World Bellyboard Championships
The World Bellyboard Championships 2025 is being held this weekend and marks a year since I competed in the 2024 event. It seems like a great time for a retrospective post looking back on my experience from last year.
The World Bellyboard Championships of the Chapel Porth era had a legendary status amongst the crowd that gathered on Great Western Beach on Sunday 15th September 2024. The costumes, the boards that had been handed down from grandparents and the heats of 70 people which were impossible to judge were all part of the nostalgic fun back then. Dick Pearce and the Newquay Boardriders crew had quite the challenge to live up to by putting on the 16th championship after a 5 years hiatus...
... And we're so glad they did! The day was a superb celebration of all things bellyboarding, whether you like to surf out back with fins or prefer to surf long, white waves into the beach. There were first time competitors (like me!) and seasoned pros, there were also competitors who had never picked up a bellyboard until that day! Various categories were available, there were categories for men's, women's, kids and over 60s plus an "expression session" for those who wanted to go in with swim fins on.
There were plenty of costumes and brave souls surfing in traditional knitted swimwear. We genuinely had some international competitors, truly making it a world championship. The waves were perfect, the sun shone and Great Western in Newquay was the perfect spot for a day at the beach, hanging out and watching the heats.
The organisers deserved a huge thank you for taking such care and effort to put on a brilliant event. I took 2nd place in the Women's Open and was utterly chuffed with my 2nd place trophy, made by Dick Pearce. My body felt a little broken the next day, I'm not used to getting smashed in the white water for so long!
Sam took lots more photos of the event so if you'd like a copy of them, pop a comment below and we'll get in touch. If you'd like to publish them anywhere online, please let us know first and we'll ask you to credit Sam Cole at www.singlefincollective.co.uk or @singlefinco.
