Big entry as Scottish surfing championships return to Thurso
Champion surfers Phoebe Strachan and Craig McLachlan will be aiming to retain their respective open titles when the Scottish national championships return to Thurso East this weekend.
They are again among a strong contingent from Thurso-based North Shore Surf Club taking part in the 50th anniversary championships which run from Friday to Sunday.
Strachan took first place in the women’s contest in 2024 for the fourth time in a row and the fifth time altogether. McLachlan won the men’s title for a second successive year and for the third time in all.
Dounreay is the main sponsor and the championships will be livestreamed on the Scottish Surfing website, scottishsurfing.scot
NSSC’s Mark Boyd, a previous open men’s champion and masters winner, has a part-time role as sport operations manager with Scottish Surfing.
“I'm looking forward to the weekend,” he said. “It’s quite a big entry this year.”
Last year’s championships were blessed with “once-in-a-decade conditions”, in the words of NSSC chairman Jason Simpson, and organisers will be hoping for something similar this time.
Speaking in the run-up to the event, Boyd said the forecast looked promising for Thurso East for Friday and Saturday.
“Things can change a lot,” he said. “Fingers crossed we get something.
“Thurso East is obviously the primary venue, that’s where we want to have the competition. But we quite often end up out at Brims, or sometimes Sinclair’s Bay.
“We even go to Dunnet beach or Sandside as well, so there are a few options depending on what the conditions do.
“You don’t really know until about three days out what’s actually going to happen.”
As well as the open men’s and women’s competitions there will be masters (40 and over) and grand masters (50-plus).
Thurso will have an influx of surfing competitors, officials and others over the Easter weekend.
“There has definitely been more spectator interest,” Boyd said. “EventScotland were supporting the event over the last three years so they did quite a bit of promotion.
“There are usually quite a few non-surfers who turn up to have a look, so there should be a crowd and it’ll be livestreamed as well.
“There’s a lot of entrants, and the entourage that come up with them, and the spectators on top of that. The Pentland Hotel will be our base for the event – we partner with them every year.”
Boyd (38) will again be among those battling it out for honours on the waves.
He said: “I’ll be taking my operations manager hat off for the weekend and focusing on the competition.”
The Scottish junior championships were held last weekend at Fraserburgh.
North Shore Surf Club’s Skye Brock took third place in the under-12 competition. Scarlett Heddle (NSSC) was third in U14 girls, while Skye came fourth in that category.
Winners – Under-12: Oscar Morgan (Aberdeen Surf Club). U14 girls: Erin Paterson (Belhaven Surf Club). U14 boys: Kai Cruickshank (Broch Surf Club).
U16 girls: Callie Cruickshank (Broch Surf Club). U16 boys: Gabriel Noble (Broch Surf Club). U18 girls: Callie Cruickshank. U18 boys: Israel Noble (Broch Surf Club).
In last year’s championships, Phoebe Strachan finished ahead of Tiree’s Robyn Larg and Broch Surf Club duo Lola Mitchell and Callie Cruickshank in the women’s open section.
Craig McLachlan saw off the challenges of Sandend’s Craig Sutherland and NSCC clubmates Mark Boyd and Dylan Fogarty-Macdonald.
McLachlan had captained the Scottish squad in the world junior championships in Brazil at the end of 2023.
Last year’s masters winner was Mark Cameron (Broch Surf Club), with Boyd as runner-up.
