https://vimeoom/74940567
JR's Shredathon from Luke Pilbeam on Vimeo.
The concept behind the shredathon was simple: mix four teams, consisting of two pros and one local, put them in the water for two hours, tell them to shred as hard as they possibly can and wait for the outcome. Announce a winner at the event and let the public decide on a second winner a few weeks post event.
We had the event at the ‘Mighty Meor ’ alongside a rad surf contest and music party called the Greenaway Pro. It was fun and stood out from the norm for competitive surfing in Britain. Everyone hug out together, surfed together and shredded together.
The Greenaway Pro is a non profit event held in the memory of a St. Ives Surfer and legend, Tom Greenaway, which has turned into something special. It still has a few nights of music, including performances from - Ben Howard, the Massive Attack DJ, Brother and Bones, Catfish and the Bottlemen. Not forgetting films from the best film makers worldwide and a lot of love.
“It was a pleasure to have the Shreadathon join us this year and rad to see some high-paced full-throttle surfing, in a relaxed way, with a lot of laughing and hooting, joking, smiling. A really friendly vibe by all of the contestants like it always is at the GP. Loads of fun and hope to have JR, Rip Curl and everyone that donated there time for free to such a good Cause, Tom Greenaway would have been very proud” GP
Words, Jayce Robinson
I have a love hate relationship with contests. As a kid I wasn’t forced into doing them, I just loved the feeling of being the best and being on top of everyone else. I suppose I loved the attention and the atmosphere around the events. Of course every up has its down and for me losing was something that has taken years to understand and to come to terms with.
For me the Shredathon is a relaxed form of competition, not only that, but a way of pushing innovative surfing. Without sticking to the standard format.JR
There is no doubt about it that over the last 5 to 10 years surfing has become serious. Sometimes I see kids in the water who find it hard to smile and there’s defiantly something not right there. I know what it feels like to be that kid, so many times in the past I have been a grumpy little shit, just because I had a bad surf, or didn’t get my way in a heat. I have even come out the crying because I was so upset about the way I surfed. Some may call it being passionate, but I think its just being stupid.
The turnout for the event was massively varied with such a mixed crew of amazing surfers like top WQS surfer Billy Stairmand and former Australian junior champ Noah Lane, ripping it up amongst the likes of the top UK surfers: Alan Stokes, Oli Adams, Harry De Roth, all these dudes were mixed in with locals that would not normally compete and don’t like the thought making surfing competitive. It’s also funny to see people like Tom Lowe come into the equation, showing everyone that he is not only a big wave guru, but can also throw his fins out.
The turnout for the event was massively varied with such a mixed crew of amazing surfers like top WQS surfer Billy Stairmand and former Australian junior champ Noah Lane, ripping it up amongst the likes of the top UK surfers: Alan Stokes, Oli Adams, Harry De Roth, all these dudes were mixed in with locals that would not normally compete and don’t like the thought making surfing competitive. It’s also funny to see people like Tom Lowe come into the equation, showing everyone that he is not only a big wave guru, but can also throw his fins out.
The event was held in 4 to 6ft stormy conditions at Porthmeor Beach, which was a ‘Greenaway send’, as the dates were decided a long time ago.JR
If you don’t know much about Porthmeor then i will let you know that it rarely gets above 2ft and is pretty much flat throughout the summer, so we were pretty God damn lucky. The elements were against us, but all the boys were frothing to get in there and show everyone some flare.
The vibe on the beach was great with spectators heads turning side-to-side as black specs amongst the storm took flight up and down the beach. By the end of the two hour session I would be lying if I was to say I wasn’t tired. We all walked up the beach like zombies. The energy that we had at the start of the session was diminished, but the smiles remained glued to our faces.
To tell you the truth every team tore it apart and gave it there all, in my eyes everyone was a winner. By a public vote that evening, a decision was made that the white team consisting of British champ Alan Stokes, old time legend Dane Hall, and local architect Jacob Down, took it out.
There will also be a winner that is decided by an online voting system, each team will have there edits put up in the next couple of weeks, for you the public to decide who shredded the hardest. Coming soon.
