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Practise sessions at Pantin before the World Championships[/caption]
2015 has been a great year. The year started in and around Portrush with some big waves and small temperatures making for some really fun surfs leading up to the competition season. This began in March time in north west Donegal with the Ulster Paddle surf league comp 1 in which I won both of the junior classes and placed second in both senior classes.
As we approached the Easter holidays, I was able to spend two weeks living near Portrush, surfing in the mornings before heading to the house to prepare for my GCSEs, which allowed me to make huge improvements to my surfing.
Before long, kayaking was forced to take a back seat, with GCSE exams approaching. At least the sea was also flat therefore removing temptation! I was however confident in the preparation for the world championships I had done so far. After 6 weeks, I was finished, and 2 days after that, I was on a plane to Santander. The next day I was in the surf.
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Surfing hard in the long boat at the Worlds[/caption]
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Throwing some big moves in Pantin[/caption]
We arrived a week before the Worlds were due to begin so that I could get used to my boat after a long break, and also get to know the wave the competition would be held on, at Playa de Pantín. The week before the competition was amazing, with our time spent at Camping Valdoviño with two other families from Northern Ireland, and meeting some new faces from around the world who also chose to stay in Valdoviño. We managed to surf the wave with only one or two locals with early morning starts until Thursday when the surf got bigger and more and more competitors started to arrive. By this point, I was already comfortable and took a break to make sure I was in form for the Worlds.
The competition started with a tough few heats in junior and open short boat and junior long boat, in which I placed second, putting me into the reprecharge rounds (reps). Determined to make up for this, I surfed to the best of my ability, winning the first round of the open long boat, and getting into the semi-finals for both junior classes by winning my juniors reps - although I just missed out on making it back into the main stream for the open short boat.
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Training in Portugal[/caption]
However, I struggled to find my focus in the open long boat quarter finals and junior long boat semi-finals. This was very disappointing, however I made up for this as I managed to surf really well in my last heat, the junior short boat (despite the waves almost being flat by the end of the heat) but unfortunately missed the final by 0.08points. I finished my first world championships with =5th in junior short and long boat, =13th open long boat and =33rd in open short boat.
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Winning my first heat at the Europeans[/caption]
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Throwing down at the shore in Portugal[/caption]
The next two weeks were spent traveling through the beautiful Galician countryside down to Santiago de Compostela, into Portugal through Viana do Castelo, Aveiro and down towards Santa Cruz (about an hour north or Lisbon) and once there, preparing for the surf kayak Europeans. Winning my first heat of the competition in junior short boat against the newly crowned junior world champion was an amazing experience, giving me so much more confidence going into the rest of the competition. I managed to finish the competition with 3rd in junior long boat, =5th in junior short boat and open long boat and =9th in open short boat. The next two weeks were spent travelling back home through Portugal, Spain, France and England surfing and exploring these countries as we went.
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Enjoying the waves in Portugal[/caption]
After nine weeks on the road the summer was finished and it was time to get back to surfing in Portrush. However, autumn soon approached with the Irish Open, British Open and Northern Ireland Open all to come. First up was the Irish open which was a great event and it was amazing to surf a great reef break at Easky Left on my third visit. This led to a really good competition with lots of other juniors at the event which was great to see. I surfed really well, particularly in the long boat, placing 2nd in open long boat and winning junior long boat. I also was 2nd in junior short boat and 5th in open short boat.
Next I travelled to Freshwater west in Wales where the decision was to run three heats for each junior class, with the winner being based on a cumulative score rather than the normal single heat system. The first rounds of open long boat and the junior short boat were run on the Saturday, however when we came to Sunday for the rest of open long boat and the junior long boat, we were greeted by much bigger surf. I was really happy to win the junior long boat for the second year in a row, I also placed second in junior short boat and =7th in open long boat.
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Winning the junior long boat at the British Open[/caption]
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Good waves in Portrush this winter[/caption]
The last competition of the year was in Portrush at the Whiterocks on a cold windy day! I surfed to the best of my ability, winning both junior classes but unfortunately, despite winning my first four heats, I was not able to win the open classes, placing second in both of them to Jonny Bingham, a previous world champion from Northern Ireland.
It’s been a great year, travelling to so many new places and meeting so many new people and seeing friends I haven’t seen for a year. Without a doubt, the highlight of the year is every time I get to surf good waves whilst watching the sunset. I can’t wait to do it all again this year!
Huge thanks to Peak UK and the Mary Peters Trust for all their support!
Article and images: Mathew Lamont.
To check out Mathew's progress in 2016 follow him on his Facebook page
