This weekend saw one of the best freestyle conditions to hit a UKWA freestyle contest in a very very long time. Flat waters and strong winds allowed the stylers to bust out all their top moves. In the end it was John Palmer who took the win ahead of Adam Sims, Oscar Carmichael and Nic Hibdige. Whilst in the Amateurs Alex Mitchell stormed his way to success by winning all four rounds.

The event itself was at an awkward time for some of the others who couldn’t make it but for those who did many travelled 1000’s of kilometres just to be there. Nic Hibdige flew from Bonaire the day before, then had to drive from Heathrow to the south coast and back up all before Saturday night. Adam Sims drove for 22 hours with one hours sleep from Vienna in Austria and many of the others had to also make the long journey from the south coast up. Dedication by a few but the reward was high as they scored some of the best freestyle conditions they could dream of.

All photos courtesy of Trevor Hibdige

We caught up with JP for a word:

“After all the snow in the last few months when I saw the forecast for the event at one of the best freestyle spots in the UK I got pretty excited! I hadnt windsurfed since a trip to Ireland at new year so couldnt wait to get back out on the water with everyone. Event started and I started sailing pretty well with some solid heats. Felt pretty bad in the first final when Oscar crashed his first Flaka next to me because his footstrap broke, he still sailed a pretty impressive heat though! I managed to sail a solid heat getting some decent moves on each side so wasnt too surprised to win that.

Mr Sims then rocked up after his marathon drive and started dominating and sailing pretty well. I had some solid heats, did have one nightmare which meant I had to sail an extra heat to get to the final – not ideal when I was so tired could barely hold the boom anyway (maybe more exercise needed before the next comp…). By the second day I had a 1st and 2nd.

David Bradley organised a cracking evening with food and drinks at Toast so was good to catch up with everyone on saturday night.

Sunday started with a full english with the boys then was straight into sailing. The wind was still pretty gusty, but full power on my 4.8 Freek. I got another 2nd place, then it came to the final round. It was either me or Sims to win and whoever finished ahead won the event. The wind was pretty dodgy so I rigged up my 5.2 Freek for the first time and went out on that for the final. Had a pretty solid heat again, getting a decent shaka, a nice switch kono and pretty much every move I can do. I hadnt seen much of the others so wasnt sure how they had sailed. When it came to the prize giving I was real happy to here Id won!

Was a great event, decent wind, tight competition and really well organised so thanks to everyone that competed and helped out with it!”

Check out the gallery below and tune back later for more photos…