And so for the first time this contest took place on a overcast morning at Down End, Croyde but there were waves and and a queue of people waiting to register at 8.30am and claim their limited Tag Team T-shirt. WIth 56 entrants and team captains including Pro surfers Gary Wells, Danny Wells, Scott Rannochan, Ben Howarth and Josh Hughes it was hotting up to be a great day of surfing and the Sun came out in time for the start of the competition. Team captains were busy working out tactics and giving the younger members of their teams advice and encouragement before the twelve teams got ready for the morning heats....With the morning heats over it was time for the BBQ lunch of local sausages and burgers with Drinks and music from Redbull... Talk then turned to tactics for the afternoon battle of the semi's which saw the remaining eight teams fight it out...
Late afternoon saw the surf pick up to over head high with the final four teams going head to head with Gary Well's team of Jonty Tucker, Hayden Duck, Flora Lawton and Andrew Warren, Josh Hughes team of Alex Downie, Beua Bromham, Harriet Knight and Eddie Knight, Matt Jenkins team of Ben Reuth, Zak Lawton, Karma Worthington and Matt Knight against local unsponsored legend Adam Thornton's team of Charlie Charlesworth, Alister Deswart and Andrea Lawrence... The surfing got serious with Jonty Tucker taking the highest scoring wave of the final but this was not enough to take his team to glory. Adam Thorntons team took the deserved top spot with Josh Hughes team taking a close second....
1st. Adam Thorntons Team 7
2nd. Josh Hughes Team 4
3rd. Gary Wells Team 1
4th. Matt Jenkins Team 6
The three top teams all took home amazing prizes from Analog, Gravis, Anon optics and Wavelength, but the first place team struck gold with each team member also taking home an Xbox 360. There were also prizes of Sony MP3 players going to best male surfer of the day, Gary Wells and best female surfer of the day, Karma Worthington. Adam Thornton won best overall unsponsored surfer of the day and gets himself a years flow hook-up with Analog clothing, Gravis footwear Anon optics...
Big thanks go to Croyde Surf club, Chris from Trisurf, Mikey at Loose-Fit Surf Shop, Wavelength magazine, Redbull and Xbox for all their support.
