Greg Norman - Surfer: March 2013

Awesome waves for the 1st comp of the year, great contest, I ended up with a 5th place. Below is the article that I wrote for the Hotdoggers website.

Hotdoggers Contest 1

23/03/13

This weekend saw pumping waves for the first contest of the year and with it some incredible longboarding across all categories. The day was wrapped up with an epic surf quiz at the Aggi. The quiz was written and presented by Greg Robinson and Phil Hill and was literally a laugh a minute. Priceless.

Juniors – No contest held, as a strong contingent of junior Hotdoggers were in Newquay for GB squad training.

Ladies – The final was a hotly contested affair, with an in form Charlotte Bayliss picking off a couple gems. Last years British champion Clair Smaile put in a valiant fight, but good wave selection allowed Charlotte to put in a series of solid backhand turns and take the win. Felicity Taylor posted one high score but couldn’t find a good back up, it was also a similar story for Lucy Howell who had surfed very well in her earlier round.

The ladies category is going from strength to strength and there were some brave performances in what was quite intimidating surf. One stand out was Vikki Burley who is constantly improving, she was unlucky to not progress through her heat but in her efforts she caught the biggest set wave of her life and you couldn’t wipe the smile off her face all day after that!

Open – It was great to see some new faces in this category and from first time competitors like Dan ‘Stan’ Cameron to seasoned experienced surfer Ben Howey becoming a new member of the club. The early rounds went almost as expected with the big names showing their worth and progressing with ease. A fit and eager Greg Robinson showed he is no slouch with some hell maneuvers, earning himself a 9point ride. Fresh back from his winter trip to Costa Rica, Max Welland surfed well in a very tough heat to move through to the next round.

The semi finals were a battle with positions changing all the time Angus Murray has been surfing freakishly well, winning semi 1, Zak Lawton over took Greg Norman with the last wave of the heat to claim the second spot in the final.

A stacked semi 2 saw Howey, Haworth, Robinson and South coaster Joe Howell. The standard was so high, with both Ben’s absolutely killing it, meaning there should be fireworks in the final.

As expected, the final lit up with 4 surfers who regularly compete on the European Tour, 2 of which have competed at a world tour event. Zak Lawton got the final off to a blistering start, he surfed the wave to the best of his ability scraping every single ounce of scoring potential out of it. Zak showed a broad repertoire of maneuvers and after eventually posting a decent back up score it meant he finished a stoked runner up in a tough contest. After new sponsor negotiations and a recent heap load of barrels, Howey was a strong contender for the win here today. Unfortunately the waves he had in the final didn’t reel like they did in the earlier rounds, despite killing it he could not find enough to better Zak’s first wave. Angus Murray must have eaten his Weetabix, he couldn’t put a foot wrong, he was landing near impossible reo’s and making a statement that he wants a British title in the very near future. Haworth didn’t find the waves and in a final of that standard, if you don’t have a decent wave to work with, well it’s game over. I’m sure he’ll be back to take the win next time like we have all got use to in recent times!

Masters – In the first round, Eric Davies used his experience to pick off some great waves and stroll through with style. The time has finally come that Ian ‘Ramon’ Allison became a ‘master’ and he put in some good work to progress to through. Adam Chell was ripping all day and posted a near perfect score when he rinsed set wave that nearly reeled to Westward Ho! (….and yes we did see your ‘Parko’ style claim at the end!)

The wind grew in strength in the middle of the day and meant surfers had to be vigilant and adapt to the gusting conditions which often meant sections didn’t break quite so kindly as they often do. In the final Damien Hooker put the knowledge from his countless dawny surfs to good use and really up his game. A couple of his turns would not have been out of place in a BLU open final. Damien consolidated his excellent wave with another strong back up score to take the win in his first ever contest in the ‘masters’ age category. Shag and Jerry both surfed well throughout the contest and it was a close call for the second place. After shredding all day, luck went out the window for Adam in the final. He had a series of waves that just did not offer the scoring potential that he would have wished for.

Underdogs – This underdogs league is a brilliant concept. All surfers that get eliminated in the first round in their respective categories get to compete again against each other for the underdogs title.

This underdogs event saw a broad spectrum of surfers, from new first timers, previous open finalists, to the British masters champion (albeit carrying an injury). One thing was common throughout though, everyone was happy and smiling to be surfing empty pumping waves.

Throughout the rounds of the underdog contest surfers were finding great rides in the solid surf. Not all competitors chose to paddle ‘out back’ as some of the sets were quite intimidating. Everyone gave a great effort and didn’t give in, respect.

Brendan Muir and Dave Hutchings traded flawless right hand runners in the final and turned the event into a two horse race. Dave nailed a series of powerful turns on one wave that just ran forever earning a 9.5 ride, which was enough to claim the win.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Juniors	…………………….	…………………….	…………………….	…………………….
Ladies	Charlotte Bayliss	Claire Smail	Felicity Taylor	Lucy Howell
Open	Angus Murray	Zak Lawton	Ben Howey	Ben Haworth
Masters	Damien Hooker	Jerry Horsborough	Adrian Howell	Adam Chell
SUP	Paul Williams	…………………….	…………………….	…………………….
Underdogs	Dave Hutchings	Brenden Muir	Jon Horton	Paul Keenan