It’s been a huge year of competitive surfing for Team England across all our disciplines, with record individual and team performances that have firmly put English surfing on the map. At European and World Championship level our surfers have come home with 3 golds, 5 silvers, 3 bronze and 4 coppers.
None of our teams are hugely resourced, we run a tight ship making a little go a long way and all our coaches and managers give their time and expertise on a voluntary basis. Time again we rock up the underdogs to these major international competitions, dwarfed by the size, resources and capacity of surfing’s big dogs; France, Australia, USA et al. Yet, this is perhaps part of the secret to this year’s success, a magic combination of some hugely gifted surfers and their monumental individual efforts, wrapped up in a defiant team spirit and culture born out of being the underdog.
Here’s how it went down in 2023.
June – European Surfing Championships
Team England, supported by Korev Lager, stomped to 3rd place overall with some epic performances, but none more so than in the longboard. Ben Skinner notched up his 12th European Title riding one of his own boards followed closely by Emily Currie, also on a Skindog who picked up her first European title. The first two golds of the year were in the bag. Solid performances across the rest of the crew gave Team England a podium bronze finish in 3rd place.
Given these longboard honours, we need to give a special mention to Minnow and the BLU. 30 years of dedication to longboard providing a domestic platform for Ben, Emily and so many others to hone their craft.
September – ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championships
SUP Championships consist of Surf, Technical, Distance and Sprint races. Each needing a very different set of skills to excel. Team England claimed a hugely impressive 6th place overall, testament to the depth of SUP talent in this country, with a flurry of medals for:
Andrew Byatt taking two silvers in the men’s prone technical and distance events, Molly Roodhouse with Bronze in the prone technical and Jess Georgelin securing copper in the prone distance.
September/Oct – European SUP Championships
A busy few weeks for the SUP crew, straight back into action for EuroSUP where they continued their good form with an overall 6th placing for the team and a set of copper medals for Will Keetley in the Men’s sprints, Hector Jessell in the u18 boys distance and the team relay: Will Keetley, Annabel Page, Holly Pye, and Blue Ewer.
November – ISA World Para Surfing Championships
An event of historic significance as the paralympic committee were in attendance, feeding into the decision making process for para surfing’s potential inclusion into the LA 28 Paralympics. Team England, supported by MuscleFood, stepped up to the plate in a big way, taking 4th place (copper) overall and securing our highest ever team ranking at a world surfing competition.
Charlotte Banfield took an emotional gold in stand 3, Melissa Reid silver in the Visually Impaired 2 category and Zoe Smith also silver in the Stand 2 division.
November – ISA World Junior Surfing Championships
The final event of the year, Team England Juniors, supported by dryrobe, headed to Brazil for the world junior champs. Some solid performances across the team and lots of special moments and amazing experiences to take away for the young crew. Event standout Lukas Skinner won every one of his heats on the way to taking Silver in the u16 boys – the highest ever placing at a junior champs for any British surfer.
With Lukas taking silver, we finished our international competition season on high and with a record 14 medals in the bank. There is a huge amount of effort that goes into the team and events programmes and we need to share some thanks.
Firstly, to the athletes themselves – none of this happens without the surfer at the centre of what we do, and in every case there is a significant amount of sacrifice and graft to reach the podium.
Our volunteers that put in their time so generously to get these teams firing and supporting the positive, can do culture across Team England.
Our sponsors and partners across Surfing England, and specifically dryrobe, MuscleFood and Korev Lager who sponsor national teams where we raised £75,000 to directly reduce the cost of competing for team surfers in 2023. Our partnership with SportsAid contributed £56K in grants direct to talented surfers in financial need, making a massive difference to those individuals.
To the Surfing England team in the office who work tirelessly to support Team England and to all those that follow the action remotely, your support and positive comments on social media makes a genuine difference.
Exciting times ahead. If you think we’re headed in the right direction and you want to be part of the journey, we’d love you to come on board as a member. Get more insight into our work, have a greater say in our direction of travel plus heaps of benefits – insurance, discounts etc. £25 a year with every single penny going back into supporting the development of English surfing.
