IrishSUP Surf Classic April 2018

IRELAND. The 6th edition of the Irish Sup Surf Classic Contest was held on the weekend of 7-8 April 2018 at Trá Bhuí, Co Sligo, Ireland. The contest has become the highlight of the SUP Surf calendar in not only Ireland, but also the UK.

ASI trainer and SUP School owner, Paul Byrne, who organises the annual contest was feeling nervous during the run up. He said: “ The forecast was looking shocking with no surf forecast over the weekend. With zero swell for this coastline, something that is very rare at this time of year. But with only 2 days to go we decided to run it no matter what and if there was no swell, well we would just have to consume extra pints of Guinness! Then late on Friday night the surf gods gave us a little North Westerly swell to work with and it was all systems go.”

Saturday morning threw up some lovely clean lines with waves in the chest to head high range and light offshore winds. With 5 categories and 43 entries from all over Ireland, and some from the UK, the contest got underway.

It was evident from the start that the standard was higher than previous years especially in the ladies and first-timers sections. Saturday night entailed a well-earned dinner and lots of tales and socialising with the competitors.

Sunday saw some fairly solid surf conditions to run the semi-finals and the shore break tested all, but once out back there was a beautiful selection of clean glassy peaks to choose from.
In the ladies’ final, local girls Mia Hamilton and Nicola McCutcheon did battle, with young Mia displaying super form taking the win. The fierce competitor Nicola pushing her all the way.

In the First Timers we saw Trevor O’Rourke and Nick Seymour battle wave for wave, and in the end, Trevor was just having too much fun and this drove him to victory in a close fought battle.
The big board’s hit the water for the 10ft plus category. This final saw Dave Owens, Lewis Eickholt, Ollie Laddiman, and Trevor O’Rourke do battle on their logs. Ollies nose rides, drop knee turns and infamous cockroach saw him take his first final win of the weekend.

The old boys (and girl) Steve Laddiman, Tony Doherty, Nicola McCutcheon, and Nick Seymour paddled out in the Masters final. Our Welsh visitor did what was needed on a borrowed board to take the win despite having snapped his board earlier that morning.

The short boards came out for the last final at Trá Bhuí. Here both Laddimans (Ollie and Steve) took on the Irish boys in Dave Owens and Lewis Eickholt. Ollie was unstoppable! His style and level of performance had all talking about how good this young Welsh surfer has become.

It was decided that the swell was a little big for the Foil final and we relocated back to the Aughris beach for what was Europe’s first SUP Foil competition. Paul Byrne and Ollie Laddiman displayed their skills in what was now tiny surf, but despite this they both entertained the spectators, with the judges deciding to award a joint first place to the two guys.

This was another awesome SUP Surf event hosted by Paul Byrne at IRISHSUP. A huge thank you to all competitors who attended and sponsors of the event, without which it would not be possible.

See a video from the event: https://vimeo.com/263962778
 
Contest Organiser: Irish SUP  www.irishsup.com

All photos credited to Patrick Murtagh Photography

Contest site

Finalists of Sub 10ft

Pre Prize Giving

Ladies Finalists

10FT plus Finalists

Ollie Laddiman in Sub 10ft Final

Steve Laddiman in Sub 10ft Final

Lewis Eickholt in Sub 10ft Final

 
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