THE LEVEL of competition at the recently concluded 2014 National Surfing Championship has pleased one of the committee members of the Barbados Surfing Association.
“I’ve watched the whole contest the whole weekend and you could see kids just improving with the heats,” treasurer of the BSA, Louis Venezia, told Midweek Sport.
Competition in the last local event on the BSA’s calendar before international junior surfers arrive for the ASP Junior Boys and Girls Pro in mid-November, was spread over the two days of the weekend with the preliminaries to semi-finals being run on Saturday and the finals being held on Sunday.
Venezia felt the event went off without a hitch and he thanked everyone who worked on the event, as well as the locals who gave up their break for the weekend.
“The competition was outstanding,” Venezia said as he reviewed the event.
“The waves cooperated immensely. And the standards of competition – all the kids rose to the occasion.
“All the kids just got better and better as the day went on which is great,” he added.
He further noted the island’s junior surfers were also showing that competitive edge which came from participating in various overseas events.
“What we’ve got now,” said Venezia, “is that we have enough competition for the better kids to excel and the not-so-better kids to try and get to that level. So it really does create a good environment.”
Venezia went on to commend Che Allan for his weekend victories.
The 15-year-old surfed his way to the titles in the Open, the Under 16-Boys and Under-18 Boys divisions.
“It really boils down to the right waves, and that is all part of competition.
“It’s not only about the surfing and the surfer’s ability in catching waves. There is heat management, there is also being in the right position at the right time, being patient and all of that came together for Che this weekend and he put it together in a whole package and he ended up winning three titles.”
Venezia was also pleased with the competition among the girls and said the success of the two Chelseas (Tuach and Roett) on the international circuit had set the standard.
“The girls are greatly improving, every year it’s improving.”
In addition, this year’s nationals also crowned a champion in the Stand Up Paddle Board division in Kevin Talma.
Venezia called it “the fastest growing sport”, adding “we are glad that we have some guys who are willing to compete”.
The next BSA event is the November Pro and the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Sprite Soup Bowl Pro Junior event on November 13 to 16.
