Surfing England Junior Surf series 2023
Event #4 Praa Sands hosted by Global boarders.
The incredibly successful and popular grassroots Junior Surf Series organised by Surfing England rolled in to Praa Sands on beautiful south coast of Cornwall over the weekend.
Host Surf club Global boarders and Surfing England officials were up early setting up the event around 7 am with clear skies, sunny conditions, slight offshore wind, but due to the high tide little in the way of Surf, although we knew once the tide dropped there would be a clean small surfable ground swell coming through.
For the first time in this event series the number of girls in the under 12’s hit 16 which was capacity, which was great to see, and testimony to the success of this series to encourage not only establish surfers to compete, but also for new surfers in the under 12 and under 14 age categories to perhaps compete for the first time, in a friendly community environment, supported by their friends and families.
With a big tide we knew we had to get on with the event so 8.30am prompt head judge Liam and his team of judges got the event underway with the first eight heats in the under 12 division, as you can imagine lots of frothing groms, and numerous competitors caught 15 waves in just 20 minutes pretty good going.
With no Wi-Fi and sporadic signal in the area, it was old school on paper and tabulated onto a PC, updated on the various WhatsApp group’s and on the comp ‘whiteboard’ so that people knew what was going on, as well as announced throughout the day by Chris from Global in his role as contest director. I
The heats moved through rapidly with some great surfing in tricky conditions, but remaining clean until tide began to turn when the wind picked up and for the last few heats, we have some biblical rain for the finals.
First up of the finals with the under 12 boys always hotly contested, but on this occasion Harvey Waters taking the win ahead of Joshi James, Jack Strutt and Jensen Martin, a very competitive final but still comaradirie. We then moved through to the under 12’s girls final which on this occasion was taken by Isabella O’Reilly all the way from Ireland’s west coast, Ellie Hickie in second and a very close battle between Betsie Raey and Arabella Peres, with Arabella just taking third spot over Betsie.
Penultimate final was the boys under 14 with some seasoned veterans at this age group all involved, on this occasion however, Croyde’ s Reuben Moy took the win ahead of Sebastian Connolly, Isaac Friend and Dylan Roose in fourth position, very close between first and second in that final.
By now for the final final, the rain was torrential, but it didn’t stop a really competitive final in the under 14 girls with Harlyn Sykes taking the win ahead of Willow Smith, Josie Hawke and Budes Coco Arthur. As was mentioned before very competitive surfing but at the same time a lot of smiles between all the girls.
One of the things we love about these events is that it involves the local surf club and teaching skills to some volunteers that perhaps haven’t been involved before, so huge thank you to all the judges (In particular the Sykes family) beach marshals and tabulator’s who work tirelessly on this event.
The rain eased somewhat for the presentation and series facilitator Phil Williams congratulated all present, for the positive attitudes that they had shown throughout what had been a tricky day both in and out of the ocean. Some great prizes were given out as a result of the sponsorship from Eola, Animal UK, and RYD and it should be mentioned that the beach treasure hunt at these events which RYD organise are always very popular.
Next up the tour moves to Tynemouth in the north-east as part of the festival taking place on September 30 and 1st October, so looking forward to seeing some more great action.
Thank you to everybody that supported this event, Surfing England for the initiative and of course the local surfers for working with us throughout the day, a truly inspiring day, and the future of surfing at this level in England looks very positive.
RESULTS |
|||
| U12 Boys | |||
| Harvey Waters | Yellow | 1 | |
| Joshi James | Blue | 2 | |
| Jack Strutt | Red | 3 | |
| Jensen Martin | White | 4 | |
| Under 14 Boys | |||
| Reuben Moy | Yellow | 1 | |
| Sebastien Connolly | Red | 2 | |
| Isaac Friend | White | 3 | |
| Dylan Roose | Blue | 4 | |
| U12 Girls | |||
| Isabella O’Reilly | Yellow | 1 | |
| Elli Hickie | Red | 2 | |
| Arabella Peres | Blue | 3 | |
| Betsie Reay | White | 4 | |
| Under 14 Girls | |||
| Harlyn Sykes | Blue | 1 | |
| Willow Smith | White | 2 | |
| Josie Hawke | Red | 3 | |
| Coco Arthur | Yellow | 4 | |
