Saturday 6th April rolled in for the next installment of the Surf Challenge Series to take place at one of the toughest surf spots on the grid.
Cielo is a bare bones surf location, surf conditions are always fast with some of the toughest obstacles you will find, which with some practice they can be used to your advantage to produce some wicked looking maneuvers. The cliffs are very deceptive especially with the waves giving different perspectives to actually how high and close they are plus there are exciting paths of choice to navigate, IF! you are in control enough with perfect timing to get through them. It has two breaks a left and right.This Challenge had a smaller field of competitors registered which made it for a one day competition instead of two. The Pro's were there in full force as well as the newcomers.
The Surf Challenge Series is now in its third year, and still is developing with each competition. The next competition will herald a brand new handicap system to be trialed. It will make it tougher on the experienced pro surfers and make it fairer on the newcomers whom have to surf against the pro's.
Firstly we had a pre-comp heat on Friday 5th, due to RL for one of the competitors. The heat was between Frankie Beresford and Mina Ancio.
Mina is a relative newcomer to the competitive surf scene but putting the time in the water to become a strong competitor, performed well.
Frankie the creator and designer of the new UMI board trialed the board in this heat, it performed beautifully. It has the potential to be one of the best competition boards on the grid. Frankie showed us what the board is capable of and made it look awesome. Navigating the obstacles and threw in some new tricks that were impressive to watch. Frankie took the heat to progress to round 2.
Spectators were situated on Bundy Reef, the sim next door to Cielo to make sure lag was at a minimum.
The Surf Challenge is about being flexible and some of the competitors arrived late, so there was a shuffle in the schedule.
Kris took the heat out to progress to the next round.
Then we had Richie Marley and Gia Villano. Two seasoned pro surfers, which of course meant a tough one to judge. Gia not only surfed in the obstacle cliff aka the danger zone but she used it like it was her personal playground, making it look like she built it , owned it, and pulled off a very exciting rock to rock to wave transfer from the left to the right break. A real thing of beauty to watch. Gia took the heat from Richie to move forward in the Challenge.
Next up was Solsty Kismet and brand new surfer Chantal Novan, both rode C3 boards so tricks were the name of this heat. Solsty with home break advantage also made her way to the back of the sim behind the danger zone, then surfed through the danger zone with tricks and technical performance, being very sim aware and avoided getting into trouble with the many obstacles designed to not only knock you off but do major damage to board and body.
Chantal surfed with determination showing no signs of nerves but stayed out of the danger zone, but for her very first competition she did herself proud and we hope to see her again soon. Solsty took the heat to progress forward into the Challenge.
Syrena Skye another relative newcomer to competitive surfing was raring to hit the water, but her opponent was no where to be found. Syrena by default moved into round 2 unchallenged.
Progressing into round 2, we saw Solsty and Syrena hit the water with Richie Marley and myself judging. Syrena chose the very challenging LSD while Solsty stuck to the C3. Both surfers put on a great heat, Syrena staying out of the danger zone using the LSD with practiced skill. Solsty however pulled off some aerials that she did not learn off any instruction manual and wave placement was spot on, to make sure she stayed off and surfed around those rocks. Solsty took the heat to advance to the final.
Kris Marley was then to surf his round 2 heat. His opponent was not online. Kris moved to the final by default.
The final was a 3 way surf off between Solsty K, Gia V, and Kris M. It was very tight final with only 2.5 points between 1st and 3rd place. Cielo was restarted for the final.
Solsty Kismet was first out the gate for the final and again surfed impressively, she pulls off spectacular aerials, some she landed and some not, she again had excellent sim awareness of where the rocks and cliffs were and had no trouble navigating them. Solsty's second ride, sim utilization was a priority. She ended up with 82 points to take the Runner-Up in the Challenge.
Gia Villano's heat rides for the challenge were pure class, how this lady surfer makes it look so smooth and controlled while using the obstacles is a sight to see. Gia poured heart and soul into the final, but timing was slighty off in the second ride, this found Gia struggling to navigate the previously easy conquered paths. Gia surfed brilliantly to make it to the final and ended up in 3rd place with 80 points.
A huge thank you to each and every single person who either surfed, judged or came to cheer on the surfers for another successful Freestyle Surf Challenge Championship.
I am personally looking forward to the next installment of the Surf Challenge Series coming in either August or September this year, with the location yet to be determined. The new handicap system should bring another great aspect to this competition style and format. The Surf Challenge Series is a great way to get into competitive surfing to challenge yourself, hanging out with some of the most seasoned pro's still competitively surfing in a very friendly atmosphere all of us eager to help those who have not done this before. The Surf Challenge Series Championship is a great stepping stone to progressing onto the SLSA competition.
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