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Ripcurl Boardmasters Signage

Ok so we couldnt get down for the first part of the week due to other commitments in the Hebredies, but after an epic journey setting off from Tiree at 6.pm Thursday, arriving in Rochdale (base) at 4.30am grabbing 3 hrs sleep, unloading, reloading and jumping in the van it was then  7ish on Friday before we hit Exeter after passing 6 major accidents ..... we werent going to make the Friday that was for sure!!!

 

So heres hoping that the people involved in the 6 nasty accidents we passed on the way are all ok. Anyway after staying the night in Exeter we again set off for another 3 hours (traffic was very very heavy again) we finally arived in good old sunny Newquay ....NOT it was pouring down!

This was the first time in 4 years we have been covering the Boardmasters that the weather has been like this and it affected everything. Well done to everyone there who managed to keep things going even when wind and rain closed parts of the trade village off.

So for a slightly different take on the  Ripcurl Boardmasters  .......

With lashing rain and high winds Ripcurl Boardmasters took a beating from the elements over the weekend..... but  it didnt stop people enjoying themselves.

 

This year because of the weather and because of previous commitments we couldn't do the whole week so on arriving at a washed and blown out site we were wondering what we would get. It wasn't the normal skate, surf and other attractions that were usually taking place at the Ripcurl Boardnmasters, instead people with brollies, poncho's, wellies and a layer of mud that had everyone talking. But what the hell; everyone is there to have a good time and thats what they did.

So arriving on the Saturday after the mission of a drive from the North we were immediately met by a sudden and very strong rain shower. The site at Fistral was begining to empty and some of the stands were packing away due to the severity of the winds..only the die hard festival goers remained (quite a few infact). With little action to photograph at the Ripcurl Boardmasters site, we made our way to the Watergate Bay location only to find a similar situation with stronger and heavier wind. So we headed down to the beach car park and waited for a gap in the weather........it was a long wait.....

The first things we actually photographed was the Unleashed site with what can only be described as a chocolate soup covering the grassed area........ the music site was a mess.  However it seemed that this only added to the whole experience and enjoyment as bands (Futureheads) decided to taunt the crowd with comments such as ' if anyone throws mud at me I'll electrocute them' ......... followed after that song by ......' I dont think I should have said that ' a bombardment of mud, thrown in paper cups, rags and clumps of grass hitting the stage and the bands. Then came the mud sliding and naked mud dancing as new circular stages were formed for the participants to perform in. With photographers flashing more and more people decided to take the plunge head first into the above ankle deep sludge ................oooooooooo.

The bands battled on with the rain being blown directly onto both stages, no one seemed to mind and this was probably one of the best atmospheres I have ever experienced at the Unleashed Festival.

The following day appeared a little brighter, broken cloud, blue sky appearing over Fistral Beach and a brisk wind, things would be better on the Sunday.

The surfing was off to a great start with a reasonable wave size which unfortunately was a little messing due to the  high winds pushing over the top. The standard of surfing as always was very high ...you wouldnt expect anything less from ASP and WQS surfers, we just wish that they'd been a little closer to the beach as they were difficult to spot even with the bright Ripcurl rashies. With a few surprises and close run heats along the way there was plenty to shout and cheer about with David Wear producing the best come back to get into the quarter finals

Back in the trade village people were keeping an eye on the sky as the wind start to push over  the cloud cover again.

We checked out the new skates from freeline which are a cross between an inline skate and a skate board. These funky little contraptions  caused quite a stir when we took the guys up to the top of the hill near the hotel for a quick photo shoot. With one of the guys over from California performing monster stomps, spins slides and some sort of one footed dismount remount witha  spin they look like they could be the new craze to hit the UK. The Freeline stall was very busy for most of the day with demonstations and discussions about this new toy.

check out our video

 The normal skate action that we see was again about to be rained off as we were watching one of the biggest attractions of the day .... the Pot Noodle Food Fight.  They had mini gladiators fighting members of the audience for prizes whislt  the public were watching they could grab a free pot noodle from the stand. With Mini Noodle Stacks, Beefy Bomber and Mushroom Masher the names were reminiscent of the old days of wrestling combined with a modern day gladiator arena. Quite funny and a brilliant marketing ploy; we seem to see a lot of inovative marketing here at Boardmasters, with the Lynx Manwash taking the starring role in 2006

So with the rain again thrashing down on Sunday afternoon we left the Boardmasters slightly bemused, quite wet, but very happy that despite the weather Ripcurl Boardmasters proved it can handle anything thrown at them.

Check out more images here

or if you have reigistered you will be able to see all the images here (especially the Unleashed mud wrestling)

Remember registration entitles you to a free entry into this months competition (check out the win free stuff tab on the home page) which is growing all the time, we know have confirmed goodies from Hadouken and O'shea and Wakestock as well as a few more magazine subcriptions.... Someones gonna be lucky when they receive ALL this through the post !!!!!

 

 

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