The Mailing Room were once again proud to sponsor the 2023 Welsh Adaptive Surf Championships, this year held at The Wave in Bristol across the weekend of 18-19 August. Due to the unfortunate closure of Adventure Parc Snowdonia – the venue for last year’s event, this year’s Welsh Nationals had to be moved to the inland wave pool just outside Bristol. Thankfully this did not deter the competitors with surfers travelling from all over the world to compete, resulting in an incredibly high standard of surfing that is being pushed by the athletes year-on-year. With no swell conditions to worry about thanks to the mechanical, perfect waves being churned out by the man-made pool the spectators and judges were treated to a display of talent and high spirits on both days of the contest.

Competing in his first Welsh Nationals since claiming his (and Wales’) first ever ISA World Surfing title, TMR sponsored athlete and last year’s winner Llywelyn Williams was determined to put on a show. Dominating on both days of competition Llywelyn took out another victory in the Men’s Kneeling division including a stylish 8.5 in final en route to winning. In the Women’s Kneeling, England’s Rheya Sarre beat Scotland’s Justine Barker to take the title.

The Blind Partial Vision division produced more extraordinary surfing with competitors in both the Men’s and Women’s divisions putting on a clinic of technical, stylish riding. Pierro Gagliano (FRA) thoroughly dominated the Men’s division with his first wave in the final being a 9.83 (two judges awarded a perfect 10, one a 9.5) on his way to a massive, combined heat score of 18.33. This meant Pierro beat Alexander Shub (ISR) into second by almost six points, while Welsh favourite Mathew Thorne completed the podium. In the Women’s section former WSL competitor and inspiration to all surfers Melissa Reid (ENG) came out victorious over France’s Lou Mechiche.

The Prone 2 division was tightly contested all the way to the hooter in both the men’s and women’s heats with Hannah Dines defeating Tasha Davies (both ENG) by less than three points in the Women’s Prone 2, with Jade Edwards (SCO) and Lillie Noble (SCO) completing the podium. In the Men’s Prone 2, Jose Martinez (USA) claimed the title with an incredible display of surfing racking up a heat total of 15.83 and holding off stiff competition from his opponents. The closeness of competition was exemplified by Mark Hagger (ENG) beating Julian Blecher (GER) to second place by just 0.67 points. Competing in the Prone 1 Unassisted division Stephen Lightbown (ENG) set the crowd alight with a big drop-in and ride completed with a fist pump as he deservedly took out the title.

In the All Inclusive division included for riders with disabilities that do not fit into any of the classifications that are supported by the ISA, a strong heat displaying an array of riding styles took place with Louis Sutton (ENG) taking 1st place, Stephen Downes (ENG) placing 2nd and Joanne Mouland (ENG) coming in third.

As was the case throughout Finals Day, the PS Standing 2 division gave yet another nailbiter in both the Men’s and Women’s division. Laurie Phipps (FRA) and Zoe Smith (ENG) went toe-to-toe in the Women’s division with high-performance riding across both days that eventually resulted in Laurie taking this year’s title. In the Men’s division AmpSurf’s Dana Cummings (USA) took on Canada’s Jon Marinovich and as the sun came out from the clouds Jon narrowly hung on for victory.

The Mailing Room are proud to have supported this fantastic event again this year and we look forward to assisting the continued progression of adaptive surfing across the UK with our goal to help enable people of all ages to have fun in the ocean and feel the physical and mental benefits that it brings.

Special thanks for the event must go to the host The Wave Bristol for the setting and support, as well as the amazing staff from Surfability UK for all their help with competitors throughout the two days. USA-based organisation AmpSurf and Llywelyn’s family-owned business Hopalong also helped support the event and were essential to its success.

Llywelyn would also like to personally thank his partner Sarah Gibbons for all her help organising and supporting the event, as well as the Tim Ayatt for arranging the judging panel, and Cerrig Pwllheli for making the trophies. He would also like to personally thank Dana Cummings from AmpSurf for all his ongoing help setting up and running contests.