Oxford Rule The Waves
Oxford surf Club returned from the surfing ‘Mecca’ of Newquay at the end of last term with a creditable mid table finish in the BUSA championships. The result was a tribute to the club’s steady development and excellent team morale since its formation in 2001. Last year most of the Oxford team performed disappointingly with the exception of Gianna Chadwick of Somerville who came fourth in the women’s competition.
This year, a more confident, better prepared squad, many with previous experience of the competition experience hoped for more. The competition is based on groups of six surfers paddling out in coloured bibs and then having fifteen minutes to catch as many waves as possible. Surfers are then judged on their three best waves, with the top two scorers going through to the next round. This year’s championships took place in the freezing waters and small waves of Newquay in early spring.
This did not seem to deter the Oxford team however, with three men advancing into the second round. Andrew Nalty of Keble, Seamus Holden of Somerville and Guy Kingham of Univ all successfully went through. Meanwhile, in the women’s competition Katie Bach of Hertford and Kerri Smith of Teddy Hall progressed. Stephen Moran, Carmel Hannan and last year’s heroine Gianna Chadwick all put in strong performances and were unlucky not to progress from their respective heats.
The best Oxford performance was in the women’s competition where Smith impressively reached the quarter- final stage of the competition with a succession of superb performances, several involving headstands. The team’s combined efforts were a marked improvement from last year and placed them higher than more than 20 teams, including strong squads from Leeds and Durham.
This left the Surf Club president Matt Paterson to praise his team for the “consummate skill and flair” that had seen them perform so strongly in this year’s competition. The trip was a “roaring success” both on and off the beach, with some lively celebrations in Newquay nightclubs marking the club’s achievements at the end of the competition. He also thanked the ex- President Ben Lonsdale (Hertford) who made the decision to come back from Peru to guide the team on the Cornish coast.
With the club still continuing to grow and getting people ‘to the surf’ it is hoped that this year’s result can be used as a platform to improve Oxford’s BUSA standing in future years. New members are always welcomed and anyone interested in joining should e-mail surf@herald.ox.ac.uk.
28th Apr 2005