As the curtain came down on the 36th annual LIME Oistins Fish Festival yesterday, Tyrone Shorey was all smiles as he successfully defended his title in the CIBC FirstCaribbean Dolphin Skinning Competition.
In a time of 1:19 minutes, the Oistins Hill, Christ Church resident beat out a field of challengers, considered the regulars in competition, to cop the top prize of $700.
“This is ten years I have won this competition, but the guys want me step out. They tell me I too fast. [But] it is all about technique. When you come into competitions like this, you can’t be nervous. When I first started out in 2000, I used to be nervous, [but] not now,” Shorey said after his win.
In second place was Fabian Doughty, considered Shorey’s protégé, who took away $500, while the $300 third prize went to Damien Warner.
The other competitors were Henderson Jackman and Darius Hope.
It was a virtual upset in the Flying Fish Scaling & Boning Competition where long-time competitor Jacqueline Norgrove walked away with the $1 000 first prize for being the fastest and cleanest fish boner in Oistins.
In the process, she dethroned the defending champion Sheena Squires and beat Sheron Atherley-Yarde into second place and Gracelyn Moseley into third.
Among the other highlights were performances by the Barbados Landship, Rose Hill Tuk Band and Bashment Ship, a float and vintage car parade from Dover to Oistins and a conch shell blowing demonstration.
The featured vehicles in the parade, some fixtures of the 1960s, were the Ford Cortina the Escort and classics, some of which might not have been on the roads of Barbados, like the 1959 Porsche 356 Convertible, the Lotus Elan and the Chevy Nova.
However, the float parade, considered the real spectacle, had few participants when compared with last year’s event.
Apart from a Mother Sally and a handful of dancers, there were two floats, one carrying a mermaid sitting on her shell throne and the other, designed by Crop Over band leader Betty West, depicting an underwater scene.
