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The British Cup offered up some big surf to challenge a young CI team.
Action took place at Fistral Beach in Newquay, arguably the home to British competitive surfing.
In a sign of the testing conditions, heat times were extended to 25 mins with a 10-minute paddle out time.
Team Coach Roley McMichael said: ‘I was extremely proud of our young team who for many was their first taste of a major surfing competition. To have the courage to face triple overhead conditions and compete in it was a true testament of their character.”
Guernsey’s Katie Smith joined Jersey’s Amelia Gould, Rebecca Lynam and Allula Macateer to make up an inexperienced squad in the women’s competition.
They were all eliminated in the first round.
Pictured: Max Bennett.
Olly Gould, Sam George, Josh Evans and Owen Graham failed to progress out of round one in the men’s competition, leaving Anders Ravenscroft and Max Bennett to continue the charge in the quarter finals.
Unfortunately for the two Jersey surfers they were matched up in the same heat.
Both surfed extremely well in the high tide conditions executing dynamic maneuverers in the large waves, but it was Bennett who progressed to the semi in second place leaving Ravenscroft in third and eliminated out of the contest.
Bennett faced Arran Strong and Patrick Langdon Dark in the semi-final the following day.
Pictured: The judging panel at the GP Cup.
The surf had dropped and local knowledge favoured the two UK surfers, both part of the GB progression squad.
Bennett continued to surf with power and style, getting two solid scores leaving him in second place for the majority of the heat with Patrick Langdon Smith from Wales needing a good score to overtake him. It was in the last minute that Langdon Smith landed a 6.43 moving him into second place by 0.4 of a point to knock out Bennett.
Pictured (l-r): Robert “Minnow” Green, Surfing England Manager, Ben Skinner, world class longboarder and Roley McMicheal, CI Team coach.
Bennett was quick to congratulate his competitors.
“I surfed well on the Saturday in the bigger surf and kept the winning mindset into day two of the competition. Unfortunately, I did not quite pull it off this time but will be looking forward to having another match up in Jersey 2024.”
Pictured top: Amelia Gould, Rebecca Lynam, Allula MacAteer and Katie Smith at the GB Cup. All pictures by David Ferguson.
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