Xtreme Degreez Sports Magazine

National Open Series

Jamaica Surfing Assn
Long Bay, Portland
19 December 2009

Portland surfing beach hosts Jamaica’s best

The 5th event of the 2009 National Open Series was held at long Bay in Portland on Saturday 19 December in 2’-3’ waves. Seventeen of the islands top surfers turned out for the event which saw six heats run to narrow the field to the top six competitors. The north coast surfers had a big advantage at the popular Portland surfing beach and a number of junior surfers stood out in the smaller less powerful waves.

Surfers were under the watchful eyes of the judges as 15 minute heats were run for the surfers to demonstrate their surfing talents, and when the field had been narrowed the top six were Inilek Wilmot, Ackeem Taylor, Icah Wilmot, Ackeam Phillips, Michael Panton and Garren Pryce.

The surfers paddled out in the glassy conditions for the 20 minute final. The exchanges had the judges working to split the differences of the surfers’ rides as they executed “bottom turns”, “off-the-tops”, “cutbacks” and “aerials”. Inilek sat closer in and found some “nuggets” which allowed him to show off his manoeuvres on nice sections right close to the judges and take first.

Young Ackeem Taylor had a number of impressive rides and one brilliant wave that had the small crowd on the beach cheering as he surfed all the way to shore securing second. Icah who has been dominating the series also surfed strongly seeming to be able to magically get the most out of the tiny waves he caught and held onto third.

Ackeam Phillips kept the pressure on everyone with his looping off the tops and foam rides for fourth. Michael Panton also mixed it up and held a level head throughout the event but couldn’t find the wave he needed to do better than fifth. Garren Pryce who surfed impressively throughout the elimination rounds struggled to find waves offering good scoring potential and finished sixth.

The series has seen 5 events. Results for the third event were lost and the final standings are calculated on surfers best 3 results from the 4 completed contests

Ackeem Taylor : photo courtesy Jamaica Surfing Assn

Below are the final standings after 4 events

COMPETITOR REGION NO.1 NO.2 NO.3 NO.4 NO.5 Total Best 3
1 Inilek Wilmot South East 1000 730 0 555 1000 3285 2730
2 Icah Wilmot  South East 730 860 0 1000 730 3320 2590
3 Shane Simmonds North East 860 1000 0 555 0 2415 2415
4 Luke Williams Kingston 670 670 0 730 0 2070 2070
5 Ackeam Taylor North East 450 610 0 475 860 2395 1945
6 Ackeam Phillips South East 610 555 0 670 670 2390 1835
7 Garren Pryce South East 555 500 0 583 583 2225 1725
8 Eneson Lightbourn South East 583 610 0 500 0 1693 1693
9 Jason Pusey North East 555 555 0 450 0 1560 1560
10 Ronley Lewis South East 475 438 0 400 555 1868 1468
11 Shama Beckford South East 450 500 0 500 0 1450 1450
12 Oshane Usher North East 400 500 0 0 500 1400 1400
13 Ronald Hastings South East 400 385 0 400 500 1685 1300
14 Armani Green South East 400 438 0 450 0 1288 1288
15 Eugene Miller Kingston 400 385 0 475 0 1260 1260
16 Michael Panton North East 500 0 0 0 610 1110 1110
17 Conrad Smith North East 500 450 0 0 0 950 950
18 Ivah Wilmot South East 0 438 0 0 475 913 913
19 Warren Lewis North East 0 385 0 0 475 860 860
20 Dwight Roberts North East 450 385 0 0 0 835 835
21 Jamoy Hall North East 380 438 0 0 0 818 818
22 Sanjae Lewis North East 0 385 0 0 395 780 780
23 Tristan English North East 0 0 0 0 555 555 555
24 Gawayne Gallimore North East 0 500 0 0 0 500 500
25 Dwayne Tracey North East 475 0 0 0 0 475 475
26 Lennox Wright North East 450 0 0 0 0 450 450
27 Gabre Beckford South East 0 0 0 0 450 450 450
= Noel Wright North East 0 0 0 0 450 450 450
= Adrian Lewis North East 0 0 0 0 450 450 450
30 Ricardo Crossman South East 0 0 0 0 450  450
= Michael Mair Kingston 0 438 0 0 0 438 438
= Gatey Dawkins International 0 438 0 0 0 438 438