Surf and Turf: Boardmasters Festival
Relentless Energy Drink's second Summer offering
Easy now!
For those of you who don’t know, Relentless Energy Drink Boardmasters is the only surf, skate and music festival of its kind in the world. So if you like checking out hot blondes at the beach this is the festival for you! As Newquay was celebrating 30 years of the Fistral Bay surf competition we thought we best go get involved…
The Beach Sessions at Fistral Bay set the tone for the weekend. Listening to some rock band you’re not sure if you’ve heard of was an experience when combined with the feeling of the sand between your toes and the introduction to your first pint of Rattler (Newquay’s own cider that turns you into a rampaging idiot and makes you forget everything that happens). Turns out Charlie Simpson has done a U-turn away from the crap he was putting out as his last band and his new stuff is really worth a listen!
Newton Faulkner, looking like a Newquay local, won the crowd no problems and also seemed to attract plenty of ‘alternative characters’ to the beach to listen in from the edges of the fence line.
This year the competition was upgraded to a 6 star surf event, which meant Newquay became home to the world’s finest riders. Spectators battled with the ‘wet rain’, whilst surfers battled with some tough conditions but it was well worth it. Standards were incredible, and in the end Romain Coitre of France stole the crown and the $20,000 prize money, beating Mitchel Coleborn from Australia.
In the men’s longboard competition, the home crowd were excited to see legendary longboarder, business owner and surf instructor Ben Skinner make it into the finals, and we definitely heard someone comment “this guy rocks!” Newquay’s local hero Skinner narrowly missed out on the prize when he was beaten by Frenchman Antoine Delpero in a nail biting final round.
If you want to see some crazy, gravity defying guys on small bikes then the BMX midi ramp comp had it all. With a backdrop of the beach and some amazing flips, tricks and (inevitably) crashes, the crowd and riders alike were buzzing. Alex Coleburn came out on top with a mix of big airs and creative lip tricks. The man’s got skills. Bare skills…
A towering 12’ vert ramp was the centre piece for the Vans Summer Session Skate competition, where I witnessed skinny, fragile looking teens battle against the elders of the sport, with their grey hair and skate socks pulled tight up their shins. In the end it was the younguns who took the title, with Paul-Luc Ronchetti returning to Norwich with £3,500. Pretty sure there should be rules about 16 year olds winning that sort of money.
Over to Watergate Bay and time to get the real party going. The site was made of several different tents, each with their own style and sound to suit any individual.
The Tuaca Point gave us Crazy P, Krafty Kuts, Stanton Warriors and Jaguar Skills, in amongst the garden of hectic flags and people smashed off their faces on vanilla citrus liquor. Whatever is in those shots had the masses coming back for more, or maybe that was the big beats being dropped…?
We spoke to DJ Yoda round the back of the Relentless Energy Drink Stage, stood next to a transit van. It’s all glamour with this media life you know. We asked him what random tune he was planning on dropping and he told us that the weather made him want to play ‘singing in the rain’. It seems he nailed it. And the enormous cues of people trying to get into the tent showed how good the vibe in there was.
Have you ever seen a man wedged inside a runaway tractor tyre rolling down a hill wildly out of control? How about 75 people dancing on top of the biggest, sturdiest wooden table imaginable whilst the man that had built it watched on? Or seen a guy do a headstand on top of an 8ft varnished wooden mushroom? The View had it all! What began the weekend as the most chilled area of the site, by late on Saturday night it was wildly out of control and the best fun I had all weekend!
The Vans Off The Wall Stage had a grungy rock and indie vibe, with performances from Twin Atlantic and ‘ragga metal’ band Skindred.
At some point on the Friday night we found ourselves in a jungle set up that reminded me entirely of Subdub and the West Indian Centre. Speakers so big it made your ribcage vibrate but tunes too good to let you leave. Nowt like feeling at home in the middle of a festival now is there!
Headlining this epic weekend was non other than Fat Boy slim, who gave us an incredible display of some never seen before visuals and had the crowd going off. The frenzy at the front of the stage was electrifying, but we had to retreat back to fully appreciate the light show we were being treated to.
If you want to do this festival properly you need to give yourself the entire week off and be there from the very first surf heat to the last night when all the organizers and riders get to join the party. Newquay feels like home by the end and having to leave the cider drinking, beach living lifestyle is a little too much to cope with. You can either chose to stay forever (which was what two people I met had done) or you can promise you’ll be back again next year… See you on the beach!
With thanks to George, Kaz and Anna at Kaos, Fiona at Radiator PR, James and Fiona at Sportsvision and everyone else who made this festival amazing.
Written by Janie Hamilton and Kyle Dickson
Photo credits to Luke Hinsull, Jim Stewart, Janie Hamilton and the Sportsvision crew.
