Para Surf National Championships & Taster Event – Dunnet

After a frustrating summer of nearly no waves for our adaptive surfers and the adaptive surf series, we were finally blessed with perfect 3ft swell, offshore winds, and wall to wall sunshine (after the morning fog burned off) – Dunnet really delivered a perfect weekend of waves!

On Saturday morning, all the surfers, coaches, volunteers, and newly qualified adaptive surf instructors met bright and early for a free surf. This was the first time Jade, Karen, Lilly, and Seb had had an opportunity to get out in any waves of quality & size this summer. Although perfect, the walls rolling in to Dunnet were a fair size for the surfers, pushers, and catchers after a flat summer – but everyone was up for it and some epic warm up waves were ridden!

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After a rest and a refuel at lunch, the competition kicked off in the afternoon. The sun was out and the the swell still firing!

All four surfers entered currently compete in the Prone 2 category “Any surfer who rides the wave in a prone position that does require assistance in the water, paddling into a wave, and getting back on the board safely”, meaning they teamed up with a pusher & catcher for the competition. Here were the teams:

• Red – Jade Edward (surfer), Kev Anderson (pusher), Will Elliot (catcher)

• White – Karen Darke (surfer), Ben Clifford (pusher), Rachael Green (catcher)

• Yellow – Lilly Noble (surfer), Ruairidh Farquharson (pusher), Ellen Openshaw (catcher)

• Blue – Seb Parkes (surfer), Iain Donaldson (pusher), Sam O’Keeffe (catcher)

The competition format saw 8 x 20min round robin heats with each surfer surfing twice, followed by a grand final with all surfers in a 30 minute final heat!

Although the waves weren’t perfect peelers and there were a lot of close outs, the team made the most of the conditions with all the surfers nailing critical drops, down the line speed, a few manoeuvres, wipe-outs, and even some close cover-ups and head dips!

Highest wave score of the day came from Jade, with a critical drop to bottom turn, back up the face to take a highline where she pulled in to the close out section to emerge from the white water and ride it out to the inside with a few white water manoeuvres!

The progression and commitment from all the surfers was amazing to see, and after almost 4 hours of surfing everyone left the water fully stoked, knackered, and sun kissed!

Standings after the final were:

• 1st – Jade Edward
• 2nd – Seb Parkes
• 3rd – Karen Darke
• 4th – Lilly Noble

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The weekend didn’t end there, and everyone met again at Dunnet on Sunday for one final morning of free-surfing. We also welcomed two newcomers for a taster session, Kian and Marty! With everyone surfing alongside each other it was a great buzz – a perfect fun session to finish up the weekend!

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A huge thanks to everyone involved for making this such a memorable competition and weekend!

• Charity partners: SurfABLE, Inclusive Surfing Scotland, Wave Project Scotland
• Prize sponsors: C-Monsta, Tiso, Lost Shore
• Judges: Craig Greyvenstein, Brendon Ferrier, Colin, and Kaitlynn 
• Beach Marshal: Caorann Fosbrooke
• Volunteers: Kev, Iain, Ruairidh, Sam, Will, Ellen, Freya, Saoirse, Billy, Ben, Rachael, Joe, Finn
• Photography: Mal Anderson
• Adaptive course: Sport Scotland, ISA, and Ben Clifford from SurfAbility UK
• And of course thank you to all the surfers & their families!

Words by Caorann Fosbrooke. Photos by Mal Anderson.