 5 series tour thus enforcing skimboarding as a much more credible sport in the UK. Although as i sat looking at the weather charts Friday night I wondered if any waves would greet us at Challaborough bay. To my surprise and shock as we pulled into the car park over looking the beach in rolled a perfectly clean and well shaped 2ft wave perfect for skimboarding and more importantly gave the tour a fantastic chance of a good contest.
The heats kicked off with each competitor guaranteed at least 2 skims before the 8 people that would progress to the next day would be decided. Notable standouts from the heats included the usual suspects of James Delamare and Mark Mason and some surprising performances from George Harris and (for the wrong reasons) Adam Wooton who had a shocker. But Adam did manage to scrape through to the 2nd day and maybe he did need to know he was skimming badly the day before because when the draw for the first semi came out you felt sure he needed to find his form and soon if he was to beat either James or Mark to make the final.
The draw was as follows in semi 1 Mark Mason, James Delamare, George Harris and Adam Wooton and in semi 2 Liam Meyer, Chris Smith, Ned Weight and James Aldred. Both were very hotly contested and and in the end up very close affairs with mere half points being the difference in both heats. But the highlight of the tour stop came in the last 15 seconds of heat 1 when James and Mark looked odds on to progress untill a juicy set wave came through and Adam side slipped a long way out put in a perfect top turn and finished with a 180 shuvit. It turned out to be enough and Mark and Adam progressed to the final along with Liam and Chris Smith who in their semi fended off an impressive Ned Weight edging him out by half a point.
So the final Kicked off with Liam taking an early lead clearly finding the conditions at his home break much more agreeable after his disappointment at the Nationals back in April. But no one really doubted the eventual outcome with Mark Mason's recent skimboarding being a level worthy of a tour leader he started slowly in the final but after 4 solid wraps and few shuvits for good measure he had the result sewn up. Adam really also deserves a mention from coming back to finish second after a poor first day and should be pleased with his performance. Next the tour moves on to Dorset and the Boscombe pier tour stop on the last weekend of the year lets hope it's just as good as Challa event and of course that the waves turn up too.
The final result
1st Mark Mason
2nd Adam Wooton
3rd Liam Meyer
4th Chris Smith
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