A SELECTION of Cornish surfers will gather at this year's Xperience09 Festival, in North Tyneside.

The festival, which is in its second year, is a weekend of extreme sports action at the coast, and takes place in Tynemouth on Saturday and Sunday.

Building on the success of the UK Pro Surf Tour surfing championships held in recent years, Xperience'09 is set to be bigger and better than any other year. In addition to surfing on Longsands beach, Beaconsfield in Tynemouth will play host to snowboarding, BMX, skateboarding and more.

Prize money

Meanwhile, surfers will compete for prize money and tour points in the UKPSA's North East Surf Open, which is part of the UK Triple Crown of Surfing.

The weekend after will see the Pro Surf tour visit Porthcawl in Wales, as stop number six out of seven.

It will be the ninth year the tour has visited Wales, the third time at Porthcawl.

In previous years the event has been held at Freshwater Beach in Pembrokeshire and prior to that it has been hosted at Langland Bay and Llanglennith Beach.

Dave Reed, contest director said: "It is great to be going to Porthcawl, we know the venue can get great waves. I would like to thank local company Double Overhead and the surf brands they support for backing this event and securing its future in Porthcawl.

"At a time when the recession is biting hard it is extremely difficult to put your hand in your pocket, but they are coming forward to support a fantastic sport we all love" adding "There are many talented Welsh surfers that will now have the opportunity to compete at the highest level in Wales."

● Newquay Boardriders hosted the annual Spike Memorial surf contest at its unique clubhouse located at north Fistral beach on Sunday afternoon.

The contest is in its sixth year in memory of Adam 'Spike' Good who one of Newquay's most charismatic surfers and sadly passed away aged just 37 from a tragic motorized skateboard accident. The contest had been on hold for several weeks for a quality autumn swell to push through and light up Fistral beach.

As predicted a fresh west swell pumped through all afternoon offering superb barrelly six foot waves for the local competitors to impress the judges, with tube rides and aerials being pulled off as the tide pushed up for the finals.

Progress was made and a solid six man final lined up for a 30 minute high tide battle.

Outstanding

Mitch Corbett got to work early linking together a full repertoire of airs and tube rides to secure a well deserved first place.

Ollie Adams had one outstanding wave and chased Mitch all the way through the final, but just missed the top spot by half a point.

Tom Butler took third, Matt Capel fourth, and Spikes young nephew 15-year-old Tom Good took a well respectable fifth, just ahead of Mark 'Egor' Harris in sixth.

After a party and presentation was held at Fistral Blu beach bar through the evening and all money raised went towards funding the regeneration of Newquay Boardriders clubhouse.