Womens Surfing:

Grace Davies first girl to surf Sands Reef in Jersey

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 26 March 2005: - - O’Neill grommet , 15 year old Grace Davies from Jersey, Channel Islands is the first girl to surf the “sands reef” in St Ouens Bay in Jersey.

On Good Friday morning Grace loaded her big wave 9ft 7in single fin thinking that she may get a good session at la Braye on the dropping tide, but on arriving to the beach visibility was poor and with no visual line ups, Grace had 3ft to 5ft splash on the drop for 2 hours on her performance longboard

Jeremy “ longarms” Oxenden, Jersey big wave reef veteran, whose grandfather brought surfing to the Island of Jersey in the 1920s is Grace’ mentor when it comes to big wave riding and when after an early lunch at the imfamous “Big Verns” Restaurant, Jem looked and decided that swell conditions had built slightly and a perfect small wave would break over the reef at the right point of the tide

Jem’s comments were “the conditions were perfect for Grace to learn about all the line up points and the channels to get in from and out to the reef safely, which is a good 20 minute paddle and even on a small day breaks with only 4 ft water over the granite reef, this opportunity does not happen often as we have such a big tidal range and such fickle surf conditions”. Jem also added that a small piece in the history of Jersey surfing was in the making and “How good is that”.

Grace was encouraged into waves at “Sands reef” by Jem for over an hour and a half and whilst there were lulls between sets, good waves were ridden.

On returning to the beach, Grace said “that it was so far out to paddle and the Island looks so beautiful from out there and the wave is so good , I can’t wait for a big day” and so on , I think the word is “stoked”.

Grace promptly slept in a sheltered sun trap for a couple of hours and then surfed till late on the incoming tide.

More information about Jersey surfing can be found at.
www.jerseysurfboardclub.typepad.com  
www.jerseylongboarders.com  

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