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North Devon Inter-Schools Surf Championships
A surf competition between School Surf Clubs from across North Devon was held at Woolaclombe on Saturday. 6 Schools took part, entering 10 teams to compete for the title of regional school champion.
The competition was funded and organised by North West Devon LEADER+ in partnership with School Surf Club organisers and local businesses. Despite tiny waves it was decided to run the event as there were other aspects of the day that made it worthwhile.
Chris Farris from LEADER+ was very pleased with the turn out and he commented “It was a great day in every way, ok, apart from the lack of waves. This however opened up a whole new style of competitive surfing with contestants doing headstands, break dancing, 360 jumps and turns while riding their boards on the tiny waves. It was also an opportunity for school surf clubs to meet up and get used to the competition format as we plan to make this an annual event. Discussions are being held with the British Surfing Association and with Treviglas College Surf Academy in Newquay who organise the Cornish Schools Surf Championships to standardise and formalise these regional events to feed into the National Schools Championships”.
Teachers from across the region came along to support their school teams and to help out at the event. Most notably was Tim Gander from Pilton College who put a lot of time and effort into organising the heats and equipment from Woolacombe Boardriders Club. He also provided the commentary for the day keeping everyone informed and entertained. North Devon Ironman and top surfer Nick Thorn came along to give a surf development talk to all of the teams. He also kindly presented the prizes at the end of the day.
Brett James from Park School designed and built a fantastic Inter-Schools Championship trophy. The nose half of a surfboard donated by Spyder was mounted on a beautiful piece of oak and was kindly glassed into place by local surfboard company Gulfstream. A design will be painted on the board by a local artist and a plaque engraved each year with the winning team names and school.
Resin8 provided the fantastic 1st prize of a 5’11” flying fish surfboard which was won by Pilton Community College First team. The board will go to the School surf club and team members will be able to take it home to use on a rota system.
Other school team prizes included a Surf Development Lesson with Nick Thorn and a subscription to Wavelength magazine.
Individual prizes were kindly donated by Lost Enterprises, Hunter and West Coast Soul.
A big thank you goes out to all of the staff who worked on the day. The judges, life guards, tabulater and beach marshals all had to endure a long day in the hot sun, but luckily, Island Tribe provided enough sun cream to keep all staff and competitors from getting burnt. Thanks must also go to Parkin Estates for letting us run the event at Woolacombe and to Woolacombe Boardriders Club for loan of equipment.
Chris said “It was a true community event with everybody pulling together to make it happen. It is great for LEADER+ to be able to coordinate resources and provide support for initiatives such as this. Who knows, maybe next year the ocean will join in too”
Competition results: Teams in order, then individuals with age categories
Teams:
- Pilton 1 Winning team names - Jon Joe Moonie, Brandon Lark, Sophie Luckie, Byron Saunders
- Ilfracombe 1
- Park 2
- Holsworthy
- Pilton 2
- Ilfracombe 2
- Park 1
- Chumleigh 1
- Chumleigh 2
- Bideford
Girls Open
- Jo Devine - Park
- Sophie Turner - Chumleigh
- Camilla Gold - Ilfracombe
- Gemma Kinnear - Pilton
Boys yrs 7+8
- Henry Kirkwood - Holsworthy
- Byron Saunders - Pilton
- Archie Willis - Pilton
- Jacob Nicholson - Holsworthy
Boys 9+10
- Alex Bunney - Park
- Scott Stitt - Park
- Jon-Joe Moonie - Pilton
- Elliot Smith - Ilfracombe