Coast to Coast Surf School has been developing juniors for over a decade, many of which have gone on to represent Scotland.
In 2021, after a three break we embarked on a new project with 16 local juniors aged 9yrs – 15yrs that showed some talent in lessons. This new development team also arrived at the same time as a new Scottish Surfing Junior Series with events in July Tiree, August Thurso, Sept Pease Bay, October Fraserburgh and Sandend. The first two events came a bit too soon for our juniors and we decided it make sense only to send the best two to the second event. Both Ebon and Ansel, brothers did exceptionally well with both making finals in their first event and Ansel winning the Under 12s. The 3rd event overall was the Pease Bay event where we helped host the event and we had a bigger young team. This time Rudy, Ansel, Ebon and Tam all made finals in what was the biggest entry to date. The team travelled to Fraserburgh where the kids where greeted with the biggest waves of the 4 competitions so far and the highest standard of surfing. Again Ebon and Ansel in our team making finals. The last event in Sandend, the junior nationals we had a very limited entry due to clashes with holidays with Tam being unlucky in the under 12’s been knocked out just before the finals.
In the overall series we where stoked that Ebon placed 2nd in the Under 16’s boys.
During this year we also discussed formalising the team, as a new surf club and partnership with Coast to Coast aimed at performance surfing. With a great group of enthusiastic parents we have formed the Belhaven Surf club officially.
Since the competitions have finished, the kids have been doing a 6 week surfskate programme, free surfing at weekends and joining surf sessions on a Friday when the waves are up. The group has swelled to 20 now. We hope to see another step up after a winter of waves when sessions kick off again in the Easter.