Luke Dillon, 12 O Clock, Sandside. Picabove and Gallery Andy Holter
Seated under the watchful eye of Dounray nuclear power station, the Open surfers surfed off in the 3-4’ fun, left-hand pointbreak at Sandside. Early eliminations saw Scottish local wildcards; Mark Boyd, Chris Noble, Chris Clarke and Andrew Robertson drop from the lists, but through to the finals were South Africa’s Jacob Mellish with Bude surfers Reubyn Ash, Miles Lee Hargreaves and Newquay’s face of Korev, Luke Dillon.
Luke Dillon took the early lead with his powerful style and dialling in those clean wave sections down the reef, with Miles in hot pursuit. S.A surfer Jacob Mellish threw into the mix, a smooth, fluid style which earned him scores keeping track behind our heat leader and pushing our Bude riders, Reubyn and Miles to quickly work on those scores to climb the ladder.
Hoots from all our Thurso Surf Festival and horn blasts from the vast fleet of vans accompanied each impressive ride as our ultimate heat ended with a win from Luke Dillon, Reubyn Ash claimed a second, Miles in third & Jacob Mellish ending in fourth place.
The Fistral Beach Under 18 Boys saw Barnaby Cox & Stanley Norman from Bude, surf against Noah Capps and Logan Nicol. Smart surfing from Logan saw him score a good first wave, only needing a small score to take the heat from a flurry of waves by Barnaby Cox, leading with a 7.1 wave who thrilled with some well-timed snaps throwing spray for the judging panel, Stanley kept up the pressure by attempting to pull off a 360 manoeuvre at the tail of each wave and Noah also keeping pace but left requiring a combo score to move up, making for an exciting heat. A score for Logan, changed the result however as a huge 8.43 dropped in for our surfer in blue and takes the win over Barnaby Cox.
Exeter’s Sam Hearn dominated the Under 14 Boys, rapidly dialling in the left-hand reforms into Melvich river mouth and scoring the longest and most impressive waves to take the title over Scottish wildcard Ben Larg who takes 2nd place.
In the Under 16 Boys Noah Capps took an early lead scoring solid waves with a 5.4 followed by a 6.2 leading the other finalists in a game of catch-up for the entire heat, ending in victory for Noah as his scores remained unbeatable.
Sam Hearn, Under 14 champ. Pic Andy Holter
Results
Men’s Open
1st – Luke Dillon
2nd – Reubyn Ash
3rd – Miles Lee Hargreaves
4th – Jacob Mellish
Women’s Open
1st – Lucy Campbell
2nd – Emily Williams
3rd – Emily Currie
4th – Francesca Pioli
1st – Logan Nicol
2nd – Barnaby Cox
3rd – Stanley Norman
4th – Noah Capps
1st – Noah Capps
2nd – Barnaby Cox
3rd – Seth Morris
4th – Frankie Bamford
Under 14 Boys
1st – Sam Hearn
2nd – Ben Larg
3rd – Bertie Norman
4th – Kieron Smith
1ST – Craig Maclachlan
2nd – Eli Perrins-Davies
3rd – Tom Boothroyd
4th – Ishka Tres
5th – Jack Pearson
1st – Alys Barton
2nd – Iona Maclachlan
3rd – Bonita Whitelock
1st – Alys Barton
2nd – Bonita Whitelock
1st – Alys Barton
2nd – Bonita Whitelock
