The Animal team cleaned up the top spots of the UK Pro Surf tour at the final decider event in Newquay at the weekend. Alan Stokes claimed the overall men's open tour title and Gwen Spurlock became overall women's open tour champion too. This is a great finish for Gwen who has taken home the Welsh Junior and British Junior titles already this year.
The Animal Newquay open was the final stop of the gruelling six round tour that took the cream of UK surfers round the UK best breaks. After the stormy conditions provided by Mother Nature on day one, meaning the event was moved to Towan beach, the competition returned to Fistral. Day two saw a challenging chunky 6ft swell and a strong cross-shore SSW wind testing competitors. Each heat of the day was watched closely by the onlookers to find out who would win overall.
The weekend started with Stokesy holding a slender lead but with six surfers all in with a chance of taking the men's Pro open tour title. As the heats progressed the contenders were eliminated leaving Newquay surfers Tom Butler and Alan Stokes as the last challengers remaining in the semi finals. Stokesy won his semi but Tom was unable to find the best waves and 3rd place kept him out of the final and handed the victory to Stokes.
Stokesy commented, "It means so much to take this title, it's the hardest UK title to win as the championship is contested over 5 events. These new chargers like Tom Butler and Reubyn Ash pushed me all the way and made it an anxious but fantastic final event."
In the Women's event strong performances were put on by Zoe Sheath and Gabi Rowe. This wasn't enough to take the overall title from Gwen Spurlock who won the overall UK Pro Surf Tour Women's event thirty points ahead of the pack. Gwen's story is one of a true champion, after winning the junior tour in 2007 a serious head injury kept her from the water in 2008. Now sporting a helmet Gwen has not only returned, but won the tour title.
On finding out she'd won the tour Gwen said, "Boom. I'm amazing." She was pretty stoked that she had won the title.
Animal Sponsorship manager Steve Kitchin said, "We are really proud to have two such outstanding surfers on the team, and to have a double win at the Animal Newquay Open is the icing on top. The champagne will be flowing at Animal Towers tonight."
Stokesy and Gwen now have a bit of time off to celebrate their wins before starting on their winter training schedules.
About Animal:
Established in 1987 in Poole, Dorset, Animal is one of the UK's leading freesport brands specialising in the design, marketing and retailing of freesports influenced clothing, technical clothing, footwear, luggage, eyewear, accessories and watches.
Since their conception, Animal clothing, Animal watches and Animal bags have successfully evolved into household names. The introduction of the Animal estore in 2009 means Animal can now offer Animal products UK wide and in a space unconstrained by shop floor size.
Jo Gregory, Animal House, Vanguard Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1PH, 01202 441174, www.animal.co.uk
