Skim UK Tour underway

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

Busy Weekend! 11th-14th October 2007 Cornwall

First time i could be bothered to add to the blog sorry about that! Personally i have been backwards and forwards the length of Cornwall this weekend. Meeting Friends and shooting surf,skim and sponging at various spots. Started off looking for Chris Levi up at the Box in North Cornwall which without reliable mobile phone signal became impossible and couldn't find it D'oh!

From there went down to Constantine area with a nice 3ft wave we hit up Diggorys at low tide which while the size was there was hard to shoot as it breaks a way out. Still managed to get some shots which will go up on the site later today. Then from there the next day was Diggorys again in the morning which i went in and sponged for. (Bloody awful being the only sponger in the line up) Still it was good to get in with the old Swanage crew even though they all converted to the dark side along time ago. High tide in the evening we drove all the way to Sennen Cove on the far south of the peninsula and had some backwash fun in the awesome coloured water down there. Again no shots but did get in the water 2 sessions in one day! Gotta love kernow. Saturday morning saw Dan Kerrins go out at Sennen again in a nice 2ft wave only to insist he surfs like crap when ever a camera is watching. I did get a few shots but nothing special so probably won't put these on and spare Dan's blushes. From there we hit up the fried brekky in Penzance and parted ways with the Swanage boys to head back to Newquay to catch the footie and more importantly high tide Tolcarne. (Photos up on the site NOW!) Saturday night and the rugby what can i say about that? There is no feeling than beating the french in their own tournament and in their backyard. Slightly hungover and with the taste of kebab lingering the following morning saw the Paignton boys arrive at the wedge which was side wash heaven and notably saw Mark Mason really attack the wedge. Some good shots (online NOW!) and some video were shot and made for a really good session.