John John Florence Surfing around the North Shore of Oahu during the winter of 2022-2023. Featuring clips from Pipeline, Sunset Beach, Waimea Bay during the Eddie, Rocky Point, and some sand bars.
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Nearly 140 surfers congregated at Watergate Bay, all with their eyes on the prize of the prestigious English National Titles across the 14 different age-groups. The event saw two -days of double peak action unfold, and here is what went down…
We were lucky to arrive on Saturday morning to sun and small peelers, perfect conditions for our under 12s to kick off the competition. As midday hit, the bay delivered a bigger swell pulse, waves increasing up to head high. U14s, U16s, U18s and Kahuna categories took to the water, displaying their talent. A long day of impressive surfing took place, stand out scores dropping across the board, and plenty of close battles between surfers itching to go through to their respective finals.
The glorious weather brought hundreds of beachgoers down, bringing a buzz of excitement with them and creating a fantastic atmosphere. The event was enhanced by beach volleyball, chalk art and beach cleaning activities from our headline sponsors, the Caravan and Motorhome Club. Tote bags were given out to competitors at check-in and winners of the event all received a club membership. We are stoked to receive this support from the club who enable us to run this event.
A misty morning first thing Sunday gradually cleared up and brought with it beautifully clean sets. 4ft waves rolling throughout the day provided epic conditions for a day of national’s finals. Bodyboarding, a discipline that has not been integrated with shortboard surfing for a number of years, took to the stage. The Men’s Open and U18 divisions demonstrated how thrilling and risky the sport truly is. This addition of bodyboard added a new dimension to this event, and it was awesome to bring the tight knit bodyboarding and shortboarding communities together. Congratulations to division winners, Brooke Joseph Mason, and Tom Catten, who have set a standard and created history for National bodyboarding for years to come.
The junior ladies ripped on the Sunday, a tight final in the U12s saw local Ellie Hickie rise above her competitors to reach her a wave total a head of the rest. The U14 girls final was a particularly tight heat, all girls dropping some stellar waves, swapping in and out of the lead, Coco Arthur winning before the buzzer. Another close final in the U16s, Eva Blackford winning and adding the national title to her recent 2023 English Grom Search title. The day finished off by Team England athlete Georgie -May Hicks winning the U18 Girls just ahead of Lauren Sandland, who had recently claimed the 2023 Women’s Open title, just four weeks prior. Performances amongst these girls were epic, and we are proud to witness such progression in English junior surfing.
For the boys, there were more rounds to progress through, making Sunday’s finals not only a test of surfing ability but also a test of endurance. Joshi James stormed through the rounds to claim the National title and repeat his success from the 2022 national surfing event. For the U14 boys, scores dropped in the final were close, Seb Whiteley took the win. Lukas Skinner followed on from his recent victory at the U16 Grom Search World Championships, cleaning up the U16 boys final and dropping some of the competitions highest scores. Noah Davis took the U18 boys titles, clinching first by 0.27 points above rival Fynn Gillespie.
In the adult divisions, a straight final saw reigning Men’s Senior (+28) champion Khan Thorne take the title once again. We hosted Women’s masters category, for the first time in years, it was great to see ladies back in the water with Lisa Sutherland clinching first, with some impressive scores. The Men’s Masters saw Mark Harris take to the water late for his heat, dropping a couple of beautiful waves, but it was Matty Bowling who took the win with a just a minute to spare. The Men’s Kahunas (+45) was popular this year, many surf coaches and parents taking part. It was great to see such a stacked line up in this category. Tyson Greenaway won the final, surfing gracefully and finished the event with one of the highest scored waves of the weekend.
A huge thank you to all surfers, supporters, media team, judges, and event team for being a part of this epic weekend. It was an unbelievable weekend for English surfing, and we cannot wait for the next one!
Final Results:
U12 Girls Shortboard: 1 Ellie Hickie 2 Kira Connolly 3 Arabella Peres 4 Martha Edwards
U14 Girls Shortboard: 1 Coco Arthur 2 Willow Smith 3 Lila skinner 4 Sunny Ingram
U16 Girls Shortboard: 1 Eva Blackford 2 Ocearna Peres 3 Boe Howell4 Mia Olivia
U18 Girls Shortboard: 1 Georgie-May Hicks 2 Lauren Sandland 3 Tegan Blackford 4 Eva Moorcraft-Holland
Womens Masters (35+): 1 Lisa Sutherland 2 Annika Connolly 3 Sarah Howell
U12 Boys Shortboard: 1 Joshi James 2 Jensen Martin 3 Jack Strutt 4 Jago Boswell
U14 Boys Shortboard: 1 Seb Whitely 2 Noah Cerne 3 Sebastian Connolly 4 Isaac Friend
U16 Boys Shortboard: 1 Lukas skinner 2 Reen Bowden-Inoue 3 Finley Donovan 4 Heath Gillespie
U18 Boys Shortboard: 1 Noah Davis 2 Fynn Gillespie 3 Ishka Thres 4 Malakai Hagley
Mens Seniors (28+): 1 Khan Thorne 2 Simon Shields 3 Sam Coad 4 Ben Goosey
Mens Masters (35+): 1 Matty Bowling 2 Mark Harris 3 Andrew Stone 4 Michael Barton
Mens Kahunas (45+): 1 Tyson Greenaway 2 Dan Joel 3 Martin Connolly 4 Joel Gray
Bodyboard - U18's Boys: 1 Tom Catten 2 Darwin Tagholm 3 Alex Edmunds
Bodyboard - Men's Open: 1 Brooke Joseph Mason 2 Ross Littlejohns 3 Brendon van Rooyen 4 Phil Milsom
LiveHeats:
To see individual heat and wave scores, you can check out all the results on LiveHeats here.
