The Forecast

PORTLAND PLYMOUTH

WESTERLY, BACKING SOUTHERLY FOR A TIME, 6 TO GALE 8, OCCASIONALLY SEVERE GALE 9. VERY ROUGH OR HIGH, OCCASIONALLY VERY HIGH IN PLYMOUTH. RAIN OR SQUALLY SHOWERS. VISIBILITY MODERATE, OCCASIONALLY POOR .

The Event

The first Xpression freestyle event took place over the weekend of 17th &18th January 2009. A fantastic turn out of some of the UK’s hottest freestylers enjoyed some insane conditions.  The forecast during the week leading up to the event had made selecting the ideal location tricky but the final decision of Portland harbour payed off.

 

Saturday’s began with an 8am briefing to make the most of the tidal conditions. Unfortunately only a quick thirty minutes were squeezed in before the 25 knot wind turned off several hours before predicted in a matter of minutes.   The wind wasn’t being kind but at 3pm the front was spotted and 4.2’s were rigged and we sailed until dark in some amazing aerial freestyle conditions.  Stand out sailor was Tom Parsons (Mistral/North) showing off his powerful style in aerial moves. 

 

During the evening the forecast was again pointing towards Portland offering the best conditions for Sundays session with everyone keen to get some more sailing in as well as the comp.  We took shelter from the insane gale force winds in the Ferry Bridge Inn and watched debris fling past the windows (literally) as the insane South westerly storm reached boiling point.

 

Sunday greeted us with solid 4.7 weather and glassy flat water but a nippy 7 degrees.  Straight into the ‘power hour’ at 9am gave everyone a chance to get on the water, enjoy the ideal conditions and for us to get some sick video coverage.  Conditions were likable to Baby Bay in Dahab abeit a little cooler!!! Max Rowe (Club Vass/Turfdog/Spartan) and John Palmer (Goya/MFC/Amex/Patlove) stood out pulling clean double switch stance moves, and battling the bitterly cold rain squalls. The cold saw the end of Ben Lee (RRD/Simmer) who decided going home for a warm bath was a good call!

 

The standards were high with every sailor getting spocks, flakas and grubbys in their heat. Up first were John, Will, Tom, Ollie Acton and Steve Thorne (Wet’n’Dry Boardsports). It was a close heat but the cold finally got to Parsons, so Palmer and Will advanced. 

 

The second heat saw Max, Murat Haykir, James, and Adam. After Adams shuv-it spock attempts the day before (smashing the nose of his board) he was on a borrowed board but still managed to make it through. Maxs’ training in Vass and Dahab had obviously paid off with him dominating the heat.

 

John, Max, Adam and Will progressed through to the final. It was a close battle between John and Max, with both nailing punetas and esliders in the heat. Max clinched it in the final seconds, with a sick No Handed Flaka straight in front of a John. Third place went to Will as Adam struggled with his borrowed board.

 

 

The Results:

1st Max Rowe (Club VASS/Turfdog/Spartan)

2nd John Palmer K718 (Goya, Amex, Patlove, MFC, Boohai, Vibe)

3rd Will Rogers (K-Bay, Chinook, MauiSails, YES Masts)

 

Overall Xpression 1: Portland  was a massive success., with loads of time on the water in some amazing freestyle conditions. The level was always being pushed with several people landing new high level moves throughout the weekend proving that Xpression will do what we planned, push up the UK standards. Lets hope there is another manic storm coming our way soon and we can push the levels further and have an even better event!  Many thanks for the people who gave up their time to hold a camera or video camera in the chilly conditions.

 

Watch out for the more detailed write up in the mags SOON!