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UKPST 2008 Event 4 Gul Open St. Ives
Flying Ash Soars at Gul Open
Reubyn Ash returned from a successful summer season on the continent to annihilate all comers in the last event of the UK Pro surf Tour summer series The Gul Open at St. Ives. The waves were small but Reubs made his intentions clear from the start with a sweet air reverse in the first heat of the day then in the final, when the contest was relocated to Godrevy, he won the £1,000 cheque with an incredible no-hands punt that had the assembled pros hooting with approval. Young gun, Jayce Robinson, used his local knowledge to push Ash all the way and looks to have fully recovered from his skate injury by the way he was smashing it in the final. Stoksey and Fryer represented the old guard and Stokseys third place was enough to keep him firmly planted on top of the ratings pile.
Josh Piper came out on top in a dog fight with Alex Baker to take the under sixteen boys title, Zoe Sheath confirmed her under sixteen girls crown (or is that tiara?) with her fourth successive victory and nine year old Will Bailey from Woolacombe caused an upset in the grom event with his first ever victory on the UKPST.
At times the waves were painfully small and this did benefit the light-footed surfers but as Dave Reed the Contest Director told me after the event: “The (UKPS) tour crowns true British Champions at the end of the year who have surfed consistently in a variety of conditions, from barrels on the reefs and points of Scotland and Northern Ireland to the beach break waves of Wales and the South west.”
© Ester Spears
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