Murkle surfer confident Scots are closing gap on leading surfing nations
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SCOTTISH under-18 women’s surfing champion Iona McLachlan capped off a memorable 2016 when she represented Scotland at the Eurosurf Junior Championships in Morocco.
The Murkle teenager was the only Caithness surfer in the squad which was making its debut at the competition.
She helped Scotland finish ninth out of 15 in the contest with some decent performances in the under-18 girls’ section.
Although Iona just missed out on progressing past the first round of her section, she said it was an incredible experience and believes Scotland is closing the gap on the leading European surfing nations.
The 16-year-old said: “I was competing on a beach break and the first few days of competition were tough as there were some huge waves.
“I only missed out on progressing by 0.5 of a point.
“Scotland is not far off from the top European level and the standard of Scottish surfing has got a lot better.
“Portugal is still the leading nation in Europe and the standard of their surfers is incredible. But we did a lot better than anyone expected, beating the likes of Wales, Norway, Sweden and Germany.
“I don’t think it would take too much structural changes at national level to help improve our ranking.”
The Thurso High pupil has made huge strides during 2016 with a highlight being her bronze medal at the Nordic Surf Games in Norway.
She went on to become under-18 women’s champion at the Scottish Surfing Championships at Thurso East as well as finish third in the senior women’s championship.
The performance led to her selection as part of the Scottish squad at the Junior World Surfing Championship in the Azores in September.
She never expected to compete on the world stage at such a young age and is keen to make further progress.
Iona said: “It has been pretty mental and I didn’t expect to be competing so much at international level this year.
“My year has been extremely busy.
“I’ve been travelling so much with surfing and at the same time trying to keep up with school work which has been quite tough.
“But it has definitely been worth it as I have had some amazing experiences and as a result I have definitely improved as a surfer.”
McLachlan is set to take a break from the international stage in 2017 to concentrate on her school work but will still compete at the Scottish Surfing Championship.
She plans to return to the world stage in 2018 where she hopes to help Scottish surfing make even more waves.
She said: “I qualified to compete with the senior women’s team at the world championship in France in 2017, but it takes place during my exams, so there is no way I could take the time off to be involved.
“For 2017, I think it will be a case of travelling around Scotland to help me improve as a surfer.
“So when 2018 comes – which will be my last year at junior level – I will hopefully be selected for the Scotland team and we will do even better.”
