Adam Sims reports from the second round of the 2011 Freestyle Xpression Tour in Dorset last weekend. In perfect conditions – 25/30 knots from the west with mainly sun throughout the day. The location – Weymouth Harbour.

Rocking up to the beach at 10am the place was already rammed with freeriders, speedsters and kiters. Rigging up 4.7s were some of the UK’s youngest and dedicated stylerrrs! Many of them having travelled hundreds of miles to be there. The competition started from the word go… who could rig the quickest, who could get into their wetsuit the fastest, who could get on the water first…

After an hour’s practice/free-sail, Nick Bentley and myself called in the 10-12 competitors and set to work with drawing up a rough single elimination, with two man heats and a double elimination on the cards for people to come back through the ranks.

Firing through the single elimination was Oscar Carmichael with a solid performance in each of his heats, landing a huge number of moves in the 7 allocated minutes for each round. Also pushing through the ranks was myself, where I ended meeting RRD team-mate Oscar. We sailed a close final, not making it easy for the judges. Oscar took the lead early on whilst I was mincing about having hurt my recurring foot injury when I crashed my opening move. Putting the pressure on I stepped back in with a real tweaked shuv-it spock 540 in the knee deep water, a one handed bob and a shaka. Oscar meanwhile powered through bouncing double flakas, spocks and a smooth funnel. Showing impressive skill and a consistency for a 15 year old.

Other stand-outs had to be Angus Patrik Webb who crashed sooo hard he won himself a pair of RRD Speedos. Also Julia Slack, who sailed a consistent heat sticking some more old skool maneuvers, and keep the dream alive for the chicks! It’s good to see some female action but I’m sure Julia and many of the guys would love a bit more…

Unfortunately the wind never really came back enough for the double and with the dropping wind the result stayed the same for the rest of the weekend.

A super successful weekend and a lot of fun had by all. Some new faces and young faces were seen and we hope to see them and more at the next one. Keep up to speed with it all via the facebook page and the official blog – keep an eye out for a PWA style live ticker at the next event (via the use of facebook).

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60440946042

Official blog: http://freestylexpression.wordpress.com/

Results:

1st Adam Sims (RRD/RRD/Spartan wetsuits/Turfdog)

2nd Oscar Carmichael (RRD/Windtek)

3rd Nick Bentley (F2/Gastra/K3d)

1st Girl – Julia Slack

Biggest Wipeout – Angus Patrick Webb

Photos courtesy of Dan Hallam and Julia Slack