Results & wrap 5th EP Longboard trail

5th Trial- Dredging East Beach Port Alfred
By Gregg Clarke

Joef! Things are getting tight going into the last trial! Okes are gunning for those last remaining spots in the EP team with the 25th SA longboard champs around the corner and set to be the biggest showdown to date!

Lets get to it….

Saturday saw a moderate east blowing (which to my amazement doesn’t really affect East Beach), with some chunky 4ft waves coming through. Im sure all who surfed the trial will agree it was some of the best waves we’ve had so far with some high 8’s being scored. There were even barrels on offer for those willing to take off on the outside sets and pull in to those dredgy 4ft suckers! Lots of fun!

Winners in Junior Divisions:
U14 Boys: Kye Macgregor
U16 Boys: Tom Radford
U18 Boys: Peter Coffey

Senior Men:
1st) Gregg Clarke
2nd) Jamie Morris
3rd) Brian Doep
4th) Dave Leverington

Ladies Open:
1st) Magreet Wibblelink 
2nd) Kerry Viljoen

Ballies (some grey others not yet):
Greg Betts (new comer to EP longboarding), smashed his heat to get a solid first and making the Grand Masters division very interesting going into the last trial at Hullets.

Dave Macgregor scored the best wave of the day with a 9.5, very close to a perfect score, with some great top to bottom surfing and a good mix of old school surfing as well. This made it almost impossible for anyone to catch him. In second place was former SA longboard champ Drew Macdonald.

Both Martin Haines and Gavin “seamonkey” Seaman won their respective divisions with some critical floaters and classic turns.

Open Men:
Probably the funnest final we’ve had this year! Really heavy take off’s with long grinding right handers peeling off the bank, allowed for great new school surfing with even an air thrown in the final! I got the waves and scored a first, with Dave Leverington having a great heat to secure second place. Junior Cuan “vert man” Macgregor decided to enter the open division at his home break to get a third, and pip one or two of the open surfers. Dane van Greneun got a 4th place, pushing him right up the seedings.

It really was a great contest with a good turnout from the EP surfers. I want to again thank the Kowie Boardriders club, for allowing us the chance to surf their local spot. Lastly, well done to local Richard Heny who won his heat in convincing fashion! We hope to see you surfing the full trials next year!

See you all at Hullets next weekend (2nd March)- its gonna be a cracker with waves forecast!!

Later,

Gregg Clarke
EPLSA

(Photo's coming soon!)