RICHARD WHITSON – PHOTOGRAPHER
Right from the first warm-up session at Balevullin, two days before the event, it was obvious that the young-gun pros Marc Paré Rico and Julian Salmonn were going to be strong contenders for the title. Both showed a great eye for the waves, confidence and the flexibility of youth to pull off some cracking moves in logo to mast-high surf with goiters, wave-360’s and airs in abundance. Adam Lewis, fresh from his success at Sylt also looked confident and on form as did Phil Horrocks who was pulling off some massive back loops and forwards. Ben Proffitt was nursing his broken foot and, so he told me, was trying to take it easy, but when you see how contorted his legs and feet are when doing a wave 360 I wondered what he would look like if he was firing on all cylinders! Julien Taboulet was pulling out some super contorted table-top forwards and I had to look twice at a few photos to work out which way his legs were facing!
Phil Horrocks (5th), last year’s champion, missed out on a top-4 place in the single elimination so had to work his way through the 20 strong double elimination field beating young Julian Salmonn (6th) on the way before narrowly losing out to Julien Taboulet. Marc Paré Rico (2nd) also fought back in the double with a win over Julien Taboulet (4th), friend and mentor Ben Proffitt (3rd) and finally Adam Lewis to set up a nail-biting super-final. 00Move for move they matched each other and gave the judges a challenge but Adam won through, a superb result for him, his first Tiree title and a worthy winner. Elsewhere in the fleet, Andy Chambers (7th) was as flamboyant as ever and great to watch and James Cox (9th) had some nice moves and big loops. Tris Levie was 2nd in last years Amateurs so had his first run in the Pro fleet this year and excelled, managing to battle to 8th place, taking a few well established pro scalps along the way. Ben Page was pulling off stylish push-loops and Corky Kirkham, all the way from warm Fuerteventura, sailed well in the cool conditions with some nice jumps and tabletops. Ladies champion Sarah Hilder triumphed again and for a spell competed against the men. In the Amateurs fleet, the younger sailors shone through and young Lucas Meldrum impressed to win the title with Thomas Pidden 2nd and Greg Bowden 3rd; all very encouraging for the future of the sport.