Andy King wins in Ireland

UKWA Four Nations Round One - Jamie Knox Watersports - Day 4

Day 4 of the Four Nations event at Jamie Knox Watersports saw light winds and small waves so no more official competition has been held, leaving the awesome waves of day two as the counting round for the pro fleet and the long clean swell of Day three as the counting round for the Juniors, Ladies and Amateurs.

The Amateurs saw Louise Emery (1st Lady) come out ahead of Chris Cartin in 2nd and Nigel Treacy in 3rd. The juniors saw a close fought battle between the local hotshot Tom Knox and the traveling competitors from the UK. In the end Tom rose to victory ahead Lecki Gayda from Essex.

The Pro fleet saw Andy King bust through to take his first event win and to put him firmly in contention for the overall four nations title for 2008. Steve Thorpe showed that all the Wavejam weekends have paid off as he slotted into second ahead of John Hibbard, the 2007 Four Nations Champion in 3rd.

Andy says:

"I love coming to the Jamie Knox event, the conditions are so often good, but this year they went off. I've surfed Gary William Point on many occasions but never seen it sailable with NE winds. This year we were lucky to score for the briefest of moments the best wave riding I've had in ten years of competition. Thanks to my sponsors Goya sails and Boards as well as Rip Curl, Exploria Van Conversions and Big Salty as well as all the organisers and volunteers. I'm looking forward to the next event in Wales and hope to see a good turn out of sailors"

John Hibbard comments:

"It was great to have such awesome conditions for the first event. Years ago I watched Josh Angulo tear the wave at Gary William Point to bits in a freesailing session. Now we've had the chance to compete at the break it really raises the game of UK wavesailing competition. I'm really happy to see Andy get recognised for his sailing on the day and I commend all the sailors that took on the brutal wave and won their own personal competiton. I'm looking forward to the next round of competition when we should see a full complement of sailors in all fleets. The level has been set for the year and I'm excited to see the title race in all fleets get off to such a great start."

Full results will be up on the UKWA website soon.

Thanks to all the volunteers, event crew and sponsors that made this event possible:

Jamie Knox Watersports
Reef
Da Kine
Spillanes Pub
Seven Hogs Pub
Paul Hopcroft - Splash photography
Jeremy Owen
Jamie Knox
Ding
Ian Jones
IWA
UKWA
Mother Nature