A landmark day for Surfing England
Tuesday 26th May was a day of firsts for us at Surfing England. We saw our first-ever perfect 10-point ride, our first-ever competition with a cash prize pot, and, most importantly, our inaugural Pro Junior event — the first competition to offer wildcard slots into a WSL QS event. We had Welsh and Scottish surfers travel down for the cross nation battle, to see who would come out on top.
What started as an idea in the office to give under-21 surfers another opportunity to compete, quickly became one of the standout events on our competition calendar. Much of that was down to the exceptional level of surfing the competitors brought with them on Tuesday morning.
Lukas Skinner sets the bar
The standard was set by 7:30am when Lukas Skinner took off on the first wave of the day, scoring an 8.33 thanks to a series of massive carves and quick snaps. The men’s Round 1 kicked off in style, with Craig McLachlan posting the highest combined total of the round with a 15.50, showcasing standout surfing — exactly what you would expect from the current Scottish national champion.
The women’s opening round followed, with the pushing tide creating solid banks and excellent opportunities for performance surfing. The girls delivered impressive carves, powerful turns, and critical manoeuvres throughout the heats. Belle Betteridge came out on top in Round 1 with a combined heat total of 13.40, putting herself a step ahead of the rest of the field.
Stacked heats and huge scores
Charlotte Mulley and Georgie May-Hicks were sharp on her Belle’s heels in the quarter-finals, with Georgie posting excellent scores of 7.83 and 8.00 to sail through to the semis. A combination of excellent positioning and perfectly executed turns on critical sections proved to be the key to her success.
Over in the men’s quarter-finals, Welsh surfer Euan Buick put in a great performance to finish top of his heat — but only just, with Euan and Heath Gillespie battling right to the buzzer. Another stacked quarter-final saw Lukas Skinner, Malakai Hagley, Craig McLachlan, and Reen Bowden-Inoue fighting for a place in the semis.
Lukas secured the top spot early with a huge 9.33 score in the opening minutes. The battle for second went down to the wire, with Craig McLachlan delivering an exemplary performance, but ultimately falling just short as Malakai Hagley secured his place in the semi-finals.
Charlotte Mulley came out firing in her semi-final, posting an 8.00-point ride within the opening minutes and maintaining that momentum throughout the heat, with no other competitor able to match her level. Sadly, it wasn’t to be her day in the final, as she wasn’t quite able to find the wave she needed.
Big claims for the title
Willow Smith held strong throughout the final to claim second place. However, after scoring the two highest waves of the heat and consistently finding the best opportunities on the bank, Georgie May-Hicks was crowned champion.
What better way to round off an incredible day than with a perfect wave? That’s exactly what happened when Lukas Skinner earned the event’s first-ever perfect 10. If you haven’t seen the replay yet, we’d highly recommend giving it a watch.
Once the score dropped, the rest of the field required a combination of scores to catch him, leaving Lukas crowned the inaugural Pro Junior champion. Malakai Hagley fought hard for the second wildcard spot for Boardmasters, but current English champion Fynn Gillespie held firm to secure the final spot.
Yeti’s surprise awards
Thanks to Yeti, we were also able to hand out prizes for:
Highest combined total:
Open (mens) – Lukas Skinner 18.83
Women – Georgie May Hicks 15.83
Judges move of the day:
Open (mens) – Lukas Skinner with an aerial on his 10 point ride
Womens – Sunny Ingram with a backhand turn in the close out section.
Final results were:
Open (mens)
1st Lukas Skinner
2nd Fynn Gillespie
3rd Malakai Hagley
4th Euan Buick
Womens
1st Georgie May Hicks
2nd Willow Smith
3rd Belle Betteridge
4th Charlotte Mulley
Our Thanks for the support that makes this happen!
The running and creation of this event would not have been possible without the help of our sponsors and the hard work of our team and community.
We would first like to extend our thanks to the headline sponsor Kukuna Eyewear for stepping up and helping us create a brand-new competition. It is great to have sponsors that we can explore new territory with!
Thank you also to Tenzing and Yeti for their support in this event and their wider support to performance sport.
And a thank you to Skindog Surfboards for supporting the pro junior, and continuously supporting surfing in the English community and supplying some of our English athletes with surfboards.
We would also like to recognise the hard work and commitment from our team of operations staff, judges and media team for making this event run so smoothly as unknown territory.
And of course, one last big congratulations for all the surfers who competed this weekend – you put on a true show!
Looking to the future
As we reflect back on this event and look at the high level of surfing that was on display – we’re excited for the rest of our event season. We are continuing our Junior Surf Series tour with stops in Cornwall and Devon. Before the competition comes to a head at the English Nationals in October.
We hope to see this event return to the calendar in 2027 for another cross-nation showdown between the best young surfers from across the British Isles. With the success of this year’s inaugural event, there is even the exciting possibility of the series growing in the future.
Our Membership
Are you getting FOMO after reading this? If you are keen to support or join our Surfing England community, new members are always welcome! Our Junior membership is £20/year and our adult membership is £28/year. To find out more about the benefits take a look at our membership page.
Contact us
For any event enquiries please contact: lauren@surfingengland.org
Media enquiries please contact: alex@surfingengland.org
General enquiries please contact: info@surfingengland.org
