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History Made In Shetland

The Boat Ramp Photo: @malsurf

Shetland’s first ever surfing competition and the second most Northerly surfing competition in the world took place over the weekend (15-16th October 2022). The Gathering of the Clans, which is the Scottish Inter-Club Surfing Championships, attracted teams from all over Scotland to battle it out on the waves of Sumburgh for the coveted clans sword and quaich trophies.

Winning clan The North Shore Surf Club (NSSC) with the Quaich and Sword Trophy, Photo: Brian Gray

Thurso’s North Shore Surf Club took home the title for an un-precedented 5th consecutive year with their surfers taking top spot in the Open Mens, Open Womens, Masters and Junior Girls divisions with a total of 9910points.

Current Scottish Champ Mark Boyd (NSSC) Post Heat Photo: @malsurf

Current Scottish Champions Mark Boyd (NSSC) and Phoebe Strachan (NSSC) won the two open divisions and Boyd became the first surfer to become the Masters and Open Mens division champion in both the Scottish Nationals and Inter-Clubs in the same year.

The Granite City Surf Club, with the help of a couple of recruits from the nearby Broch Surf Club (BSC), surfed their way to second place in the overall team rankings, with a maiden win from Adam El-Naggar (GCSC) in the Longboard division and a win from Brocher Sebastian Ballantyne (GCSC) in the Junior Boys. Aberdeen’s Lewis Morgan (GCSC) and Fraserburgh’s George Watt (GCSC) clinched runner up spots in the Junior Boys and Open Mens divisions respectively and Campbell Scott claimed a very respectable third place in the Masters division.

Fraserburgh’s George Watt (GCSC) eventual Mens Open runner up was recruited for the Granite City Surf Club this year Photo: Sue MacCallum Stewart

60° North Boardriders, as well as being incredible hosts, had a great showing in the event with Joe Morton (60N), Peter Georgeson (60N) and Tom Wills (60N) all making finals in their divisions and doing the Shetland community proud.

A team from Glasgow University Surf Club (GUSC) were in attendance representing the South of Scotland and after day 1, when the points for divisions which had been completed were tallied up (Open Mens and Open Womens), Glasgow were in second place! This was mostly due to their team having a higher number of competitors in the Open divisions than the other teams. After the Sunday’s competition though, that strategy would let their side down as the points came in for the other divisions despite their best efforts in the Longboarding, with Finlay Todd (GUSC) and Dexter McKeating (GUSC) narrowly missing out on semi-final berths. Nicole Amber (GUSC) and Dexter McKeating (GUSC) did however make the Open divisions semi finals on the Saturday with some solid surfing, giving Glasgow reason to celebrate.

Glasgow University Surf Club Photo: Brian Gray

Saturday’s competition took place on the “Boat Ramp”; a fun rippable right hand reef break, which had some good size sets but a tricky devil wind, making for some entertaining wipeouts. Phoebe Strachan (NSSC) was seemingly unstoppable in the Open Women’s division with fantastic wave selection and calculated surfing, in the choppy surf, to take the win over Olivia MacKay (NSSC); one of Scotland’s finest up and coming junior surfers who is currently sitting in 3rd place in the U18 Girls division of the SSF Junior Series.

Current Scottish Champ Phoebe Strachan (NSSC) Photo: @malsurf

Mark Boyd (NSSC), although had already had three heat wins to make his way to the final, saved his best for last, with a three turn combo including a committed and steep re-entry on the sketchy boat ramp end section, to post an excellent score and take the win over George Watt (GCSC) in the Open Mens final with a heat total of 13.83pts. Boyd would go on to best team-mate Chris Noble (NSSC) in the Masters final at West Voe Beach on the last heat of the day on the Sunday in small shore-breaking high tide closeouts and take the Open and Masters double for the second time this year.

Tamzin Rosie (NSSC) at West Voe Beach on the Sunday Photo: @malsurf

The Longboarders had a ball for most of the event on West Voe’s reforming baynks, with Phoebe Strachan (NSSC) putting on an excellent performance in early rounds (14.17pts heat total in Rd1 and a semi final heat win over eventual winner Adam El-Nagar (GCSC)) with a display of traditional and modern longboard surfing. Phoebe, the only female in the draw, lost out to Adam El-Nagar (GCSC) by less than a point in the final. Adam posted a 6.33pts ride early on in the final for a winding right which zipped along the West Voe inside bank and Phoebe was unable to flip the heat despite Adam’s low backup score.

The Scottish Surfing Federation would like to thank 60° North Boardriders for their amazing hospitality as our event hosts as well as Shetland Community Benefit Fund, Viking Energy, Awards for All, Northlink Ferries, Shetland Sports Development Council and Mystic.

