Windsurfers enjoy a little 'Mayo Mayhem"
Lucas Meldrum in action during the Mayo Mayhem windsurfing event.
Mayo Mayhem, Ireland’s biggest windsurfing competition, took place over the weekend of September 27 to 29 at Cross Beach in Belmullet and Enniscrone in Co Sligo.
This year’s Mayo Mayhem, sponsored by RWE, was ranked as a three-star event on the Professional Windsurfers' Association (PWA) world tour and sported a mix of the best of the Irish competing side-by-side with international competitors from France, Germany, Denmark, Poland, and Scotland.
The decision to hold the event over the weekend was risky given the unusual forecast of north winds on the Friday and east winds on the Sunday but it ultimately paid off.
The wind and swell arrived on Thursday allowing riders who arrived early a great day to warm up session on Cross Beach, Belmullet, where the the first day of competition was held on Friday, with the second day on Sunday at Enniscrone beach.
Friday was filled with colour as the competition attracted close to 50 windsurfers competing throughout the fleets. The conditions were perfect with strong northerly winds and three-metre waves providing a top-class playground for competitors to demonstrate their jumping.
Throughout the day, all fleets took turns showing off their skills with massive jumps and super wave riding. Heats were 12 minutes long.
Conditions on the Sunday were perfect for pure wave riding but no jumps were being scored. The Pro-fleet final was a head-to-head between new entrant and PWA sailor Lucas Meldrum from England and Irish Pro-windsurfer Julius Byrne from Galway. It was the English raider who came out on top to take the win.
The women’s final was a Galway showdown between Aoife Cooke and Katie McAnena with Katie just coming out on top in challenging conditions.
The amateur final was between Tom Lotocki and Pawel Jankowski, and Tom just managed to hold onto first place.
