THERE ARE FIVE JUNIOR surfers who can lay claim to the title of Caribbean champion today.
And out of the five, two are Barbadian.
The crowning of the top junior surfers came as the Barbados Surfing Association (BSA) held its inaugural pro-junior Caribbean Junior Summer Surf Fest at Soup Bowl, Bathsheba, last weekend.
In spectacular conditions thrown up by the passage of Hurricane Earl, teenaged surfing sensations Bruce Mackie (14.2 average wave score) and Chelsea Roett (10.3 average wave score) hacked and carved their way past local and regional competitors to earn themselves the titles of Under-18 boys’ and girls’ champions.
Roett was a double winner as she also won the Under-16 girls’ division.
The Guadeloupe surfers dominated the younger divisions with Enzo Cavallini winning the Under-12 division and Raphael Debierre winning the Under-16 boys. St Barts’ surfer Eliott Ivarra was tops among the Under-14 boys.
In a competition that saw a very strong contingent from Guadeloupe, 50 of the Caribbean’s best teenaged surfers put on a show of power surfing in conditions that went from six to eight feet on Saturday and 12 to 14 feet on Sunday.
The five-member judging panel was treated to a display of big drop-ins, floater re-entries, barrels, lots of spray and some spectacular wipe outs.
So big and good were the conditions that the BSA decided to add an open/age unrestricted event on Sunday.
And the scores reflected the level of surfing.
Stefan Corbin went into the record books as having the highest wave score of the day, with his 17 points in semi-final one.
But Peter Hill, who earned the day’s perfect score for a ride that started with him being completely covered in a huge barrel, ended with an average wave total score of 15.60, a mere 1.1 points ahead of second place finisher, Jason Oliver (14.50).
Danny Edghill (11.70) and Stefan Corbin (11) rounded out the top four.
Coordinator and organiser of the event Simon Coles, who is also the BSA’s vice president, expressed pleasure at the successful running of the first Surf Fest.
He also praised the team of French surfers.
“We were very happy to be host to the Guadeloupe team and they added a lot of value to this event,” he said.
“This contest showed what good surfing was all about and this is something we would like to do again,” Coles added.
The next major event on the local surfing calendar is the November Pro at Soup Bowl.
Results:
Under-12 Boys – Enzo Cavallini (Gua); Che Allan (Bar); Thomas Debierre (Gua); Zander Venezia (Bar); Evan Moll (Bar).
Under-14 Boys – Elliott Ivarra (St. Barts); Gatien Delahaye (Gua); Tim Bissott (Gua); Irvin Andro (Gua).
Under-16 Boys – Raphael Debierre (Gua); Caelum Blandford (Bar); Titovan Lavole (Gua); Tim Bissott (Gua).
Under-18 Boys – Bruce Mackie (Bar); Andrew Petrolozzi (Gua); Danny Edghill (Bar); Jordan Oveslatti (Gua).
Under-16 Girls – Chelsea Roett (Bar); Chelsea Tuach (Bar); Kim Viteau (Gua); Manon Cavallini (Gua);
Under-18 Girls – Chelsea Roett (Bar); Chelsea Tuach (Bar); Kim Viteau (Gua); Isabella Venezia (Bar).
Special Open Event – Peter Hill; Jason Oliver; Danny Edghill; Stefan Corbin.