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Press Release for North Devon Inter-Schools Surf Championships November 2nd 2006

North Devon Schools compete in Inter-Schools Surfing Championships

12 teams from seven secondary schools across North Devon competed in the Annual North Devon Inter-Schools Surfing Championships held at Croyde Bay last week. Despite there being a lack of swell, the competition went ahead with a series of running and board paddling team relay events. Braunton School and Community College won the event and were followed by Pilton Community College (last years winners) in second place, Ilfracombe College in third and Park Community School in fourth.

Schools contest organiser and teacher from Pilton Community College Zoe Ashton said “We were really pleased with the turn out for the competition. It just goes to show that surfing is gaining in recognition as a serious sport in North Devon Schools. Most Schools now have a School Surf Club with a rising membership and are operating from Spring to late Autumn. This yearly event is an excellent opportunity to gauge the increasingly high standards of our regions surfers as well as meet up with other School Surf Club organisers to discuss how we can all move forward”.

Zoe added “Unlike other sports, surfing needs a combination of weather patterns to provide decent waves. It is always a gamble to set a date for a surf event so we had a back up plan. Any competition of this size is impossible to cancel at the last minute. Luckily the weather was great and the Schools were still able to compete”.

The event was set up and funded by the North West Devon LEADER+ TRISURF project (http://www.trisurf.eu website to go live soon). Project Coordinator Chris Farris commented “to see so many different Schools come together and get so much out of the day is fantastic. It is all part of the bigger picture of what TRISURF is trying to achieve. Working with and supported by the North Devon PEDPASS programme with additional funding from Awards4All, TRISURF have trained Secondary School teachers across North Devon in beach life guard and surf coaching courses to enable them to increase the operations of School Surf Clubs. This Inter-Schools Surf Championships goes some way to formalising the work put in by the clubs and is an opportunity for local businesses to support them”.

Some fantastic prizes for the winning teams were tailored to benefit the School Surf Clubs. Prizes included a surf club filming session with Matt Biggs from Artaura Productions who will then create a DVD. The footage on the DVD will be analysed by local surfer and Sports Science lecturer Charlie Smith from North Devon College who will meet the surfers and offer advice on improving their surfing.

The South West Mountain Board Centre near Bideford kindly provided some flat day fun by offering a mountain boarding session to a School Surf Club if there were no waves.

Saltrock generously offered two prizes. One was a School Surf Club support kit. Basically all of those things that are needed at the beach during a typical surf club session. The kit included a spare wetsuit, gloves, booties, towels and beanie hats.

They also provided a bag of goodies including fleeces, hoodies and beanies to keep people warm and cosy out of the water.

Many thanks to Martin Purchase from Croyde Surf Club who helped to organise the event on the day and offered the use of the clubs equipment. Thanks to Parkdean Holidays and Ruda for letting us use the beach and also to the operator of Downend Car Park for opening up and keeping everyone supplied with hot drinks.

Thanks also to Extremeboardshots for coming down to cover the event. You are able view photo’s of the day on their site.

Finally, thank you to all the teachers and Schools who had the vision to merit this competition with the importance that it deserves.

We are already planning next years Inter-Schools, so get out your favourite piece of seaweed and start chanting for waves!

Notes to Editor:
TRISURF is a European funded international surfing project working with Donegal in Ireland and Brittany in France. As well as working in partnership with different organisations in North Devon to support School Surf Clubs, we also operate international surfing exchanges with the surfing regions mentioned above. Visit http://leaderplus.co.uk/youthsurfer.php for more information or log onto HTTP://www.trisurf.eu in a couple of weeks time for full project update.

Chris Farris has been in post as project coordinator for two years and is currently looking into ways to make this project sustainable. Contact Chris using the details below:
Chris Farris
TRISURF
North West Devon LEADER+
5, Caddsdown Industrial Park
Clovelly Road
Bideford
N.Devon
EX39 3DX

01237 424648
07854 330823