Circle One Irish National Surfing Champs

Irish Surfing Association
East Strand, Portrush Co Antrim Ireland
14 - 15 March 2009

Circle One Irish National Surfing Championships

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 19 March, 2009 : - - The Causeway Coast Surf Club was host to the Circle One Irish National Surfing Championships at East Strand, Portrush, Co Antrim last weekend.

The event was supported by Coleraine Borough Council, Circle One, Ocean Warriors Surf Shop and Monster Energy.  Eight national titles were awarded at the event in the following categories- Open Surf, Women’s Surf, Longboard, Bodyboard, Women’s Bodyboard, Senior (over 27), Master (over 35), Stand Up Paddle.

The Champions- Finn Mullen, John Mc Curry, Shane Meehan, Ashleigh Smith, Stevie Burns, Fergal Smith, Dave Blount and Nicole Morgan 
The first heats to hit the water in small clean waves on Saturday morning were the women. They were followed by heats in the other seven categories with surfing continuing until late into the evening.

Sunday morning kicked off with the Open semi-finals followed by the eight finals. Although conditions were forecast to deteriorate during Sunday, they actually improved creating ideal conditions for the finals as the day went on.

Open semi one was contested by Fergal Smith, Cain Kilcullen, Ronan Oertzen and Aaron Reid. Fergal Smith finished 1st with eighteen year old Ronan Oertzen pulling off the upset of the event to finish 2nd ahead of the defending Champion, Cain Kilcullen and Aaron Reid who were eliminated from the event. Semi two saw Liam Joyce and Andrew Mennie progress with Lahinch’s Ollie O’Flathery and Damien Conway eliminated.

The Open final was a closely contested affair between Liam Joyce, Fergal Smith, Ronan Oertzen and Andrew Mennie. Until the closing moments of the final one high score from any of the four surfers was enough to clinch the title. With only minutes to go Fergal Smith rode the winning wave that crowned him Irish Champion 2009. Liam Joyce finished 2nd, Andrew Mennie 3rd and rising star, Ronan Oertzen 4th.

Nicole Morgan : photo courtesy ISA

The women’s final was expected to be a show down between defending champion, Easkey Britton, who was going for five in a row and Nicole Morgan, the 2008 Women’s UK Pro tour Champion.

However it was Tahlia Britton, Irish U18 Girls Champion who led the charge for the first fifteen minutes of the event with several good scoring waves. Spectators and judges were preparing for another major upset when Easkey and Nicole found their second high scoring waves to push ahead of Tahlia and end the final with less than half a point between themselves. On this occasion Nicole was victorious taking the coveted title and edging four times Irish Women’s Champion, Easkey Britton in to 2th place. Tahlia Britton finished 3rd and Ione Byrne 4th.

In the bodyboard event Shane Meehan was in top form scoring the highest wave of the event (winning £100 from Ocean Warrior Surf Shop for this wave) and taking the title with ease. Seamus Mc Goldrick finished 2nd, local surfer, Martin Kelly 3rd and one of Strandhill’s up and coming bodyboarders, David Mulcahy 4th.  

Local surfer, John Mc Curry defended his Irish Longboard title with a combination of powerful and stylish surfing. Fourteen year old Jamie Russell finished 2nd, Irish U18s Longboard Champion, Donal O’Reilly 3rd and surfing veteran, Iain Gilmour 4th.

Ashleigh Smith, Strandhill dominated the Women’s bodyboard event to take the title for the fifth consecutive year. Stevie Burns took his fifth consecutive Irish Masters (over 35) title and David Blount was crowned Irish Senior (over 27) Champion. Finn Mullen caught a high scoring final wave in the final minutes of the Stand Up Paddle event to take the title and edge the defending Champion, Emmet O’Doherty into 2nd place with Kieron Black finishing 3rd. 

The Christian Surfers Network was on duty all weekend supplying hot tea and coffee to competitors and spectators. In conjunction with the Championships, Dubsurf, a Volkswagen showcase event took place. Research was conducted on the prevalence of exostosis or surfers ear among participants at the event. The event was visited by Contest Director, Peter Cook, of the recent World Junior Surfing championships in France in 2008.  who was checking out the venue with the view to hosting the European Junior Surfing Championships in 2010.

SUP event : photo courtesy ISA

The Irish Surf Team Squad spent two days prior to the contest training in Portrush. The contest was the first of three selection events for the Denny Irish Surf Team to compete at the World Surfing Games in Costa Rica in August and the European Surfing Championships in Jersey in September. The Denny Irish Junior Surf Team used the Championships as a warm up contest prior to their departure for the World Junior Surfing Championships taking place in Ecuador at the end of March. See gallery for more photos.

Open
1. Fergal Smith, Westport
2. Liam Joyce, Dublin
3. Andrew Mennie, Portrush
4. Ronan Oertzen, Sligo

Women
1. Nicole Morgan, Bundoran
2. Easkey Britton, Rossnowlagh
3. Tahlia Britton, Rossnowlagh
4. Ione Byrne, Aughris

Longboard
1. John Mc Curry,
2. Jamie Russell, Belfast
3. Donal O’Reilly, Belfast
4. Iain Gilmour, Letterkenny

Bodyboard
1. Shane Meehan, Strandhill
2. Seamus Mc Goldrick, Strandhill
3. Martin Kelly, Coleraine
4. David Mulcahy, Strandhill 

Master
1. Stevie Burns, Portrush
2. Andy Hill, Portrush
3. Finn Mullen, Causeway Coast
4. Kieron Black, Causeway Coast

Senior
1. David Blount, Tramore
2. Keith O’Brien, Tramore
3. John Britton, Rossnowlagh
4. David Clelland, Portrush

Women’s Bodyboard
1. Ashleigh Smith, Strandhill
2. Tahlia Britton, Rossnowlagh

Stand Up Paddle
1. Finn Mullen, Causeway Coast
2. Emmet O’Doherty, Bundoran
3. Kieron Black, Causeway Coast

www.isasurf.ie

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