Hill 'gets the waves' and is new champion

TOM HILL was named the island's top surfer when he won the open class of the 2007 Guernsey Championships. Falmouth Marine School student Hill took the open final at Portinfer where he defeated defending champion Johnny Wallbridge in a closely fought tussle in 3ft waves.

The 24-year-old is sponsored by Rip Curl and is planning to compete in next year's British surfing tour.

'It's great to have won. It was a tight final so I'm really pleased,' he said.

'Both of us are at a pretty good level and luckily I got the waves. It's always good to beat him.'

Vazon's Greg Le Tissier took the longboard title ahead of last year's winner Josh Sexton.

The final was held in near-perfect 6ft-plus waves at Vazon reef with Le Tissier's nose riding just getting the edge over Sexton's rail-to-rail vertical wave attack.

The veterans' title had to be decided on a countback after Rob Girard and Simon Alexander had finished level with the judges on their top two waves.

Girard, a past Guernsey champion, was awarded first place for his higher-scoring third wave of the final at Vazon, which started on the reef and finished on the beach.

Matt Tostevin's decision to focus on the left-handers at Vazon paid dividends in that he clinched the under-16 title from Elliott Bates.

Jack Simon was awarded the U-12 crown while Lotte Parfit was named U-16 girls' champion.

The competition was staged over several weekends due to differing surf conditions.

The U-18, master and senior divisions will be staged when conditions allow.

The awards ceremony was held in aid of the Children In Need Appeal and saw St Martin's Dave Critchlow walk away with the Tiki-sponsored South Point longboard, while Kev Warr took the Firewire shortboard.

A total of £2,122 was raised for the charity.

Guernsey Surf Club chairman Kevin Hinshaw, who helped organise the championships and acted as auctioneer for the club's charity auction, was delighted with the turnout of juniors in the competition.

'The great thing was that we had a wealth of children in the eight to 14 range so that's encouraging for the future,' he said.

'It was an excellent competition and the standard was very high. When you think we've got a British university champion, a Channel Islands champion and three professionally-sponsored surfers - for a small island we're doing pretty well.

'We're hoping that the success we're getting of the lads in their early 20s is echoed by the juniors.'

Hinshaw said the Guernsey Surf Club had 105 members but he is keen for more people to sign up.

Members have third-party insurance coverage for when they are surfing.

Hinshaw estimates that there are more than 200 people in the island who surf but are not members.

'What we're keen to do is encourage the recreational surfers to join the club and benefit from all that the club gives,' he said.

'It's also a legal requirement to have third-party insurance.'

Guernsey membership forms are available from the island's surf shops or for more information contact Kevin Hinshaw on 721715 or Chris Ashwell.