Animal pro surfer Alan Stokes pulled out an amazing performance to finish in 5th place at the Relentless Boardmasters in association with Vans. The final day of surfing at the 5* WQS event saw the waves drop from the previous day but were a contestable 2-3ft with light onshore winds.

Stokesy, who was the last Brit standing after Russell Winter was knocked out in the previous round, was drawn against Txaber Trojaola (Bakio, EUK) in the quarter finals.

Newquay local, Stokesy gave us the lowdown on the heat…

“It was pretty tricky conditions with the odd fun wave coming through. I had one but I needed another one. He had a good wave straight away but I didn’t get the equivalent until a minute to go. That’s the way it goes. At that level if you’re not on those waves then theres no way you’re going to get through. He had one and a back up score. A lot of the smaller waves were just dieing out so it was quite hard to get a decent wave score.

Fifth place is good though, my best result ever and I’m now up to eleventh in Europe half way through the year. My goal this year is to finish in the top ten and if I can do that I’ll be really happy. I’m a bit gutted as it’s always a dream to win the Boardmasters but it’s the best I’ve ever done so I’m stoked with that. I learnt a lot and gained confidence. It was the first time I had ever had a man-on-man heat so I learned to surf two man heats, bit of a crash course but I quite like it, there’s less hassling for waves like you get in s four man heat.

Now I’m off to Lacanau in France for a 6* prime WQS. I’ve done quite well there in the past and had some good times in Lacanau so I feel quite comfortable surfing there.”

Great achievement Stokesy! News from Lacanau coming soon…

Australian Daniel Ross went on to win the Boardmasters final, beating Trojaola in an exciting thirty minute decider. Full details can be found at the ASP website.