Mayo brings the mayhem

Mayo Mayhem, Ireland’s biggest windsurfing competition, took place in Mayo over the weekend.

September 27-29 at Cross Beach Belmullet and Enniscrone, County Sligo saw some of the world’s best windsurfers compete in this year’s competition.

This year’s Mayo Mayhem, sponsored by RWE, was ranked as a three-star event on the PWA/IWT 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. There were three different categories competing - Professionals, Amateurs and Women.

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 for a session on Cross Beach, Belmullet.

The first day of competition was held on Friday September, 27, on Cross Beach, Belmullet, with the second day on Sunday at Enniscrone beach in Sligo.

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. The Pro fleet was up first, followed by the Women and then the Amateurs. Riders were scored on their two best jumps and two best wave-rides.

Conditions on the Sunday were perfect for pure wave riding but no jumps were being scored with the Pro fleet final seeing 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 in the end who came out on top to take the win.

The Women’s final was a Galway showdown between Aoife Cooke and Katie McAnena with the latter just coming out on top in challenging conditions.

The Amateur final was between Tom Lotocki and Pawel Jankowski, who had climbed all the way up from eighth place to reach the final. Again, a super final was required, but in the end, Ms Lotocki just managed to hold onto his first place.

See the results below:

Women's Fleet

1st Katie McAnena (Ireland)

2nd Aoife Cooke (Ireland)

3rd Amy O'Donnell (Ireland)

4th Vicky Guthrie (Ireland)

Pro Fleet

1st Lucas Meldrum (UK)(Duotone)

2nd Julius Byrne (Ireland) (Starboard)

3rd Alex Duggan (Northern Ireland) (Ezzy)

4th Finn Mellon (Ireland) (Goya, Quatro)

Amateur Fleet

1st Tom Lotocki (Poland/Ireland)

2nd Pawel Jankowski (Poland/ Ireland)

3rd Bob Hagen (Ireland)

4th Colin Colville (UK)