In typical fashion, the grommets arrived first, then the organisers and then those who hadn’t been to bed that night and thought, “why not just keep going”. One by one they came; some of them seasoned contest veterans, some of them first time virgins. By the end of the day we would know who is, King of the Flow Ho Ho!
The mind games began with the first rides as the grommets, aged 11 jumped on and made the thing look pretty straight forward. Keen to get stuck in, Sam Werkmeister got ready to load, aimed, and fired only to get washed straight off the back and into the washing machine! And so it continued for the next hour as every new rider loaded and then just as quickly departed in all manner of positions. There was an air of expectancy as Prisk and Wall took their first rides, surely the two biggest names in British bodyboarding could handle this over sized kids toy, nope, no they’ve gone too ha ha!
For four hours the competitors took turns and slowly but surely things started to happen. Turns got tighter, more spray was thrown, little futuristic rolls were thrown in to the mix and then, Werky completed a threesixty! Pint sized south coast ripper and early contest favourite Jonny Meloy jumped in to show how it was done and whipped a few tight reverses before retiring to the hot tub, he’d done enough to put the fear into the other riders.
The competition got underway around 2pm (we’d been waiting for the tide to fill in a bit). The format was simple, four man heats, three 45 second rides, the best two rides score. If you’re still on after 45 seconds, you can throw in a bonus manoeuvre. Joe Franklin showed some silky smooth style and struggled to hide a smug smile on completing two heat winning spins. The BBC’s Alex Ledbrooke also showed some first round skills completing a couple of DK spins and cuttys (first time he’d ever completed one the spawny..!). The best run of the first round (and probably the whole day) has to go to Sam Buckle. His composure on his first run looked good; it was the second outing that brought the fun. After attempting to load the ride in the DK stance he was quickly washed into the gutter. Running back up the slippery slope to re-load only resulted in a Benny Hill style banana skin slip up. Back on the wave and having given up the “jack stance” Buckle unleashed his bonus manoeuvre, ladies and gentle men, for the first time in the sport, the, “plant your head on the bottom, twist your neck to an impossible angle and frantically wave your legs in the air, walk around like Michael Jackson whilst hundreds of gallons of water pours down your throat, threesixty”! I just hope someone has video footage..?
After the repercharge which saw the invention of the “YMCA roll combo” thrown in by Glastonbury’s Olly Joseph and the mother of all “take-offs” from Chris Levi which created a Tsunami and took out half of Porth Island, the contest eventually arrived at the semi final stage.
Simon “Donuts” Thomas found form and learned how to complete spins which saw him and Prisk advance to the Semis at the expense of local grom Jack Bealing. The other half of the grommet duo, Jack Mannifield did progress through the other Semi final along with Mr Consistent, Jonny Meloy.
Meloy was up first and loaded in impressive style, a full backflip off the side rail of the wave no less! Unfortunately the tight, multiple spins of previous rounds eluded him as time and time again he was sent to the washing machine. Prisk looked stylish throwing his now trademark reverses but needed more tricks to his repertoire to score high with the judges. Young Jack “the ripper” Mannifield had the skills but with the pressure of his first contest final and Britain’s finest breathing down his neck, couldn’t quite nail manoeuvres that had earlier in the day been easy. A bonus move triple spin did put him right there in contention though. In the end it was the slow to rise but strong to finish riding of the Porthcurno’s Donuts that did the deed. Carving reverses, some board throw roll combos and a very brief wobble on the knee ticked the boxes of the judging criteria.
Massive thanks to everyone involved, to Retallack Resort, Pit Surf, and Boogtique for helping it happen on the day. The raffle is still open and will keep rolling into the New Year and with prizes from Circle One wetsuits, Rob Barber’s Bodyboarding School, Retallack Resort, Threesixty Magazine, Prone, Don’t Stop Dreaming and a brand new board from Action Sports Distribution, can you afford not to buy a ticket for £5!?
