Lewis St.John clean sweeps CSN Pro Tour!

by HEATHER-LYNN EVANSON // xtremedegreez.com

LOCAL SURFERS reigned when the curtain came down on the Barbados Surfing Association (BSA)/Caribbean Surf Network (CSN) 2009 Independence Surf Festival over the three-day weekend. Despite strong challenges from international and regional surfers, as well as from their compatriots, Lewis St John, Chelsea Tuach and body-boarder Paul Larrier took top honours at the Soup Bowl, Bathsheba.

Conditions at the Bowl were almost perfect on Saturday with the arrival of a much-anticipated North Swell. However, conditions on Sunday and Monday petered out, leaving surfers fighting for the perfect wave or, at times, stranded in the line-up waiting for any swell to pop up. But, temperamental conditions aside, the quality of the competition was high, even more so with the addition of surfers from the United States, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Puerto Rico.                                                                                                                                                                   Hard-hitting manoeuvres, big air and floaters, as well as barrel rolls, became the order of the day as surfers and body-boarders pulled out the stops on the final day of the competition. The event also featured repercharge rounds, and it’s a testimony to his skill that eventual two-event winner Lewis St John surfed his way through those rounds to end up taking the grand final title in the Open Division.

Not only did he take the top prize in that event that featured two Americans and a Puerto Rican, he also won the Junior Under-21 event, which saw local boy Jordan Heaselgrave sandwiched between second-place Jamaican Shane Symmonds and fourth-place Jamaican Ackeam Philips.

The win cemented St John’s dominance on the CSN Caribbean Tour.

Also proving her dominance on the local surfing scene tour was 13-year-old Chelsea Tuach. She not only took the top podium position at the weekend’s Ladies’ final but ended the year as the CSN women’s champion, the BSA Surfer Of The Year women’s champion and the BSA Surfer Of the Year Under-18 Girls’ champion.

This weekend’s event was also special for local bodyboarding force Paul Larrier. Everyone expected him to three-peat in the B3 Bodyboard Series, and he did not disappoint. In driving rain, he capped the day in the top spot in a year that has seen the re-emergence of bodyboarding into a full surfing event. 

The event also featured the Hot Twist 2009 Miss Bikini Competition, won by Tia Grant, and entertainment by local band Threads of Scarlet.

Final results

Bodyboarding: Paul Larrier, Mark Newhoff, Kwame Griffith, Jason Parkinson.

Junior Under-21: Lewis St John, Shane Symmonds (JAM), Jordan Heaselgrave, Ackeam Philips (JAM).

Ladies: Chelsea Tuach, Chelsea Roett, Ametza Nicholls, Melanie Pitcher, Jade Niccolls.

Open: Lewis St John, Josie Graves (PR), Jensen Callaway (US), Robert Roman (US).

CW:“Congratulations to Lewis on another great victory, 3 wins in a row on the CSN Tour is a first, and will surely be a hard record to beat.  This young athlete is an outstanding Caribbean Waterman, and we look forward to seeing him recognize his potential on the international pro surfing stage.  Keep up the great surfing Lewis!”

Photo: Jennifer Allen.