Le Poidevin top Sarnian at CI Windsurfing Championships

MATT LE POIDEVIN led the Guernsey charge at the weekend's Channel Island Windsurfing Championships as he finished second in a strong field.

The event winner was Justin Horton, competing in his home Jersey waters at St Ouen where a field of 20 converged, the vast majority from the host island as only four Guernsey surfers travelled.

Rather than in a race format, the competition was based on wave riding, with points awarded by judges for each surfer.

'The original intention was for it to be wave jumping, but because of a lack of wind, it was decided to base it purely on wave riding and the judging was very subjective,' Le Poidevin said.

'Every surfer had an hour in the water and it was up to us to ride as many or as few waves as we wanted in that time, but although every wave was scored, only our best three counted towards the final standings.

'The marking was out of 10 for each wave, so theoretically the highest mark possible was 30, but realistically at the amateur level we are at, a score of around 25 is probably the best we could aim for.

'When we looked at the original weather forecast and decided to travel across, it was for high winds, so it was a bit of a surprise when the wind dropped so much.'

In the final reckoning, Horton came out on top with 20 points, closely ahead of Le Poidevin with 18 and fellow Guernsey entrant Andy Hutchinson with 16.