Women's surfing taken to the next level at Scottish championships in Caithness
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Thurso looks set to continue being the preferred base for the Scottish National Surfing Championships following another very successful event in the county.
Contest director Jason Simpson said: "We have the best waves in Europe sitting right here. You want the best waves for the best surfers and that is what these waves provide."
The national championships used to rotate around different areas in Scotland but since the early 2000s a decision was made to stage the event locally because of the quality of the waves and the consistency.
The preferred venue is Thurso East but this year the competition moved out to the 'bowl' at Brims Ness, which Jason described as an "amazing backup" with even the name 'brim' being Norse for surf.
Describing the bowl as one of the heaviest right hand reef brakes in the UK, Jason said: "The surf conditions were head high, clean, barrelling waves which made for a great competition with even the sun shining over the two days of the competition.
"I was impressed to see the North Shore Surf Club's [NSSC] Mark Boyd win the double taking first place in both the masters and men's open but the highlight for me was the women surfers, surfing the same wave as the men in heavy conditions at the bowl, with the NSSC's Phoebe Strachan winning the women's open with the highest wave score of the competition. It's great to see the women raising the bar and taking women’s surfing in Scotland to the next level."
The conditions were ideal for the local women's champion Phoebe Strachan (26), who put on a decisive performance cementing her position as the one to beat. She said: "I'm really delighted to win my third title now. I managed to pull it out of the bag with one of the highest scores of the whole competition – the highest a women has had.
"For the first time in history we were actually surfing the same spot in the bowl as the men. I was proud of all the other girls – we are raising the bar for female surfing in Scotland.
"Normally we would be in at the more mellow waves, but this year we put our feet down and said we wanted to surf the same waves as the boys."
She produced the joint highest single wave score alongside Chris Noble, an 8.83 – no easy feat on a waist deep northern slab. Phoebe, of NSSC, explained that the conditions gave an added "fear factor" which suited her perfectly.
The local surfer was last year's champion and also won the women's title in 2018. She hopes to go to the British championships in Wales in September.
The event was live-streamed which meant that viewers from all over the world able were able to watch as the excitement unfolded.
A huge team effort goes into running the championships locally and the event director said they were always looking at making things bigger and better.
Conditions for this year's competition, held April 15-17, proved good with a consistent two to four feet west swell, with a steady offshore wind all weekend.
Competitive Scottish surfing has been heating up the last few years, with the arrival of young talent to the top steps of the podium, and a stacked field of competitors at the last outings. This meant that this year's championships produced edge of the seat heats all the way through to the finals.
Full results and event video can be found on the Scottish Surfing Federation website.
Read more: Double success for Mark Boyd in the Scottish National Surfing Championships
