Jamaica's National Junior Surfing Series kicks off

Shama Beckford, Akeem Taylor, Ivah Wilmot, Garren Pryce © JSA

National Junior Surfing Championship Series

Jamaica Surfing Association
Roselle Surfing Beach, St. Thomas
7 July 2012

Shama Beckford draws first blood in JSA 2012 National Junior Champs series

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 9 July, 2012 : - - The first event of the Jamaica Surfing Association’s 2012 National Junior Surfing Championship Series was held at the Roselle surfing beach in St Thomas on Saturday July 7. Shoulder high waves were on offer for the sixteen under 18 surfers who registered for the event. Four 20 minute 4-man first round heats led to the semifinal round of two 4-man heats which then went on to the final. Judges score each wave ridden out of a maximum of 10 points and each surfer’s best 2 waves are totaled for their final heat score with the top 2 surfers advancing to the next round.

First into the water were Garren Pryce and Ronald Hastings from Bull Bay facing off against Boston Bay’s Dwayne Hall and Okene Thompson. The surfers caught 19 waves between them in the 20 minute heat. Garren Pryce dominated the heat with strong surfing leaving the others to duke it out for second place. Okene had a strong second wave but was having trouble finding a backup score but as the clock ticked Ronald and Dwayne couldn’t get the scores they needed and the buzzer sounded eliminating them and relegating them to =9th and =13th place respectively in the event.

Heat 2 Saw Shama Beckford and Armani Green of Bull Bay against Keron Williams and Jumane Lee from Boston. The Bull Bay boys took control of the heat right off the bat with impressive surfing and never relinquished their position. Of the 19 waves ridden the south coast boys caught 14 and advanced to the next round leaving Keron and Jumane to settle for =9th and =13th in the event.

The third heat of round 1 had Bull Bay’s Ivah Wilmot up against 3 north coast surfers Corey Atkinson, Oshane Jacks and Adrian Lewis. Only 15 waves were ridden for the judges in the 20 minutes allotted to the heat. Ivah dominated the heat and Corey caught the other meaningful waves and advanced to the next round. Oshane and Adrian had to settle for =9th and =13th respectively.

The final first round heat was an all north coast affair with Akeem Taylor Conrad Smith Javaun Brown and Horace Hall squaring off. Akeem and Conrad had one battle going for first place with both surfers scoring good waves and then Javaun and Horrace were going wave for wave for third. The 24 waves were adjudicated and Akeem and Conrad advanced with Javaun having to settle for =9th and Horrace taking =13th.

The semifinal round was next. Garren Pryce Ivah Wilmot and Armani Green from the south paddled out against Conrad Smith from the north. 18 waves were ridden with Garren again asserting his dominance over the field. Ivah had the better waves of the other 3 surfers and held on to the second spot in the final by a healthy margin over Conrad and Armani who finished the event in =5th and =7th respectively.

The other semifinal was a close one with Akeem Taylor Okeen Thompson and Corey Atkinson of the north coast up against the south coast’s Shama Beckford. Corey did not show for the heat and the other three rode 20 waves. The scores were low and it was anyone’s heat to be had. All three had a wave early out in the heat and were looking to better it with another all the way to the dying minutes where Akeem was able to get the better score with Shama taking the other advancing position. Okeen finished =5th and Corey =7th.

Then it was the final. With a dying swell the challenge was who could find a scoring wave. The heat had the best of Jamaica’s junior surfers and each wanted to secure the 1000 points for the win in the first event of the season. The sets were long in coming and after 5 minutes without any action the heat was restarted. The surfers then caught a flurry of 24 waves with waves in the 4.5-5.5 range being given by the judges keeping the heat very tight. The lead changed hands on a number of occasions with the leaders holding on to leads of less than half a point. Then as the heat wound down Shama caught a beautiful wave shooting him into the lead and followed it up with another good score to finish on top. Second was Akeem, third Ivah and fourth was Garren.

The official final results are as follows
* Name Points
1 Shama Beckford 1000
2 Akeem Taylor 860
3 Ivah Wilmot 730
4 Garren Pryce 670
5 Conrad Smith 610
5 Okeen Thompson 610
7 Armani Green 555
7 Corey Atkinson 555
9 Ronald Hastings 500
9 Keron Williams 500
9 Oshane Jacks 500
9 Javaun Brown 500
13 Dwayne Hall 450
13 Jumane Lee 450
13 Adrian Lewis 450
13 Horace Hall 450