The Gathering of the Clans (Scottish Inter-Club Surfing Championships) took place on Saturday the 29th of November at Lost Shore Surf Resort with the Clans Sword and Quaich returning to Thurso as the North Shore Surf Club (NSSC) narrowly beat last year’s winners the Broch Surf Club (BSC).
The weekend was also the celebration of 50 years of the Scottish Surfing Federation and kicked off with a 50 years of Scottish Surfing Photo Exhibition on the Friday at Lost Shore with photos from Andy Bennetts, Sam Howard, Will Beeslaar, Oscar James and Malcolm Anderson followed by a Q&A session with Roger Cox ‘Through generations of Scottish Champions’ with Andy Bennetts, Sheila Findlayson, Mark Boyd and Phoebe Strachan sitting on the panel as part of Roger’s book launch for his new book ‘The View from the Shoulder’.
The competition on Saturday saw unbelievable performance levels from 8 teams from across Scotland battle it out to become club champions and it all came down to the last final of the day with Thurso’s North Shore Surf Club requiring 1st and 2nd place in the Open Men’s division to clinch the title once again over the Broch Surf Club (BSC).
Craig McLachlan (NSSC) took top honours narrowly ahead of team-mate Mark Boyd (NSSC) to secure the North Shore Surf Club’s victory in the Open Men’s division.
Callie Cruickshank (BSC) was solid all day on her forehand to get the better of Phoebe Strachan (NSSC) in the Open Women’s final.
Another close one in the Masters division seen Sandend’s Craig Sutherland (SSC) best favourite Dylan Fogarty-MacDonald (NSSC).
Rudi Johnston-Forrest (BHSC) took his maiden clans victory in a nail biter just ahead of Israel Noble (BSC) in the Junior Boys.
Callie Cruickshank (BSC) did the double for the second consecutive year adding the Junior Girls 1st place over runner up Olivia Sutherland (NSSC).
But the most impressive story of the day was in the Longboard division, which due to time constraints is a mixed gender division in this event. Lost Shore employee, Aussie Tom Marr impressed everyone with an extremely high calibre of traditional longboarding to take the win. The runner up spot went to Hannah Sharp (BHSC 2), the current Scottish Women’s Longboard Champion who beat current Men’s Scottish Longboard Champ Ansel Parkin (BHSC), not once, but twice throughout the day with an incredible performance in the final that had the whole comp site talking.
The 50th Anniversary celebrations kicked off with an awards ceremony where Scottish Open Division champions from the last 50 years across all disciplines of surfing; Shortboarding, Longboarding, SUP, Para and Bodyboarding were honoured for their achievements as well as the start of a new tradition where the senior Scottish National Team were recognised with caps for representing their country this year at the European Surfing Championships and GB Cup. Some of the founders of the sport in Scotland; Ian Wishart, Pat Kieran and Bill Batten (first ever Scottish Champion) were on hand to present some of these awards. The awards ceremony was followed by the 50th anniversary celebratory ceilidh dance, a fitting way to commemorate the last half century of Scottish Surfing.
Huge thanks to event sponsors Gul Wetsuits and Stance Socks for providing prizes and particularly to Lost Shore Surf Resort for working in partnership with Scottish Surfing to make the event possible.
Thanks to Malcolm Anderson and Simon Wooton for the photographs.
