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Search forA chance to impress at Croyde surfing spectacular
Wednesday, July 16, 2008, 12:00
Andrew said: “The Analog Tag Team Open is a new surf contest aimed at developing UK surfing, getting young surfers in the water with the pros and providing them with a stage to impress.
“The event will take place at Down End on Saturday and the contest will see 12 team captains – all pros from the UK surf community – each with a team of four surfers go head to head in a tag team style competition.
“The winning team will be showered in glory and prizes from our sponsors, and the best overall surfer of the day as selected by the judges will be kitted out head-to-toe in Analog, Gravis and Anon for their efforts.”
The contest is free to enter and surfers must register on the morning of the competition at Croyde between 8.30am and 9.30am, before being picked out lottery style to see who their team captain will be.
All entrants will get a free lunch and the drinks will provided by Red Bull.
And Cotty says the competition will run rain or shine, flat or swell.
And to inspire people to get involved, the whole day will be photographed by our friends at Wavelength Magazine with a full report and photos going into the magazine and online.
To top it off, the day's surfing will also be filmed by Maniac Films for a future podcast on the Wavelength website, so no talent will go unseen.
Elsewhere, Ilfracombe College recently received funding from the Trisurf project to set up their own surf club.
They then took it a little further and decided to use the college's media arts status as support to set up their own Surf Academy.
With the ongoing support from Surfing Croyde Bay, the school now take students out and instruct them using the latest video technology.
And to celebrate the academy's success, they rewarded their students with a surf competition that was accessible for all abilities.
Sponsored by Surfing Croyde Bay, Trisurf, Tiki and Surfed Out, 30 out of more than 50 of the Academy's members took part in 2ft waves held at Coombsgate beach.
With the tides racing in over the rocks at Barricane beach, there was a quick turnaround for the finals and an exciting end to the day. Organiser Rob Whitney said: “The girls' and KS3 boys' events were hotly contested with Zoe Braund and Marcus Hutchins storming ahead and racking up high points on numerous waves, but the very last final caused the judges some headaches.
“Having had to look at the score cards very closely, Josh Cassidy won by 0.5, followed closely by wildcard Sam Lewis and a tie for third between Harry Fay and Jack Turner.”
Meanwhile, Croyde waterman Ralph Freeman finally completed his postponed paddle around the point on Sunday.
After the Big Boy Paddle Race was cancelled at the Goldcoast Oceanfest in June, Ralph has been waiting for a suitable day to complete his challenge.
He had planned to compete in the race to raise money for the Motivation Charity Trust and has so far collected more than £500.
He said: “It was a huge disappointment on the day when the event was cancelled due to bad weather.
“I was determined to do the paddle as so many people have sponsored me and I would like to thank them for their support.
“You can continue to donate online at www.justgiving.com/ralphfreeman until August 22.
“I broke my neck in a surfing accident in September 2006 and was very lucky not to suffer permanent spinal damage.
“A friend of mine Dave Constantine, who was also a surfer, had a similar accident in Australia as a young man but was not as fortunate.
“He has been confined to a wheelchair ever since but has been an inspiration to me.
“He set up the Motivation Charity which works to provide disabled people in developing countries with high quality and low cost wheelchairs as well as training them in vocational skills to help them find employment.
“As soon as I had recovered enough from my accident, I wanted to do something to help Dave's fantastic charity.”
Ralph had support on the day from Chris Burrows, Ian Bennett, Shaun Latham and son Sebastian, Richard and Jenny Windsor and son Joe.
The crew joined him for the 2.5km paddle from Saunton beach to Croyde Bay on Sunday.
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