Surfs up for local secondary school students

NEXT year, secondary school students will have a chance to compete in a special tag team surfing event for the first time.

The Australian Interschools Surfing Championships on the Gold Coast from May 22-24 will showcase the talent of Year 7-12 students.

It will be run in a similar fashion to the Australian Boardriders Battle.

Surfers will compete in teams of three, divided into two age groups for Boys and Girls, Year 7-9 and Year 10-12.

The event will be open to all government, catholic and independent schools, and schools may enter multiple teams.

Individual divisions will also part of the event.

Surfing Victoria chief executive officer Adam Roberston said it was a great opportunity for local schools to throw their hat in the ring and compete with the countries best.

“To be able to represent your school and state at a national level is always something to be proud of.

“We have some great surfers and strong surfing schools in Victoria who will be able to match it with other states.

“The event should be a great show of school surfing in Australia.”

Surfing Australia chief of sport Luke Madden said the national surfing body was thrilled to add a major schools surfing competition.

“We’re excited to launch Australia’s largest school surfing event.

“The Australian Interschools Surfing Championships will fill a huge gap in our development pathway at the school surfing level whilst providing an amazing opportunity to show the depth of school surfing talent across the country.

“We hope in the future every school will be watching surfing, either on the beach or live from their auditorium, with thousands of students competing and families also making holidays of the national events.”

Schools are urged to register by heading to surfingaustralia.com