Source: British Surfing Association – www.britsurf.co.uk

British Squad named for Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship 2010

The Great Britain squad for the 2010 World Junior Surfing Championships has been announced.

The announcement comes within days of the news by the International Surfing Association (ISA) confirming that the event will take place at Piha, near Auckland in New Zealand in January.

Naming the squad, Midge Wesson, of the National Governing Body the British Surfing Association (BSA), said: "Our aim is to give the athletes as much time as possible to train together as a squad, especially since we have a much shorter timeframe than usual."

The Great Britain team that will compete in New Zealand in Under-18 and Under-16 boys and Under-18 girls divisions will be selected from among the squad of 18 named today.

"In selecting the squad we have looked to spread the net wide to give an opportunity to athletes who for whatever reason have not had the chance to prove themselves competitively, and the Nationals will be a great platform for them to perform in front of the British team selectors and coaches," said the BSA authorities.

Half the squad is made up of new faces.  Matt Chapman (Jersey) and Seb Smart (Sennen) are named in the Under-18 squad for the first time.

With a number of last year’s Under-16s moving up a division for 2010, all but one of the seven members of the Under-16 squad are newcomers - Beau Bromham (Croyde), Miles Lee Hargreaves (Bournemouth), Luke Dillon (Newquay), Nathan Elmes (Jersey), and Bude surfers Jobe Harris and Liam Turner joining Harry Timson (Newquay). In the Under-18 Girls division, Laura Crane (Croyde) joins the squad for the first time.

A number of the squad are currently training abroad, with several big contests ahead of them including the Nationals in September and the UK Pro Surf Tour continuing into November.

"It’s a great achievement for these young athletes to have been selected for the squad,’ said Midge Wesson, "but the work they will need to put into the next few months of training and preparation, especially following on from a hard competitive schedule, will be a real test of their commitment and mental attitude as well as their physical strength and technical ability.
I’m confident that the team we select to take to New Zealand will be the best of the best."

In New Zealand, the Great Britain team will be aiming to improve on their team placing (16th) and individual rankings from the 2009 World Junior Surfing Games in Ecuador.

The full squad selection:

U-18 boys
Josh Piper (Newquay)
Leon Mansfield (Newquay)
Max Tucker (Porthcawl)
Tom Good (Newquay)
Matt Chapman (Jersey)
Luis Eyre (Portugal)
Seb Smart (Sennen)

U-16 boys
Beau Bromham (Croyde)
Miles Lee Hargreaves (Bournemouth)
Luke Dillon (Newquay)
Jobe Harris (Bude)
Harry Timson (Newquay)
Liam Turner (Bude)
Nathan Elmes (Jersey)

U-18 girls
Gabi Rowe (Polzeath)
Tassy Swallow (St Ives)
Lucy Campbell (Woolacombe)
Laura Crane (Croyde)
For further info contact Jo@britsurf.co.uk


The Tiki National Interclub Contest 2009 in association with the BSA and Croyde Surf Club

This event is taking place at Croyde Bay, North Devon on the 3rd and 4th of October. For more details and to enter, please Click here.

Quiksilver Surf Showdown & Olliewood, sponsored by Quiksilver

29-30 Aug, 2009 Newquay, Fistral Beach

The best UK and Ireland surf shops, including Troggs, Tubes, Northshore, In Deep, Aggie Surf Shop, Dive & Ski, Surfers Paradise and Surfing Life teamed up with some of the UK's top pros for a two day surf contest.  

After a fantastic weekend of weather and surfing Aggie Surf Shop took out the Quiksilver Surf Challenge and won a Les Paul Gibson Guitar and a trip for 2 to the Quiksilver Pro in France in 2009. 

Aggie Surf Shop from St Agnes in Cornwall teamed up with Mark Harris, Eugene Tollemarch, and Zoe Sheath who is one of young 'up and comers' of female UK surfing.  An amazing performance of power surfing helped Aggie take the title.

On top of a great surf contest, Quiksilver also presented Quiksessions on the Beach, in association with Gibson Guitars. 

9 Bands were selected from the Quiksilver "Play on the Beach" Band Search to play on Fistral Beach next to the legendary Gibson Tour Bus.  A Gibson SG Guitar was awarded to the best band from the weekend - I AM GIANT.

The Quiksilver Surf Showdown also hosted the retro Roxy Caravan, Cosmic the Artist and the first ever demo release of Tony Hawk's new wireless Skate Consol.  The game will be released on November 20th, 2009!

The Quiksilver Surf Showdown was a big success and enjoyed by all. Thanks to everyone who got involved!

Andy Hill, Surfing Legend from Northern Ireland and owner of Troggs surf shop commented: 

 "It was awesome for me to put on a Quiksilver competition rashvest in Newquay where I first put on a Quik rashvest competing in the World Amateur Championships sponsored by Quiksilver in 1986, 23 years ago. It brought back many fond memories.
It was such a fun event, I thought it was a very special, clever and unique event in bringing the retailers together with some of the top UK riders.

It is an experience I shall never forget.
It was a true Surfing Event, in summary the whole weekend summed up what surfing is all about, and it is such a delight to know that Quiksilver is still a grass roots core surfing company and that in difficult retailing times it is willing to support the industry as a true surfing company.

On behalf of myself and Stuart from Troggs Surf Shop, a customer of Quiksilver for 18 years, we just want to say again - Thank You Very Much!"

A big thanks to all the shops, surfers, musicians, Judges, Lifeguards, BSA, Soundworx, and Fistral Blu.

Check out all the pics on http://www.flickr.com/photos/annemarie1
photo credit: Annemarie Hughes

About the International Surfing Association (ISA)
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for Surfing. It was originally founded as the International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running world championships since 1964 and the Junior World Championships since 1980.

ISA membership includes the surfing National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of over 50 countries on six continents. Its headquarters are located in La Jolla, California. It is presided by Fernando Aguerre, first elected in 1994 in Rio, and re-elected six times since. The ISA's four Vice Presidents are Alan Atkins (Australia), Robin de Kock (South Africa), Mike Gerard (USA) and Karín Sierralta (Peru).

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