A huge thank you to Watergate Bay who hosted us for our return of the English National Championships and ERA Adventures for the Lifeguard Cover.
A further thank you to our fantastic headline partners Caravan and Motorhome Club and to our amazing partners korev Lager, The Wave, dryrobe, Olaian by Decathlon UK, Clarke Willmott, Vospers.
Well, I guess you can guarantee there will be waves, Kelly's back yard will be getting the final polish and hose down ready for the Surf Ranch Pro the end of the month. Check out the edit above, whatever you think of wave pools, it's fair to say I think we'd all give it a punt.
Surf Ranch puts progression on full display. Surfing's most unique arena churns out perfect waves that separate the tour's most innovative surfers from the rest. This is the first event after the Mid-season Cut, meaning the field has been sharpened and the fight for the WSL Final 5 starts right here, right now.
Sending positive thoughts to all those who knew him, shortly before the sad passing of Dane Kealoha, the 1977 World Champ Shaun Tomson shared these touching words and memories of his friend.
Tomson had this to say:
When I first met Dane back in 1976, he immediately became one of my favourite surfers - absolute raw power and foot to the floor attitude. No close together ballerina feet softness, but a powerful and beautiful classically pure Hawaiian style, charting back to the great Eddie Aikau.
Dane was on the cutting edge of progression - inventing the backside pig dog technique at Pipe and winning the Masters in 1983, and carving up Backdoor and Sunset with creativity and ferocity.
He was a truly gifted tube-rider, attacking the spinning tunnels with machismo, commitment and an attacking rhythm like a Hawaiian warrior going into battle.
At the dawn of pro surfing and the start of the twin fin era at the Stubbies event in Australia, I watched Dane catch a wave at high tide 2 foot Burleigh Heads. There was barely enough clearance between his twin fins and the rocks as he leapt to his feet and started to pump down the line - faster and faster like there was a turbo beneath his feet - I had never seen anyone generate that type of speed on such a small wave - in fact, on any wave.
I had won the World Title a few months before on my single fin and looked down at it - I knew it was instantly obsolete in small waves.
Dane was greatly loved in South Africa - he won the country's biggest event, the Gunston 500 in 1979, in front of tens of thousands of cheering fans.
While all of us have had some challenges in life after surfing, I'm hoping Dane can power through this one.
When I close my eyes, I'll always see that huge fire of aloha burning in that powerful Hawaiian physique.
Sending love and prayers to you warrior.
Snapper Rocks is not the easiest place to score a wave if you're not a regular behind the rock. The last few weeks of good swell brought every surfers to Coolangatta trying to score the wave of their life. Many did and many got burnt by an accidental drop in. But there were a few locals who were just damn intent on taking any wave they wanted, even by force.
“A little Spark”
Episode 1 catches up with Matt, recounting the hazy history of the RNF’s humble inception, while shaping a 5’5” x 19 1/4” for Kolohe, who hurriedly hops down to Australia and promptly proceeds to put it to use, popping off in playful, punchy breach break, with youthful enthusiasm.
We skip over to Indo and catch up with Mason, happily hotdogging an unnamed left and then back home, to Hawaii, where he recklessly romps through anything and everything, all around the island. Jumping across to California, Griffin spends one full fall day, basking in the sunshine and golden glow of his home break, making a case that the RNF could conceivably be ridden as competitive contest equipment.
Finally, don’t skip the credits, as we stay with the Trestles theme and host a fish fest down at everyone’s favourite corner of cobblestone, featuring a classic collection of team riders, old and new.
“There was very little talk of fish in the surfing world. It was the fall of 94’ and there was a little blip of Tom Curren surfing in Long Island in New York on a kneeboard with a fish tail – there was a little spark. No one was making them at the time. Chris Ward was only 14 at the time but a religious Curren follower so he asked me ‘make me a fish’… I made a 5’5”x19 ¼ with the nose and tail the same 14 inches apart. I didn’t have much to go off, but I just fucking went for it. Then he took it to Hawaii with glass-ins and started ripping it.” – Matt Biolos
