GB Cup Surfing October 2023 Max Bennett gets 5th in the Open Men's event

BRITISH CUP SURFING 2023

The British Cup 2023 tested all surfers this weekend in some wild and very big surf. Conditions were deemed too dangerous for the Under 18’s so their event had to be postponed to a later date. Fistral Beach arguably the home to British competitive surfing again delivered and all home nation surfers both in the Open Men’s and Women’s rose to the challenge. Heat times were extended to 25mins per heat with a 10-minute paddle out time just to give surfers a chance to paddle out back. First up were the men’s and CI’s Olly Gould, Sam George, Josh Evans and Owen Graham failed to progress out of round 1 leaving Anders Ravenscroft and Max Bennett to continue the charge in the quarter finals. Unfortunately for the two Jersey boys they were matched up in the same heat. Both surfed extremely well in the high tide conditions executing dynamic maneuverers in the large waves but it was Bennett who progressed to the semi in second place leaving Ravenscroft in 3rd and eliminated out of the contest. Bennett faced Arran Strong and Patrick Langdon Dark in the semifinal the following day. The surf had dropped in size and local knowledge seemed to favor the two UK surfers, both of whom are part of the GB progression squad. However, Bennett stuck to his guns and continued to surf with power and style getting two solid scores leaving him in second place for the majority of the heat with Patrick Langdon Smith (WAL) needing a good score to overtake Bennett. It was in the last minute that Langdon Smith landed a 6.43 moving him into second place by 0.4 of a point to knock out Bennett from reaching the final.

Bennett was quick to congratulate his competitors and on reflection said “I surfed well on the Saturday in the bigger surf and kept the winning mind set into day 2 of the Competition. Unfortunately, I did not quite pull it off this time but will be looking forward to have another match up in Jersey 2024’.

The CI Girls consisting of Amelia Gould, Rebecca Lynam, Katie Smith from Guernsey and Allula Macateer all young and unexperienced at this level put in a sterling performance but again failed to progress out of round 1

Team Coach Roley McMichael added ‘I was extremely proud of our young team who for many was their first taste of a major surfing competition. To have the courage to face triple overhead conditions and compete in it was a true testament of their character. I feel gutted for Max who was so close to getting in the final’