With a laden van and blazing sunshine we hit the A303 from London to the West Country on Wednesday morning to be confronted by Autumn in its rudest of health, Mother Nature kindly lining our route to Newquay with a stunning cacophony of reds, yellows and oranges.
Once in Kernow, we got our priorities in order with an immediate pitstop to push down some pasties. Bellies filled with gastronomic goodliness, the crew set about getting the Surfers Village for the 2010 BUCS Surf Championships looking ship shape. With banners, flags and bunting all fluttering in the wind, we took an evening visit to Newquay town centre to enjoy a locals open mic night and to sup back a few pints of Skindogs.
After not seeing a single wave on Wednesday, Thursday’s eyeball swell report came as a total treat as clean 4-5ft waves rolled in along the coastline, the sun peaked out from behind the grey and we bumped into a host of Uni’s at Fistral getting in some cheeky practice before the comp start on Friday morning.
Back at the Surfers Village mini bus after mini bus spilled eager surf seekers into the onsite bar where local surf pro and aspiring DJ, Josh Hughes, got the weekend underway with a bristling blend of house and dubstep. The University of the West of England getting the award for first crowd surf of the weekend as they got stuck into the festival vibe.
Great waves were on offer on the first day of the competition, with all surfers taking to the water for the first round of heats. Defending Champion and favourite, Gordon Fontaine of Bournemouth University wowed the thousands watching with some spectacular skills, including a frontside carving 360 manoeuvre!
After a hot shower, warm grub and a few ciders, everyone headed to Sailors Club for a night with NERO. With almost every University surf club from around the UK in one venue and an eclectic warm up set from DJ CUDDLES, the night was already a huge success before NERO took to the stage. To say they ripped the lid off it would be an understatement as more crowd surfing ensued along with some attempted stage invasions, a call for more security and 2 hours of the finest basslines, thus suggesting that the night belonged to NERO!
Saturday’s estimated crowd of over two thousand spectators watched the second round of heats as the competition started to get serious, with skilful displays from a range of competitors in the men’s and women’s competition.
Saturday night’s closing party onsite with DJ CUDDLES got off to a slow start as the whole site decided to sit in their vans and watch 2 hours of X FACTOR, a heinous crime if you ask me. Alas when the clock struck 11, the people came out to party. Headliners the URBAN KNIGHTS played a stonking two hour audio visual show which warranted the third session of crowd surfing for the weekend.
Sunday morning saw the Men’s and Women’s semi-finals. Challenging conditions ensued with small waves on offer, meaning competitors had to bide their time and make it count when a decent set of waves came in.
Bournemouth Universities’ Gordon Fontaine once again took home the men’s title after beating off a fierce challenge from Falmouth’s Billy Norways in the final, whilst in the Women’s competition Swansea Universities Gwen Spurlock held off Holly Donnelly from Plymouth to win the women’s trophy. In the team events, Falmouth reigned supreme in the men’s championships, while Exeter took the Women’s team championships.
As the sun set on Sunday evening over the glorious Cornish coastline, we toasted the success of another amazing BUCS surf champs. Over the weekend we met hundreds of lovely surfers from Unis as far away as Dundee! We enjoyed stunning weather in the most colourful of seasons and we made the most of the brilliant parties with so many talented DJ’s. So to conclude: bring on BUCS CHAMPS 2011!
