Sixteen of Britain's best surfers took part in Britains first ever official Big Wave contest at Fistral beach, Newquay yesterday (21st Sept 2006). With the end of hurricane Gordon swell providing perfect conditions the British Surfing Association (BSA) sought special permission from the local council and the RNLI to stage the Gold Rush Big Wave Contest in the extreme conditions.

Karen Walton, National Director of the BSA said, "In the past we have had problems arranging competitions to coincide with good conditions because ultimately it is always up to the ocean. We've had the ambition of running a big wave short board competition in Britain for some time now and we've been patiently waiting for perfect surf to do it." Tony Good the surf contest director said surfers were delighted with the conditions, "We were forecasting 6ft-plus and we've actually had double overhead waves. The guys are really stoked to be out there and we've probably had the best waves for a contest ever held in the UK." With swell of 6-8 feet, an offshore wind and sun shining the conditions vindicated the concept of the Gold Rush event.

The event was won by Scott Eastwood from Jersey (28) who scored a perfect ten on an eight foot wave and took home a cheque for £1000. Scott said, “I think the BSA’s Gold Rush Big Wave concept is brilliant. I never normally do well in small wave contests and doing it this way by waiting for the waves to come then letting everyone know is really good. I never normally do well in small wave contests and today’s waves were far more suited to my surfing. The last minute wave and the score I got is pretty unbelievable and I’m obviously completely stoked to have won such a big new contest."

2nd Place went to Ben Skinner (Jersey) with a score of 8, 3rd was Grishka Roberts (Newquay) who scored 7 and 4th went to Lew Whittiker (Zaf) who scored 6.6