Portsmouth Wave Event 2012

The last round of the Puravida wave trilogy recently took place at Portsmouth and despite a lack of
wind and a small swell, the weekend still continued in true windsurf style with a SUP competition
(boards kindly leant to us by Puravida and North fanatic).

Friday evening saw the University of Portsmouth’s student union being over-run by windsurfers, all
boasting to be the best at karaoke... unfortunately/thankfully the majority didn’t manage to get their
renditions in before making their way to Highlight, finishing with a cheeky trip to the curry house
before heading to their host’s for the night.

Saturday morning provided a well-needed full English at The Fleet, before making the most of the
sun with an intense game of Crazy Golf. Despite some definite cheating from a few of the teams,
Jony Price managed to gain the best score, bagging him a nice dirty pint at the pub later that day.
After chilling on the beach, the students headed to a bar on Guildhall to enjoy a casual pint and the
England/Wales rugby game… disappointing though it was for all but the Cardiff students!

Saturday evening saw a pizza dinner, house-party and fancy dress night out. And with a ‘p’
theme there was no shortage of inventive outfits, with certain paedophile masks being the most
disturbing… Despite the outfits, all made it into Babylon for an evening of cheesy 90’s music and
dancing the Macarena. The majority of students crawled into bed for “the best spooning in the
world” at the reasonable hour of 6am, in order to prepare themselves for the expected competition
the following day.



Sunday morning was a harsh wake-up call for the students; with hectic car packing, bacon
sandwiches and crying breathalyzers… yes apparently they CAN cry at you. Everyone headed over
to the sandy beach of West Witterings as a competition was still to be had! Fuelled by Red Bull
the students were determined to get out on the water, and a fierce SUPing competition ensued.
Spectators were blown away by some of the manoeuvres pulled off, with a few old school body
360’s and some yoga-style headstands. The competition was a close call for the judges, and resulted
in Exeter’s Rachael Ince gaining women’s 1st place, followed in 2nd by Portsmouth’s Jess Horth and
Sara McMahon as a partnership. For the men’s Portsmouth pulled off both 1st and 2nd in the form of
Carl Lobato and George Bowell, with 3rd place going to Exeter’s Dan Lytton. Congratulations to the
winners and thanks to Jim at Puravida and the SWA sponsors for the prizes!



Once the competition was completed, prize giving was held and a big thank you went out to all
sponsors, namely; The Fleet & Babylon, Red Bull, Puravida, North Fanatic, Simon at 2XS and all the
SWA sponsors. A plan is being put together to hold a final round of the wave series at a location and
time yet to be named, so good luck to all those that shall be competing.

Naomi Jackson