http://www.surfcaribe.com

Prev|Nextshow thumbshide thumbs

Standout Akeem Taylor was on fire so much during the final that he injured his knee and had to settle for fourth place.

With a strong backside attack Armani Green was able to stave off the three goofy footers for third place.

The perfect conditions were tailor made for the dynamic surfing of 2010 Jamaican Junior National Champion Garren Pryce.

Second place finisher Ivah Wilmot was also making minced meat of the small Lighthouse surf.

The finalists and next generation of Jamaican surfing talent, from left; Garren Pryce, Ivah Wilmot, Armani Green, and Akeem Taylor.

By Billy Wilmot

On Saturday July 21st, the Lighthouse surfing beach at Plumb Point on the Palisadoes strip was the stage for the final act of the Jamaica Surfing Association’s 2010 National Junior Surfing Championship series. The three event series started on July 11 at the Ranch surfing beach in Portland with the second event being held at Long Bay on the 7 August.

The Lighthouse provided small but perfect waves for the island’s top under 18 surfers to display their talents. Eleven surfers registered for the event that saw three rounds of competition. The winds were light offshore making for extremely favorable conditions and the surfers took full advantage of the smooth water surface.

The first round saw three twenty minute heats narrowing the field for the semi finals. With two withdrawals in the semifinals the top four surfers from the round paddled out for the 20-minute final. Garren Pryce, Ivah Wilmot, Armani Green, and Akeem Taylor had proven themselves the best surfers of the day and twenty minutes more would determine who would collect the 1000 points on offer for first place.

The horn sounded and the young athletes did their best to impress the judges. Garren caught a lovely wave and proceeded to display all his best moves. Akeem got a nice set wave and destroyed it with quick slashing turns. Ivah caught a smaller wave that seemed to develop as it ran down the beach providing him with numerous options for high scoring turns. Armani latched on to a number of very good-looking waves and executed a nice repertoire of maneuvers.

As the time wound down Akeem caught a lovely wave and in the middle of one particularly vicious turn strained his knee and had to retire from the heat. This left a three way battle for the best waves with all three catching nice set waves and pulling impressive moves.

When the final horn sounded the scores were tallied and the results were announced. In first place was Garren Pryce, second Ivah Wilmot, third Armani Green, all of Bull Bay in Saint Andrew, and fourth Akeem Taylor of Boston Bay.

National Junior Championship Series #3

The points earned from this event were totaled with the points earned by the surfers from the previous two events in the series and a National Junior Surfing Champion was declared. Here is the final 2010 Jamaica National Junior Surfing Championship ranking.

2010 National Junior Surfing Championship Series Results