It’s been a while since I posted an update. With the queens jubilee public holiday weekend, half term, English Nationasl surf contest and a run of swell on the north and south coast I’ve barely stopped to catch a breath. It’s great that the season has finally kicked off at work and I’ve been teaching lots of lessons over the half term. The waves finally returned after a hideously long flat spell so I’ve been packing in plenty of surfing and training for all the upcoming events.
This weekend they finally managed to run the English Nationals at Watergate Bay. After 3 prior postponements of the event because of the lack of waves everyone we keen to get in the water and back into contest mode. With so many postponements of events due to lack of surf over the past couple months so far this was only my second event of the 2012 year…crazy. A little bit rusty surf wise and contest wise I was stoked when I advanced through my semi’s with a 1st place win and into the finals. We were the first heat in the water on sunday morning and there was a playful knee high clean wave, but with a dropping tide, dropping swell and a cross shore wind building it wasn’t long before it turned to ankle high slop! In my final just after lunch it was barely contestable, but the show had to go on to get the event finished. As many of you know I hate small waves so the dribbly waves we had to surf for the finals were challenging to say the least. I managed to catch a couple that pushed me through to second place but with the final seconds counting down and only barely a score in it I just couldn’t get what I needed to advance to 1st. Stoked for my friend Emilie who took 1st place for surfing so well in the awful conditions. I was really pleased with my 2nd place and am amped for my next BLU event at the end of the month. Huge thanks to everyone who came along to support me and cheer me on – Love you all!!
As if my day hadn’t already been busy enough with working, competing etc etc it was straight off to the South coast after the prize giving ceremony in search of some more waves…..surf surf surf. Whilst the North Coast was struggling to produce a ankle high wave I’d heard on the grapevine that the south coast was producing some head high ones. Sometimes these swell stories of far away coasts are just too tempting so packing up the van I headed south and scored!
I put my entry in for the Relentless Boardmasters womens LQS event in August this week too. It’s the biggest event in my calendar and I really want to improve on last years performance (hopefully the conditions will be a little less death defying this year!). I will be busy over the next couple months training and surfing so that I can do my very best this year.
It’s another busy week ahead for me – hope everyone had a wonderful half term and Jubilee weekend!
Ashleigh Bennetts 