First Ever European FlowRider Championships Came to a Close on September 4, 20010

07.Sep.10

First Ever European FlowRider Championships Came to a Close on September 4, 2010

Retallack Resort, Cornwall, 4th September 2010 - European FlowRider® Championship

The first European FlowRider Championships were held in front of an audience of hundreds, with over 25 riders competing in the three main categories for the chance to win and all-inclusive trip to Wave House Sentosa, Singapore to represent Europe in the World FlowRider Championships (WFC) taking place on 29th October 2010.

In the highly competitive Men’s FlowRider category riders from all over the UK and Europe fought it out for the top position. Luke Hopper, Gethin Walters (both representing Retallack Resort) and Ben “Skindog” Skinner were the three local favourites, but they were put through their paces by some very strong European visitors including Jonas Wikberg and Andreas Losbjer from Sweden (both representing Experium) and Max Walraven and Quincy Vlijtig from Holland (both representing Dutch Water Dreams).

By the quarterfinals, the field was reduced to the European riders plus Luke Hopper, Gethin Walters, Sam Butler (representing FlowHouse Bedford) and Harry Clifton (representing Retallack Resort).

In the end Quincy beat Luke in a phenomenal final that pitted Luke’s smooth surfing style against Quincy’s technical trickery. Quincy’s winning bag of tricks including 180 varial flips, 360 big spins and kickflips helped him claim the prize and the chance to represent Europe and compete against the best riders from around the world in Singapore.

Greg Lazarus, US Team Rider and judge for the European event commented, “Considering it is such early days for FlowRiding in Europe the standard is extremely high, I think Quincy is going to go far in the sport and I can’t wait to see him compete in Singapore”.

Quincy, on accepting his prize was asked “how long did it take you to master a technical trick like the kickflip”, his honest reply, “about a week”.

In the Female FlowRider category Morwenna “Mo” Berry triumphed against the impressive Rachel Disley (representing FlowHouse Bedford) to claim her ticket to the WFC. Mo is an instructor at Retallack Resort, and the vocal local support might have given her the edge in a nail-biting final.

Mo was thrilled with her win, “the enormity of the prize only really sunk in when I was asked for my full name and passport details to book the tickets, I’m just so stoked to be able to represent Retallack Resort and Europe in Singapore next month – I hope I can get the time off work!”.

In the Bodyboarding FlowRider category Gethin Walters and Andrew Hill fought it out on the wave with a series of impressive technical manoeuvres including drop knee, headstands and 360’s. Andrew Hill just edged it in the final to claim his ticket to Singapore.

Whilst Gethin, who honed his skills on the Royal Caribbean FlowRider, didn’t win in either of the main categories, he didn’t walk away empty-handed. He won two of the fun categories – most 360’s on a FlowBoard and most creative trick. The latter was for a huge leap onto the FlowRider from 15 feet and the prize of a new FlowBoard was sponsored by Surdome.com. The 360 challenge was sponsored by DC Shoes and saw Gethin complete the highest number of full rotations on a FlowBoard.

The final fun category was won by Max Walraven for the highest Ollie, clearing 5 bodyboards. He won a 2 night stay at the Merton Hotel in Jersey, UK. The Merton Hotel (owned by the Seymour Group), as well as sponsoring the prize also sent Jamie De La Hay to compete, who is the head instructor on their single FlowRider and put on an impressive performance.

All in all the event was an enormous success with all the riders raising the bar to compete against Europe’s best, and all the spectators enjoying the great live music, beer and boarding. Jason Keyter, Retallack Resort Director, commented, “This is the most successful event we’ve ever hosted, we are so happy to be part of the FlowRider family and can’t thank all the European competitors enough – they put on an amazing show”.

Wave Loch would like to thank the following sponsors of the European FlowRider Championship:

Onslow Wave Limited – www.onslowwave.com

Retallack Resort – www.retallackresort.co.uk

Surfdome.com – The Lifestyle Store – www.surfdome.com

DC Shoes – www.dcshoes.com

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