Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships

12 to represent Barbados at World Junior Surfing Championship

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 20 September, 2005 : - - A 12-member Barbados junior team has been hard at work in preparation for the Quiksilver International Surfing Associations (ISA) World Junior Surfing Championships to be held in Huntington Beach Cali-fornia from October 8-16.

The team which will be competing in the Under-18 boys and girls category, as well as the Under-16 boys category, includes Stefan Corbin, Bruce Mackie, Lewis St. John, Eneko Nicholls, Jonathan Reece, Nial Thomas, Christian Mark and Dane Tuach; the girls are Shannon Kieffer, Alix Fitzwilliams, Brittany Golding and Mallory Peterkin.

The head coach of the team is Peter Corbin, while the assistant coach is Christopher Clarke and the manager is Paul Bourne. The other members of the management team includes Margo Tuach, the secretary of the BSA and Michelle Mackie, the treasurer of the BSA. According to the president of the Barbados Surfing Association (BSA) Paul Bourne, the team is slated to leave for the championships on October 5.

"The team has been training from the summer and when we wrap up in another two weeks, it will be 12 weeks they have been preparing for the Championships" said Bourne.

There are four surfers making their debut in the boys category, St. John, Nicholls, Mark and Reece, while Fitzwilliams is the only girl making her debut at the championships.

The training sessions were not just restricted to the water, but also included the gym for strength work and yoga sessions. Bourne who has high hopes for the team said that surfing is mental too and we have been teaching the kids strategy, techniques and wave selection. It is not just about getting on a wave.

The water sessions are held at 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturdays and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays at High Rock, close to the Soup Bowl.

He is pleased with the improvement seen in all of the team members and said he believes they are all thinking better. Where the mind leads, the body will follow and it is not always how well you surf, but how you apply yourself as well. One of our main focus was the use of the mind.

Bourne said that about 35-40 countries are expected to participate in the event and the standard is really high. Last year, the cham- pionships were held in Paper, Tahiti and Austra-lia swept all the divisions, including the team title.

Bourne said all of the Barbados team members that attended the games came last in their heat; but this year, the preparation has been better this time around and he is hoping that they will make it out of the first round of eliminations.


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Corey Greaves / BBS

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