Relentless Boardmasters wrap-up
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Was the 2009 edition the best yet?
The Relentless Boardmasters in Association with Vans returned to Newquay, Cornwall last week for pumping surf, world-first BMX tricks, 900 spins in the Vert Skate final and a mixed but epic music line-up.
The UK’s oldest and biggest surf, skate and music event started here in 1981 - and this year warm weather and smooth running attracted more than 20,000 people to the South West’s most notorious tourist town.
After sponsor swaps and a format change, the more concise schedule meant that, while cash was conserved, organisation was simpler – with both Vans and Relentless making equal partners due to their shared focus on the harder side of sounds and sideways sports.
Despite falling victim to Britain’s clichéd saturated summers in recent years, the event lucked out this year as the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) surf contest kicked off under scorching skies and 3-5ft surf on Wednesday, instead of the expected slop. Brit riders Mark Harris, Reubin Pearce, Sam Lamiroy, Russell Winter and Alan Stokes all entered the UK’s biggest contest, facing the WQS’ best on home soil.
After first Rounds on Tuesday, the contest forged ahead with erratic weather expected, whipping through Round 2 on Wednesday, then Rounds 3 and 4 on Thursday. Quarter Finals finished on Friday in 2-3ft light onshore conditions, where Animal pro Alan Stokes, after defeating former Boardmasters champion Antonio Bortoletto in Round 4 to go through, notched up the highest native score of the event. But the Newquay local was knocked out by Txaber Trojaola in Quarters, finishing up in a respectable 5th place. Trojaola then went on to a heated final against Australian Dan Ross who, due to his leading position on the WQS scoreboard, predictably came first, taking enough points to secure him a place on the WCT 2010, $16,000 prize money and the event title.
But while the Boardmasters may have its roots in surfing, the additional skate, BMX and music events, which were first added in the '90s, now overshadow the aquatic activities – gathering huge, enthralled crowds all weekend, lapping up the sun and inspired by the action.
The next podium battle of the weekend was Saturday’s Vans Summer Sessions BMX Mini Ramp Competition. Already dubbed the best event of the summer by core press, and starring today’s best young homegrown talents, it was destined to be impressive. Zeal and Standard rider James Hitchcox made his enthusiastic MCing debut too, which, in addition to a line of shirtless, stoked judges on top of the ramp, amped the crowds to 11. The balls-out ballistic talent of Ben Wallace consistently stood out nabbing him first place – with Martin Cooper second, and Jason Phelan close behind. With a taste for victory, one title was not enough for Wallace: he returned for Sunday’s best trick contest and landed the world’s first ever - previously thought impossible - Fakie double whip to humungous cheers. Special stuff, and well worth watching online here.
The WQS may have wrapped up, but the surfing hadn’t finished. With Britain’s best in town, Relentless hosted the second ever Aerial Assault – the UK’s only tow-in contest. Pulled by a jet ski so they could launch off waves repeatedly may have lost the surfers green credentials, but for entertainment factor it was epic – especially for the majority of non surf-savvy spectators, confused by complicated ASP contest rules. Qualifiers took place on Saturday, where, after his WQS success Stokes competed again, but was pushed out by Oakley poster boy Oli Adams who landed a super-clean air reverses – but was then knocked out by rising talent Reubyn Ash in the semis, after he stomped several aerial 360s. Ash’s trademark move wasn’t enough though, as Aussie born Micah Lester flew with more volume to take the crown and £1000 cash.
As the surf contest closed, attention turned back to dry land and the Vans Summer Sessions Vert Skate final – easily the most impressive the UK’s ever seen. After qualifiers and best trick contest on Saturday, 18-year-old Alex Perelson seemed streets ahead, but still had to face recent X Games winner and local 14-year-old wonder kid Sam Bosworth. At 3pm the finalists ascended the monster ramp, and took turns to drop in for an intense twenty minutes. With confidence high after his gold and spurned on by a super supportive vocal crowd, Sam made multiple attempts to stomp what looked like a 720 kickflip, but kept skidding out. But, it was worth the bruises as he came fourth, behind fellow Brit and X Games silver medalist Sam Beckett in third. France’s Joris Birchet nabbed second, while 18-year-old US rising star Alex Perelson came first with his beautiful, floaty style high above the coping and the first ever 900 spin landed on UK soil.
Exhausting? It was. And this was before most even arrived at Watergate Bay for the music. Perennial festival favourites The Streets and Cypress Hill headlined Friday and Saturday respectively, and were fun, but unoriginal and a little overdone. The Vans stage was where the real gems were at though, with two days packed full of Britain’s bright new hopes, Saturday headliners Failsafe’s pop-core had potential to go huge, while Saturday’s festival closers Ghost Of A Thousand were blistering until midnight – having honed their hardcore rock ‘n' roll on their recent tour, they were electric, inciting circle pits, shocking chavs and plastering smiles across a thousand faces – if they weren’t there already after one epic weekend.
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Relentless Boardmasters wrap-up (text) by Gemma Freeman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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