Friday 15 May 2009

O’Neill CWC Highland Open 2009

By Marc Cameron

Is it that time of year again? Come on work ma coming up for Easter which I think is a cracking time of year for surfing. Longer days kicking in birds chirping and swell... Well not on the east coast this must be the worst season for swell for years I’m sure you’ll agree

The Scottish surfing championships was held in Thurso a welcomed boost for waves and after seeing numerous good charts this year thought we’re up for a good one. Sadly the surf was very small but contest organizers Chris, Watson and Damon did a belting job hunting enough conditions to run of the comp that finished late Sunday at Melvich. With 3 goofyfoots and me regular in the final and the waves being small lefts I needed to think big on my first wave I came off the bottom smashed it then pulled off a huge 360kickflip air choke on at boys no wait a minute I just woke up. Damn! I managed to scrape together a couple of half decent rides then late on picked up a good one with a wall for a few spanks. After the heat I thought me and George scored the best ones with nothing in it I got the nod.

So for the second year running I got a wildcard into the O’Neill CWC highland open a 6 star WQS oocha boys. So except the main asp tour this is the highest standard of surfing I could compete against. I was in the second heat and up against sunny Garcia who I’ve watched in videos like green iguana, filthy habits for years what a result power man up against the haggis hack and a jap surfer. The waves were at the bowl sick little numbers for hooking into a wee pit or a quick solid wall for real good turns but with only say 2 or 3 sets per 30 minute heat it really was a case of pick the best waves and you’ll be in. For me my chance to progress is with waves like this because the mort time they get on a wave the more to their advantage because they are amazingly fast and pull off manoeuvres like I dreamt earlier. The first 10 minutes of the heat nothing came in, we just sat there looking into shore I’m like gee whiz lets get busy folks. I caught a nice one with a float the boat n a nice spank then turned round here’s Sunny took off tucked in using his hand full in the wave honking little pit all the way passed me I’m like on you go that’s a beauty. Sunny was convincingly 1st, me and (Jap surfer) battling for 2nd. I knew one good wave would give me a chance to progress. I have to say, sitting there I was buzzing for it go on ocean give me a peach but, with time running out, I picked a smaller one, surfed it well to my standard. It was not enough but I was stoked up.

Seeing the guys close up, how they draw their lines and position in the line up to dishing out sick turns is fantastic for me to see. It really shows you what can be done; inspiring stuff.

Make the most of the swell before summer kicks in – could be a bad one for surf. I’m off to Oz in September for a months surfing, I’m going to bang in the Sydney marathon as well so I’ll be running all summer. Keep on it boyz.

Scratch