Adam El-Naggar (GCSC) Longboard champ Photo: @malsurf

Results:

1. North Shore Surf Club (NSSC) 9910pts
2. Granite City Surf Club (GCSC) 8525pts
3. 60° North Boardriders (60N) 6410pts
4. Glasgow University Surf Club (GUSC) 5008pts

Open Men

1. Mark Boyd (NSSC)
2. George Watt (GCSC)
3. Chris Noble (NSSC)
4. Joe Morton (60N)

Open Women

1. Phoebe Strachan (NSSC)
2. Olivia MacKay (NSSC)
3. Rhiannon Evans (NSSC)
4. Sheila Finlayson (NSSC)

Masters

1. Mark Boyd (NSSC)
2. Chris Noble (NSSC)
3. Campbell Scott (GCSC)
4. Tom Wills (60N)

Longboard

1. Adam El-Naggar (GCSC)
2. Phoebe Strachan (NSSC)
3. Peter Georgeson (60N)
4. Juvenal Dufaur (NSSC)

Junior Boys

1.Sebastian Ballantyne (GCSC)
2.Lewis Morgan (GCSC)

Junior Girls

1. Olivia MacKay (NSSC)
2. Tamzin Rosie (NSSC)
3. Nadia Murray (NSSC)
4. Voe Brock (NSSC)

Welcome To The Thunderdome.

I twisted Dean "Dingo" Morrison's arm to get me into the Surf Lakes Wave Pool in Yeppoon. Yes, that Mad Max pool that you've probably seen in clips. The pool up in Yeppoon is a test facility and isn't open to the public. This was my experience behind the gates. Dylan Graves

For more info on this pool check out surflakes.com

Mason Ho Is Different

And I thought me exe was shallow, Mason will drag that surfboard of his over any surface for fun. Mason took the red eye flight from Hawaii to California straight into some beatings at the famous Wedge and Cylinders. This session was filmed during hurricane Kay, click into the madness.

London Surf / Film Festival

The promise of Autumn is knocking on the door. Ushering in the season, London Surf / Film Festival has dropped a fresh dose of inspiration with the longlist for 11th Edition of The Shorties presented by Surfdome. Settle in for some 60 minutes of surf movie magic over at the LS/FF site.

London Surf / Film Festival needs your help in selecting The Shorties to be premiered on the big screen at this year’s festival. They are asking you – the esteemed surfing community – to support your favourite films by watching and voting for them. And as part of LS/FF’s commitment to UK and Irish filmmaking talent, a £1000 filmmaking fund will be awarded to the winning short with £500 awarded to the stand out emerging talent.

The hotly contested ‘homegrown filmmaking’ category at the heart of the international film festival features 11 longlisted shorts from some of the best established and most promising up and coming creatives. There are sick edits from the furthest reaches of our fair isles, super 8 traveloguing, moments of chaos, moments of clarity, 3D cyber dreams and everything in between!

Voting is open now and will run until 22nd October. Check out the longlisted entries at londonsurffilmfestival.com and cast your votes.

The shortlist is decided by a combination of votes cast by the surf community and the screening panel. The selected films will be shown on the big screen as part of the 11th Annual London Surf / Film Festival hosted 25-26 November at the iconic Riverside Studios and 2nd December at the legendary, Genesis Cinema in East London.

Founded round a kitchen table, in the deep mid winter after a few good waves, London Surf / Film Festival is a celebration of the cream of international surf culture. After 10 editions of packed out premieres, icons, good times and more it has grown to become a must attend for saltwater aficionados, bringing to the UK the best surf films from around the globe – documentaries to inspire, travelogues to stir up the wanderlust and cutting edge action to blow minds, accompanied by talks, music, gallery shows, workshops and more. See you there!

You can watch, enjoy, share, support and stoke out on The Shorties below:

WATCH AND VOTE THE SHORTIES HERE

Killer Kandui 10ft +

‘Surfing No Kandui on the first day with some sets reaching 10ft + was clearly the best and biggest day of the trip.

A scary wave at best as you can’t tell which waves will let you escape the channel with its long fast shallow barrel.

Just ahead of Kelly Slater, during the middle of the day my best wave came. I ‘freehanded’ it on my backhand which is always an exclamation point. Such a special day surfing with Kelly and the other guys that were having a dig.’

Overall, a memorable and unforgettable trip as the other surfers were all so enjoyable to live with over the 2 week trip. Good laughs, food and waves. @billykean

Surfer: @billykean
Video/ Edit: @jesselittlecreative

Photographer: @swillpics
Wearing: C-Skins long sleeve UV protection rashie for under the Indonesian Sun.

Nor’Easter Perfection in the Big Apple

Unless you’ve experienced Long Island in full cry, you’d never believe that Long Beach serves up the only waves on earth that could possibly pull Balaram Stack and Tosh Tudor away from winter in Hawaii, but that’s exactly what this edit shows; sleet, snow, ice and all. From shivering cylinders to cold caverns on blizzard-ridden barrels, this is the East Coast edit you never knew you needed.