East Coast Surf League, Round One:

Competitors gathered with anticipation on Sunday 31st October at Belhaven Beach to take part in Round One of the new East Coast Surf League, created by St Vedas Surf shop and Coast to Coast Surf School.

The sun was out and the competition took place in small, one to two foot high, clean surf.

First up was the longboarding heats, with several impressive moves going down from switch stance, nose riding and even a handstand! Going through to the final were Gary Schmid from Berwick, Lee Wood and Stephen Midgley from Edinburgh and Sam Christopherson from Dunbar.

This year the organisers also decided to run a round for newcomers to the sport. The men's beginners final, was a very close affair that literally went down to the last wave of the contest. Edinburgh's Chris Beattie, who learned to surf in July of this year claimed the number one spot from Coldingham's Steve Powner and Edinburgh's Steve Midgley.

Next up was the open final, the more experienced surfers, wo are used to slightly bigger surf, made maximum use of the set waves with wave choice proving critical in giving Dunbar local Sam Christopherson, the early lead in the leagues standings over fellow competitors Lee Wood, Gary Schmid and Glasgow's Gunnar Grove Raines.

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The junior final in bodyboarding was closely fought out with the judges forced into a dead heat between Jordan and Drew Mogford from Glasgow with literally nothing to separate the youngest competitors of the day.

In the Ladies Bodyboarding and Gents Boadboarding standouts where L Mogford and Craig Cravenstien from South Africa.

In the Beginners Ladies Surfing category Dunbar's Diane King edged out Edinburgh's Lauren Fox.

The final event of the day was the Longboarding Linal which was held in slightly bigger surf and again came down to the last two waves of the contest, with Sam Christopherson's nose riding and switch stance edging Gary Schmid into 2nd place with Steve Midgley 3rd and Lee Wood 4th.

This was a great start to the League with a good turn out from East and West Lothian, the Borders, Berwick, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Thanks very much to Craig, Fraser and Mr Keith for judging. A lot of new friends were made and the next round will take place on Saturday November 27th. It is hoped to hold the next part of the league at Coldingham. For full results and information on the next round of the East Coast league go to:
www.stvedas.co.uk/surfcomp.htm and www.c2cadventure.com (events).