WILD weather fuelled testing conditions at St Brelade’s Bay on Sunday for Jersey and Guernsey’s junior surfers gunning for Channel Islands surf team selection.

Finalists were made to battle gale force southerly winds and poor visibility – yet many still managed to pull off some impressive performances. The AIB junior competitors put on some powerful displays for a crowd of drenched spectators, aiming for a place in the team that will travel to the Junior European Championships in Morocco next month.

U18 boys Joe Baker and Jake Powell performing some excellent top to bottom surfing – Sam Mason and Guernsey’s Jacob Warr surfed well, as did Will Glenn and Jake Elms, though it was the snappy top turns that gave Powell the edge over rival Baker for the third round win, securing his title as the overall AIB 2008 champion.

The U16s also showed off some polished performances, as Nathan Elms destroyed the right hand waves to fend off Alex Vibert in the final. Matt Chapman chased hard, smashing the lefts at Pole Rock, but he failed to perform enough turns on his waves which left Vibert fighting wave for wave against Elms – and it was Elms who, in the dying minutes, took off on a peeling right wave and executed five solid manoeuvres to win the Round 3 final outright.

The U14 section was dominated by Freddie Seymour and Ben Bates – both performed good top turns and picked off the set waves, while the out of sorts Bradley Ferguson failed to gain any high scoring waves.
With little competition from fourth competitor Josh Evans, Seymour was able to find the high scoring waves and deservedly claimed first place.

The novice division, which had been judged on Saturday at Le Port, saw the U12 surfers brave a high tide shore break for their first ever competition. Yet ten-year-old Hayden Bishop was unfazed by the event and paddled and surfed well in his first heat. Though he risked being caught out by Bailey Le Breton and Adam Barrot in the final, by not catching enough waves, Bishop stole victory as the clock ticked down, catching his second wave with just ten seconds to go. There were also third round wins for Lucy Goddard in the U18 girls, Cole Jouanny in the longboard division, Ben Bates in the U12s and Jenna Kleis in the U14 girls.

• Picture: Matt Chapman in round three of the under 16 section of the AIB junior surfing series. Picture by David Ferguson (00593302)