The home nation surfing bodies for Wales, Scotland, England and the Channel Islands proudly announce a refreshed and exciting format for the prestigious British title event and bring back the British Cup, with a new qualification process, providing opportunity and a future facing format.

Following the announcement in 2017 that the British Surfing Championships would rotate annually throughout each home nation, the inter-nation discussions have centred around modernising the event, its format and its qualification process. A vital approach at a progressive time in Surfing, with the rising stature of the ISA World Surfing Games and the build up to surfing’s Olympic debut in the 2020 Tokyo games. A collaborative and unified approach to ensure a sustainable event future and one that can cater for the changing landscape.

The British Surfing Championships & British Cup event will now mirror the exciting format of the ISA World Surfing Games, with each nations surfers competing for both individual surfer titles as well as a home nations team title (the British Cup).

The event will host four shortboard categories; Men’s Open (16 surfers), Women’s Open (16 surfers), Boys Under 18 (16 surfers) and Girls Under 18 (16 surfers). Qualification for the event will be given to 16 surfers in each division, made up on the top 4 surfers in each division in their respective home nations championship only. For example, the Men’s Open will comprise of the Wales top 4, Scotland top 4, Channel Islands top 4 and England’s top 4 surfers from each home nations championship, making up the 16 man draw. The country code of each surfer will be used to identify their representation (WAL, SCO, CI & ENG). Each surfer will be vying for the British Champion individual title, whilst points for finished placing at the event will be given to each surfer and combined to identify a home nations British Cup team champion.

The event will provide a high level competition platform, which in turn will drive standards of the surfers and judging and officiating levels across the home nations with each country having representation on the judging panel. The event also provides an opportunity for the nations to introduce and gain experience in any international competition developments.

The qualification process compliments the opportunities provided to many at at each nations respective home championships and provides increased motivation and prestige to the finalists in the qualifying divisions. However, should a surfer forfeit their qualification the respective home nation will maintain that position and pass the spot to the 5th placed surfer and so on proceeding through their results. A surfer can only enter the national championships of one country (for whom they must meet the eligibility requirements to compete for) to attempt to qualify for the event.

The event schedule is as follows;
– 2018 British Surfing Championships & British Cup. England (Fistral Beach, Cornwall – October 6th & 7th)
– 2019 British Surfing Championships & British Cup. Jersey, Channel Islands.
– 2020 British Surfing Championships & British Cup. Scotland
– 2021 British Surfing Championships & British Cup. Wales

For further information on the event in surfers can contact their respective surfing governing body.

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Background

In August 2016 the International Olympic Committee announced that Surfing would be included in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics as a demonstration sport.

On 16^th March 2018 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released to all the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) the approved qualification system for Surfing’s Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.

The key elements of the qualification system are as follows:

• 20 men, 20 women.
• Maximum of 2 surfers per gender per National Olympic Committee (NOC).
• Qualification spots will be earned on an individual basis, by name.
• In accordance with IOC guidelines, the qualification events have been determined in hierarchical order of qualification, as further explained below; If two surfers of a gender have qualified through the first hierarchical order, that NOC will not be able to qualify more surfers of that gender through qualifying events lower in hierarchical order.
• All surfers selected by their respective National Federations for their national teams must participate in 2019 and 2020 ISA World Surfing Games in order to be eligible for Olympic qualification.  The final details of the eligibility requirements are still under review by the ISA and the IOC.

The hierarchical order of qualification will be as follows:

1. 2019 World Surf League Championship Tour: First 10 eligible men and first 8 eligible women.
2. 2020 ISA World Surfing Games: First 4 eligible men and first 6 eligible women.
3. 2019 ISA World Surfing Games: 4 men and 4 women selected based on their continent. Top finishing eligible surfer of each gender from Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
4. 2019 Pan American Games: First eligible man and first eligible women in the surfing competitions.
5. Host nation slot: One man and one woman slot will be guaranteed for the host nation of Japan, unless already filled through the above hierarchies. Should athletes from Japan qualify regularly, their slots will be reallocated to the highest ranked eligible surfers from the 2020 World Surfing Games.

Funding

We have made submissions of funding requests and submission of all relevant data to UK Sport. On extensive analysis, UK Sport believe it is currently unlikely that currently any British surfer will win a medal in Tokyo 2020. UK Sport investment is wholly focused on medal winning performances to inspire our nation.

It is also yet to be confirmed if surfing will be in the 2024 and 2028 Olympics which also makes attracting investment into surfing a challenge. We will continue to collectively work to source performance funding.

We collectively recommend to all interested surfers that in order to attract funding from UK Sport, podium results in major international events needs to be achieved. Should podium performances be achieved, this would be clear evidence of medal potential at the Olympics and allow us to put forward a better case for UK Sport funding.

Collectively the Home Nation Federations will continue to monitor the status of the Olympic pathway and we are in close communication with all the relevant governing and decision-making bodies.

If you have any further questions, please contact your respective home nations body and for further information please visit their websites or the International Surfing Association website.

Scottish Surfing Federation

Surfing England

Welsh Surfing Federation

Channel Islands Surfing Federation

To view the complete Olympic Qualification System for Surfing in Tokyo 2020, click here.

Four years since Wales’s recognition by the International Surfing Association and the green light to compete under our nations flag. The Welsh Surfing Federation is delighted to announce it’s first team to compete at World Open level.

Dubbed the Olympics of surfing, over 50 countries will compete for medals over the weeklong competition held at Grande Plage, Biarritz, France during the 20th to 28th May. With surfing set to makes it’s Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, this event will undoubtedly be the first step towards Olympic seeding and eventual qualification.
Whilst the Welsh Juniors have travelled to Ecuador, California and the Azores to compete at ISA World Junior competitions, the event in France this will be Wales’ first opportunity to compete against some of the biggest names in the sport. Performance expectations are realistic, yet the team is determined to show that despite Wales’s vastly inferior surfing conditions and lack of funding, that Welsh surfers are highly competitive and capable of creating upsets.
The team is made up of 2 women – Joanne Dennison and Emily Williams; and 4 men – Harry Cromwell, Alex Morris, Mark Vaughan and Rob Webster-Blythe; along with team manager Stuart Bentley, who had this to say.

“Despite a number of first team absentees and a slightly senior feel, the men’s team have great experience, which should ensure we offer a challenge to the full time pro’s our guys will compete against. Our ladies, Jo and Emily have been competing internationally for sometime, are highly capable athletes, are our current Welsh number one and two, who perhaps offer our best chance in the event. I’m very excited about the week ahead.”

With Wave pool technology such as that adopted by Surf Snowdonia, surfing’s reach is growing inland and towards major UK cities. It’s not out of the question that in years to come that a world surfing champion may just as likely hail from Wrexham as Hawaii.

The WSF would like to thank long-term sponsors MiPost and McLays as well as Billabong for their support.
We wish the team every success at the games.

Live coverage will be available on the ISA website here.
We will keep you updated with heat schedules when possible..