St Winifred’s are at the top of school surfing – again.
The athletes from the Pine Hill, St Michael school won their ninth straight title when the Barbados Surfing Association held its National Scholastic Championships at Drill Hall beach last Saturday.
Led by Dane Mackie and his wins in the Under-18 and Under-16 Boys’ categories, along with a St Winifred’s-dominated Under-14 Girls finals, the team had a commanding 117-point lead going into the finals.
For the event, each surfer was limited to two categories, but numbers again counted in St Winifred’s favour.
Mackie and Joshua Burke, also a St Winifred’s student, renewed their surfing rivalry.
In both contests of wave riding skills Mackie came out on top, with Burke second in both the Under-18 and Under-16 categories.
Jacob Burke, who is now representing the St Michael’s School, along with Jaedon Branker and Jayson Bentham who competed in the Long Board division, placed their school within shouting distance of the eventual winners.
A glimpse into surfing’s female future was had when the finalists in the Under-14 Girls took to the water.
The four, Giselle Allan, Gabriella Gittens, Gemma Capaldi and Roma Bellori, all of St Winifred’s, while not executing the big moves of a Chelsea Tuach or a Chelsea Roett, showed that their future in the male-dominated sport was assured.
Allan and Gylla McKenzie then did battle with the Chelseas in the Under-18 final placing a commendable fourth and third, respectively.
Tuach, the lone Queen’s College surfer in the finals, helped her school to a sixth place finish by winning that category. Roett, a former St Winifred’s student, now representing Ashford, was second.
Meanwhile, the Seventh Day Adventist School was powered to a third place finish solely on the performance of its star surfer Danny Edgehill, who was third in the Under-16 Boys’ and fourth in the Under-18 categories.
