Welsh national champ Rhys Barfield is to be added to the roster for the upcoming Red Bull Unleashed event at Surf Snowdonia, following intense public pressure on the organizers over the absence of any surfers from Wales. The host venue, meanwhile, has also issued a public apology for comments made in the wake of criticism on social media.
Local surfers were up in arms over the weekend, with Surf Snowdonia and Red Bull at the center of a dispute over the failure to include any athletes from Wales, the country in which the first Wave Garden to be open to the public worldwide had been assembled with the assistance of Welsh government funding.
It was left to the Welsh Surfing Federation, who held private negotiations with the event sponsor, to use their Facebook page to announce the addition of Barfield, who won both the Welsh junior and open titles in May of this year. Red Bull Unleashed Sports Director Jarrad Howse also added that “Red Bull is committed to the ongoing development of British and indeed Welsh surfing.” Howse added that, “it was always our intention to include at least one Welsh surfer. We’re delighted an opportunity has arisen and who better to include than the current Welsh Open and Junior champ.”
Surf Snowdonia, meanwhile, issued a full apology for a comment they had sent to a Welsh female surfers’ group over the weekend questioning the “compatibility” of female or local surfers to appear in such an event:
“We’d like to hold our hands up and say that on this occasion we got it wrong, which is why the comment was swiftly removed from our Facebook page. The post was made by a junior member of staff who, though with the best of intentions, didn’t choose the best way of communicating our relationship to the Red Bull event. But hey, we all make mistakes sometimes. We think it’s forgiveable.”
“Surf Snowdonia did not have any input into the competitor list and so it is not up to us to make any comment on the whys or wherefores of its make-up. We’d like to assure you that we are absolutely 100% committed to supporting all surfing, women’s, men’s, beginners’, pro’s, youth, disabled, retired, surfers of any nationality, long boarders or short. Along with Surf Snowdonia’s directors, Jo Dennison, the current Welsh female surfing champion and head of our Surf Academy, is working on a number of programmes and future events to support these very real ambitions. We’ll be sharing more details about them over the coming months, so watch this space.”
Rhys Barfield, naturally, was delighted with the outcome, and is looking forward to the opportunity to take to the newly built wave park against such opposition as Jack Freestone, Yadin Nicol andEvan Geiselman: “I’m so stoked to get this opportunity. I was supposed to be competing at a pro junior in Lanzarote but this was too good an opportunity to miss. I just can’t wait for my first heat now.”
