Over the weekend of the 18th/19th of September I bit the bullet and entered my first major event since attempting to make my way back into the world of competitive longboarding. After a summer of pretty much zero surfing with the worst flat spell for a long time I was feeling pretty unprepared and out of practice but looking forward to just being around a major event.
It was also a good chance to try out Nessa (short for VANessa) the new addition to our family with my good mate Cliff to keep me warm with his out of sorts bowel movements! (I made him leave the doors open!)
Day 1 and no longboarding so a quick surf then we watched the groms battle against the closeouts of Watergate and caught up with friends who I’ve not seen for a long time!
That evening Ben Skinner invited us to check out his setup at Skindog Surfboards whilst he shaped a fun looking Ova, more to come on them very soon. We caught up on the WSL Longboard Tour and the events he had coming up and generally made up for lost time. It reminded me that no matter how long it’s been, with good friends you can pick up where you left off be it after 1 day or 10 years!
After a slightly less windy night in the van the main events got underway, I managed to win my first heat with a well thought out plan of making sure I got 2 good ones, actually I only caught 2 waves but that’s all you need.
The semi finals were held in solid onshore conditions with a horrible paddle out, despite this I knew it was my last heat of the day so I had to go for it and managed another confidence boosting win in waves I actually really enjoy surfing.
So onto the final on Sunday aaaand I barely managed to snag one coming 4th. Sad times but getting waves against the very best is even harder than I remembered, even so I had a great weekend and came away with a trophy.
Massive thanks to Surfing England, all of the event sponsors, my sponsors and my mates for supporting me. Well done to Ben Skinner for winning another major title!
For regular updates on what I’m up to and what’s going on in the world of Longboarding please follow on social media…
Ashley Braunton 