UKWA FREESTYLE TOUR 2010. Event 1. Branksome Dene, Poole, 5/6 June, by Trevor Funnell…

A small but keen entry for the first Freestyle Tour event of the 2010 season met me at Branksome Dene for my return to event organisation. We were alongside the JP/Pryde Slalom and the two disciplines fitted together well.

Saturday was as bad for us as for the slalom guys, standing around chatting in and out of the rain with a very light northeasterly, it wasn’t interesting anyone at all in going out to do any spinning.

Sunday dawned brighter and breezier and the youths and juniors showed their enthusiasm by being first on the water for an expression session.

As the wind filled a little more we managed to run a full round of freestyle for all fleets. The wind was on and off but some very good skills were shown by the sailors, with both planing and non planing moves going down.

The first Pro with an excellent performance was Adam Sims, Al Bentley did well in second and Sam Neal was a creditable third in conditions that really didn’t suit him at all.

1st Amateur & 1st Youth showing great potential was Alex Mitchell, 2nd Amateur was Nick Bentley, 3rd Amateur & 1st Junior was Oscar Carmichael. The only lady was Maeli Cherel who battled hard against serious male competition.

Thanks must go to JP/Pryde and Animal for their support and some nice prizes, also to the UKWA beach and boat crews for all their hard work.

It’s really good to be back, meeting many old friends and making many new ones. Let’s see a lot more freestylers on the water for the next UKWA Tour Event at Hunstanton on July 10/11.

For all Youth and Juniors, don’t forget the European Freestyle Kids Tour Event with classes for all age groups at Hove on 5/6 June.

More at ukwindsurfing.com

BOARDS Xtra: We spoke to Adam on winning the event, who told us: “Even though there was not much in the way of wind it was still a really good opportunity to get some heat experience with the top PWA judges, Duncan Coombs and Hugo Lewis, judging the event, there aren’t many countries in the world who can boast that. It was nice to see some young faces as well as a few from the large student scene. Hopefully more can get along to the next event. Thanks very much to Trevor Funnell and the team of volunteers for kicking this all off and of course the judges. Trevor’s enthusiasm to hold competition is really encouraging, and he is also flexible on where the best location on the beach is to hold the competition, what suits the riders the most ‘AND’ there is a healthy amount of rider input which is actually listened to. It seems to be a good combination and hopefully one that will get more and more UK freestylers to these events.”