INFRINGEMENT of the contest area by non-competitors in the final event marred an otherwise spectacular day of surfing when the Barbados Junior Surfing Club held its first event at the Drill Hall on Saturday.
The incident, which occurred in the premier division of the day, the Under-18 Open final, against 17-year-old surfer Jordan Heaselgrave, saw him pulling out of that event in apparent disgust.
Before that event could begin, contest director Alan Burke spent at least three minutes urging non-competitors to clear the area, even going so far as to call some of the surfers by name.The surfers appeared to have moved to the right of the contest area but it was on Heaselgrave’s third wave that another surfer appeared on his right and would not give way.
Heaselgrave, who was surfing barebacked because there were six surfers in the mixed final, immediately came to shore and expressed his disgust at the incident.
The event was eventually won by Joshua Burke, while Danny Edghill and Chelsea Roett were second and third respectively.
Despite the incident, the junior surfers revelled in the conditions served up at the Drill Hall on Saturday, with Danny Edghill performing floater after floater in addition to a 360 on the top of a wave, with others like Joshua Burke tucking themselves into elusive barrels.
Edghill later surfed his way to the top of the Under-16 finals, after placing second in the Under-14 Boys and Under-18 Open division, while Burke, who captured the Under-18 title, rounded out his medal count with third place finishes in the Under-16 and Under-14 Boys.
Che Allan bounced back from two fourth place finishes in the back-to-back Under-14 and Under-16 finals, to take the top spot in the 10-and-Under final.
And the surfer who defeated Allan, Edghill and Burke in the Under-14 final was Dane Mackie, who went back out in the Under-16 Boys and finished second.
Meanwhile, Roett won Saturday’s battle with her namesake Chelsea Tuach, in the Under-18 Girls final, to avenge her loss to Tuach in the Barbados Surfing Association’s (BSA) January event at South Point.
Come this weekend, it will be the turn of the island’s older surfers to hit the water as the BSA holds its next competition at North Point, St Lucy.
Results
Under-18 Girls – Chelsea Roett; Chelsea Tuach; Isabella Venezia; Chelsie Grant.
10-and-Under Boys – Zander Venezia; Jacob Burke; Yuri Scutt; Axe Garrett; Darian Pitcher and Liam Grant (equal fifth).
12-and-Under Boys – Che Allan; Andrew Rose; Evan Moll; Jacob Burke; Axe Garret and Zander Venezia (equal fifth).
14-and-Under Boys – Dane Mackie; Danny Edghill; Joshua Burke; Che Allan; Andrew rose and Nick O’Neal (equal fifth).Under-16 Boys – Danny Edghill; Dane Mackie; Joshua Burke; Che Allan.
Under-18 Open final – Joshua Burke; Danny Edghill; Chelsea Roett; Chelsea Tuach; Dane Mackie; Jordan Heaselgrave.
