What a day, Horizontal rain, Saunton was 4ft, Messy and onshore, 1960’s surfboards and NO leashes, No, this wasn’t a nightmare, this is the English summer at it’s best, and the yearly homage to 60’s surfing that is the Stylemasters.
Stylemasters 2009 was underway, Sponsored by Corduroy Lines and Mike Dudley.
We had a bunch of 60’s boards to choose from, And a gathering of top surfers from all over the UK, British Champions, Multiple European Champions, Surfers from Jersey to Wales, down to Devon and on to Sennen had turned up to compete. We did have surf though, all that was missing was a 9’ performance board, Instead we had a bunch of Bilbo’s, A Dewey Webber of obscene weight, a Harbour and some other 60’s creations of heavy fibreglass construction, and dubious handling.
So the rules, NO leashes, Try and surf as stylishly as possible, Ok, and if you want to avoid a huge amount of piss taking, DONT lose your board, Crap!!
The Open went in first, With guys such as Elliot Dudley, Ashley Braunton, Ben Skinner, Ben Haworth and James Parry throwing these boards around like modern lightweights, 5’s & 10’s all over the place, Young guys like Matt Travis ensuring that style still has a place in longboarding and off the lips for Christ sake, on 60’s boards!!! Not until you try to surf one of these boards yourself do you realise just how talented these guys are, It was a wonderful thing to see and made all the better by the appearance of that rare sight, Sunshine!
The Masters category was as hotly contested as ever, Richard Emmerson from Sennen was on form and as always loving every minute of it, keen to improve on his 2nd place of last year. Eric Davies was hungry for the title, Shaun Marlow, Last years winner was there to defend his title from 2008, with Keano, Andre, Rob and myself there to try and put the cat amongst the pigeons.
The open was very strongly contested and we were treated to a nice display of surfing, Gary Woodward got a screamer of a ride in his heat but had trouble matching that ride, and after early casualties had fallen we were left with North Devons Ben Haworth, Skindog, James Parry and Elliot Dudley to show what they could do and they did just that, Increadible section making, insane 10’s,Slick Drop Kneese and Skindog pulling off a sick off the lip, great surfing and great spectating.
In the Masters we had a final made up of, Shaun Marlow, Richard Emerson, Eric Davies and myself Guy Maddocks, I have never been in a line up and heard grown men screem when a big set came through like I heard in this comp, Just the mere thought of losing your board was enough to send panic through the line up, Fantastic, what a ball. Rich was on it from the off, as if he had booked the set waves, He’d paddle in, whooping and hollaring like a mad man, Surf the wave to the shore, paddle back out only to paddle straight into another, unreal, I was struggling along with the others to even catch a good one, Eric had a couple inside, Shaun was snaffling the odd one and I was having a shocker, didn’t matter where I was, the peak was elsewhere, Usually where Rich was!!!
Results;
OPEN
1st Elliot Dudley
2nd Ben Skinner
3rd James Parry
4th Ben Haworth
MASTERS
1st Richard Emerson
2nd Eric Davies
3rd Shaun Marlow
4th Guy Maddocks
This comp is without doubt one of the best, With lots of micky taking and good humour, it’s open to anyone, So if you own a 60’s longboard, bring it along and enter next year, If you don’t own one, no problem, we draw numbers out the hat and you get to choose your ride, Be there, it’s a blast.
A special thank you to all who helped, The Judges and thanks again to Corduroy Lines for sponsoring this great event and long may it continue, rarely do you have as much fun as this at a comp, sorry if I forgot to namecheck you, but I’m old and drank a little too much wine with freinds Sunday evening to celebrate, so the grey cells are a little fuzzy.
Stylemasters 2010 Cant wait, Put it in your diary.
Ramblings of a mad man Guy Maddocks.
5 years ago
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