My hopes where all over at the start of the season while I was away competing in a WQS missing Saltburn and then followed by a bad result. With only a few events for the women’s tour it’s important that you attend all of them if you want to be in for a chance. However I wasn’t about to hand the title over to one of the only three girls in the race Nicole Morgan, Beth Mason and Gwen Spurlock without a fight.

All the open and women rounds where held on Sunday, the surf was really messy all day and it was hard to find a wave with any scoring potential. Gabi Rowe found the highest scoring wave for the women claiming a funky skate board.

To everyone’s delight the swell cleaned up for the finals, offering us some challenging surf for competitors to test their skills and demonstrate to the judges what they can do in the clean conditions.  The variety of moves and action on display was described by Head Judge Esther Spears as, “Definitely impressive – the best seen in many years. This shows a promising time for British surfing.”

The Women’s final, was a fight to the end passing back and forth. With 17 year old Tassy Swallow winning the Women’s division, leaving myself Jo Dennison (Freshwater) to pick up a very close 2nd place, 3rd went to Beth Mason (Swansea) and 4th to Nicole Morgan (Northern Ireland). This result meant that Gwen had won the tour, she went out early in the Animal Open making it an extremely tense final. Nicole Morgan (Ireland) had to place either first or second to take the title from Gwen but unfortunately for her she could only manage a fourth place.

Well done girls see you all next year!!

Watch all the surfing on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfilG6nKWdg&feature=player_embedded#at=27

Cilling with the girls in Sri Lanka

The UK Pro Surf Tour returned to Sri Lanka in July this year for the “Sri Lanka Champion of Champions Surf Contest” at Arugam Bay. All of the best surfers on the UK Pro Surf Tour get invited to compete on a right hand point break and this year the girls get to go!!!

It wasn’t until the week before that anyone knew the competition was on, so it was all last minute. I was really excited and couldn’t believe that I would be going on a trip with rippers like Alan Stokes, Oli Adams, Matt Capel and Reubyn Ash. After the gruelling plane, bus journey and an overnight stay we arrived to warm water and pumping surf. However you do get to see some wildlife through the nature reserve.

We had a few days to surf and get used to the waves. I must thank my room mate Nicole Morgan for giving me a kick in the morning for those dawny seasons. It was so cool free surfing with everyone standouts for me were Stuart Campbell and Toby Donachie – ones to watch in the future.

I also did a day trip with Johnny Fryer, Alan Stokes, Nicole Morgan, Sarah Bentley, and Celine Gehret. It was great to see a bit of Sri Lanka and ended up in a remote little village. We rocked up at this spot, all the local villagers came to say hello and we surfed a spot empty line up that reminded me of Morocco!! Epic day surfing watched Alan pull into a mantle barrel and make it and Johnny smacking it on his back hand.

The comp didn’t go so well for me, I ended up joint 3rd with Raine Jackson. It was great to see two Welsh girls in the final Beth claiming The title despite Gwen’s efforts. The highest scoring wave of the day was from Alan Stokes, which got a 9.50 point wave in the semi’s and then lead him into the man on man final against Reubin Pearce.  Alan went onto to win this year’s Open! I can’t wait to go on the next one.

Have a look at free surfing shots on my blog… http://www.jodennison.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BILLABONG PRO J-BAY BRINGS WORLD’S BEST SURFERS TO JEFFREYS BAY FOR 25TH YEAR

Africa’s most prestigious surfing event, the Billabong Pro J-Bay, will bring the world’s top 45 ranked professional surfers to the renowned waves of Jeffreys Bay in July for the 25th time since it became an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) rated event back in 1984.

Scheduled for 15-25 July, Stop No. 4 of 10 on the 2010 ASP World Tour will again be staged at Supertubes, the 300 meter stretch of coastline universally acknowledged as one of the planet’s top 10 high performance surf breaks.

However I am gutted for Joel Parkinson one of my favourite surfers and last year’s champion Joel Parkinson has pulled out due to a nasty injury. He would have been one of my favourite surfers to win the event!!

