Saltrock Co. Sligo Open took place
in great waves

Source: Irish Surfing Association –www.isasurf.ie-

Competitors this year were greeted by unseasonably huge surf on the Saturday morning, with waves up to 15 foot leaving contest director Roy Kilfeather no option but to postpone the contest until the following morning.

The contest was run the following day in perfect 6-8ft waves. There were 7 categories of competition to be run including for the first time three junior events, which reflects the increasingly growing number of juniors within Co.Sligo surf club and the country itself.

The U-16 Bodyboard event was the first final of the day and was an all Strandhill affair with Rory O Dowd winning and Oran McGovern in close second, with Kevin Mc Gowan in 3rd and Shane Daly in 4th.

The Longboard event proved difficult for the competitors who had 10ft boards to take on the heaving 6ft surf. John Mc Curry from Portrush opened with a huge scoring wave but could not back it up which left the door open for local Stevie Burns to clinch it with 2 long and well worked waves.

In the women’s event it came down to a close battle between two of the super stars of women’s surfing Easky Britton and Shauna Ward and in this exchange Shauna was victorious.

The Bodyboard event was possibly the most hotly contested event with all four finalists being previous or current National champions. The waves were well suited for this category and some spectacular surfing was done, in the end Andrew Kilfeather continued his spree of winning all his heats and took the final with current Irish Champion Darragh
McCarter in 2nd Shane Meehan 3rd and Martin Kelly 4th.

In the Open Surf final it came down to a battle between local favourite Colin O Hare and Dane Morris from South Africa. The two were neck and neck in the final minutes however Dane piped Colin at the post with a high scoring wave to clinch the title.

At the presentation he was presented with the Philip Douglas memorial cup. The event was a great achievement for the club and conditions could not have been better, the sun even shone for the entire day as well!

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