ASC was only formed a few years ago, as a reviving and rebranding of Granite City Surf Club. A key goal for us has been to unite the surfing and beach communities, to be able to have a bigger say in developments at Aberdeen beach and to demonstrate the positive impact that surfing has on its local community.
Whilst the likes of the Broch and Thurso have seen many groms entering the water, the youth scene in Aberdeen isnt quite there yet. With all the distractions that a larger city has, along with our beach being more tide dependant than others and getting fewer northerly swells, its almost always a bit smaller and less consistent that the coasts further north of us – and so we have been keen to see what we can do to encourage more kids into the water – and part of that mission included bringing the Scottish Surfing junior series to Aberdeen, for the first time in its history.
The East coast has been worse than flat all summer, so with nearly 2 weeks of consistent southerlies and a good run of surf, we were hopeful that the swell would still be pushing in for the weekend. A few days prior to the comp, the beach had been pretty solid and we had a few days of good southerly surf. It was forecast to drop off the day before the comp, with a new, small windswell, filtering in overnight, requiring us to set up at “Tunnels” which picks up the south swells.
A nervous set up at first light, saw small, wobbly lines pushing over the sandbars and dribbling onto the shore – not a good sight ! The tide being a bit too high still for a small period swell to show properly, it was a concerning 90 minutes until we saw the first lines begin to show and the first “contestable” wave. A couple of groms paddled out and the moment we saw them rip apart a short shoredump peak, we knew it was on !
The next few hours saw the tide drop revealing waves in the chest high range, with a mix of fast almost closeouts and some peaks allowing just enough for a few turns. The winds stayed light for the most part, until the forecasted cross-shore made staying In position an extra challenge – wave selection was key, as is often the case along this stretch of the beach.
30 competitiors travelled from across Scotland, as far away as Tiree (that is dedication !) and as we worked our way through the U12s, U14s and U18s heats, the juniors showed the strength of Scottish Surfing, across all the age categories.
Aberdeen local boys, Oscar and Finn Morgan got stuck into the U12s, securing 2nd and 5th place respectfully, with older brother Lewis demonstrating some great wave selection to secure 2nd place in the U14s, in a strong heat dominated by Belhaven and the Broch. U14 Girls saw North Shore and Belhaven battle it out, with North Shores Scarlet Heddle snagging 1st place. U18 boys put on a real show in the final, with all 4 competitors keeping the judges on their toes with a wave each in under 40s of the start of the heat ! In the end, Tam Hood held his own against his peers, coming out ontop. U18s girls final was another display of top talent and solid surfing with Rosie Moore of Belhaven Surf Club taking home 1st place.
With everything running smoothly throughout the day, all that was left was to pack up and thank an long list of helpers and sponsors.
A big thank you (and apologies to anyone we’ve missed!) to Lost Shore Surf Resort for sponsoring the Scottish Junior series, Vision Events for providing PA and Technical Support, the SS Junior series crew, Dan Parkin, Campbell, Marcelle, Iain, Rob, Vera, Neil, our superb judges, Craig, Kaitlynn, Joules, Eric and Colin, the ASC committee for helping get set up and organise catering, the ASLSC safety team, Mal and Paul for photography and our comp sponsors, Scot Surf School, Scotland’s Bothy, and KernJ Landscaping.
Photo Credits – Paul Barlow (PBL) and Mal Surf
Watch here
Final Results
U12
1 Reuben Milbourne
2 Oscar Morgan
3 Meri Clarke
4 Skye Brock
5 Finn Morgan
U14 Boys
1 Joel Christopherson
2 Lewis Morgan
3 Sebastian Ballantyne
4 Aidan Innes
U14 Girls
1 Scarlet Heddle
2 Erin Paterson
3 Rae Hood
4 Olivia Sutherland
U18 Boys
1 Tam Hood
2 Gabriel Noble
3 Ansel Parkin
4 Charlie Pugh
U18 Girls
1 Rosie Moore
2 Beatrix Brown
3 Olivia Mackay
4 Voe Brock
Series Leaderboard