Rocks that resulted in Joel Parkinson cutting his foot, putting him out of the Billabong Pro J-Bay

Watch it live starting on the 15 July http://www.billabongpro.com, I will be glued to the web cast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UKPST¬† held it’s first ever Flow Rider comp in Newquay on June 17. It was held at the Retallack Resort & Spa, which is an awesome place. It was quite hard to pick up but the more practise runs you had the easier it became. Everyone was in the same comp men, women and grommets.

The weather was great and some of the top surfers in the UK all came to compete.Adam Griffiths was one of the stand outs from the opening round which saw the likes of Ben Skinner, Sam Lamiroy, Joss Ash, Reubyn Ash, Danny Wells, and Lee Bartlett testing their skills on the artificial wave. Representing the women, was Nicole Morgan, Celine Gehret, Lucy Campbell and myself Jo Dennison. Swiss champion Celine Gehret made it through to second round. The final came down to Joss Brooks and Adam Griffiths, with Adam winning the first professional Flo rider event for a £1000 cheque. It’s a great laugh and defiantly worth checking out with a few friends especially when it’s flat.

http://www.retallackresort.co.uk/flow-rider.php

I have 15 days left until I start the very long road trip to battle it out in a six star WQS Estoril Surf Billabong Girls (Portugal). Nicole Morgan from Ireland is picking me up in her new camper, where we will travel Lisbon for the first of our WQS May 7-9. With either tears or glory we will then have the long journey to get to Hossegor,Landes-France for the Swatch Girls Pro also 6star WQS.

I can’t speak for Nicole but these will be my first ASP events. I am very excited and can’t wait to put my surfing to the test with the girls on tour. Wish us Luck!!

A small wave at home befor it went flaaaat!!

Every winter you hear about the travels of the top British male surfers training for the next years competitions and trying to escape the ever colder winters. This year after finishing work with the Billabong International Surfing Centre , and the schools programs had wrapped up for the winter. I was lucky enough to plan a big trip in preparation for my determination to take some big names down in some World Qualifying events in 2010.

 

Pembrokshire schools loving surf club

The first place on my list was the south of France so I could visit one of Europe’s best shapers, Robert Vaughn, and pick up some new surf boards. I ordered three new boards; a 5’11 small wave board, a 6’1 for the good days and a 6’3 for when it’s a little bigger. Once the hype of the ASP in France had died down, it was easy to find a quality sand bank to season. I spent most of my time in Les Estagnots and some of the busiest waters that I have ever experienced in Capbreton.

 

woohoo new boards

As the winter swells pick up and the golden sand banks starts to get washed away I cruised down to northern Spain. Here there are some reef breaks or bigger wave spots, which hold the swell better. One of which being Mundaka. Being a goofy footer, I was very excited about testing this spot out that is deemed to be ‘one of the heaviest waves in Europe’. I was not disappointed! Rumour was in France that it was going to be really good, so lots of surfers headed down.

Highly excited, I woke up really early to check it all out. I knew there where waves; I could hear them, but thick fog covered the whole sea. As I stared into the mist I could finally see what I thought was a five foot wave, as I looked closer I saw someone being towed into a very sizable wave. That day turned out to be one of the best days they had seen all year. I saw some of the biggest barrels and the most broken boards that I have ever seen. The next day was far more fun and I meet up with Sarah Beardmore and Rebecca Woods for surf before she headed down to Peniche in Portugal for an ASP event.

 

Pumping Mundaka

Nearing the end of November, by which point I had lived in a van for too long, it was time to head somewhere warmer. The Canneries have been described as the ‘Hawaii of Europe’ and situated close to the continent of Africa, this seems like a good place to go and check out. I spent 6 weeks on the island of Fuerteventura. It’s a volcanic island so there where reef breaks everywhere. I don’t think I have ever surfed so much in my life.

The waves where really consistent and we only had a couple of small and on sure days. I had some video coaching from Outerreef Surf School; Jo Dennison surfing. I think that my surfing defiantly improved from this, it helps to fine tune your surfing. I not only worked on my improving surfing, but I also concentrated on my diet and fitness. This was my favourite spot a right hand point break, Los Lobos.

Sometimes I could spend six or seven hours in the water with no break, just because the waves where so much fun. The last few days I was physically exhausted, the forecast was looking a little dull so I could not have timed it any better. Time to go Home to chilly Wales for a well earned rest and a cooked dinner.