Mid-May and a new season of Junior Surf Club begins. There was a huge turn-out of eager surfers to celebrate our first session of 2026 and a cool early Spring morning did not dampen the enthusiasm. Harris and his team welcomed some new faces as well as many familiar ones, and by 9 o’clock the groups were moving down the beach to get cracking. It was a delight to see that many of our very youngest surfers had retained the skills they had acquired last year and were instantly up and riding. Inspiring stuff! Here are a few pictures from that opening session.
Saints Boardriders clubhouse welcomed the British Longboard Union to Porthmeor again last weekend for the much-anticipated Porthmeor Classic. This has become an annual fixture on the longboard tour recently and brings a fresh early season vibe to the beach as we prepare for a summer of surfing action at Porthmeor. The clubhouse balcony offered a perfect judging platform for the officials and our very own St. Ives Surf Lifesaving Club took care of water safety cover for the weekend. And with the Boardriders kiosk faultlessly providing a refuelling station right on the car park there was really no need to leave the scene to enjoy a fun weekend in St. Ives.
Waves and tide offered a seamless canvas for competitors to entertain us with the full range of longboarding skills and the whole event progressed perfectly to a finish and an award ceremony late Sunday afternoon to round out a successful weekend of sporting excellence. Thanks for bringing the show to St. Ives once again guys, and as we bid “Good Luck” to the British Longboard Union for their coming season of events, we keenly anticipate doing it all again in 2027. There are a few pictures of the event below, including the final one which shows Minnow Green celebrating his 30 years in the vanguard of the sport leading the crowd in a vigorous ” Oggy Oggy Oggy! ” The british-longboard-union.co.uk/ website and their Facebook page has more comprehensive coverage of the event and the sport. Pay them a visit and share their enthusiasm for a life-enhancing sport!
It was a long Winter and feels so good to be writing and email about the start of this years Junior Surf Club which will kick off in a few weeks time. The first session will take place on Saturday 16th May.
As always the team at St Ives Surf School will run the sessions on our behalf from their home on the sand at Porthmeor. The sessions do not run every week due to the tides so please check the dates below.
Here’s the plan – subject as always to the weather on the day:
2026 Junior Surf Club dates:
16th May
30th May
13th June
27th June
11th July
25th July
8th August
22nd August
5th September
12th September
19th September – Awards / Comp day
There will be 9am sessions and 10am every week.
9am – Nemo , Dory and Tuna
10am – Swordfish and Sharks
GROUPS
To keep things simple all of our groups are allocated by school year with the exception of Sharks which is our advanced mixed age group.
NEMO – Reception and Year 1 (Parent helper required in the water)
DORY – Year 2 and 3 (Parent helper required in the water)
SWORDFISH – Year 4,5 and 6
DOLPHIN – Year 7+
SHARK – Mixed ages, Advanced
MEMBERSHIP (Required)
Prior to booking weekly sessions you will need to make sure you have a valid Saints Boardriders membership for all participating Children. Without a valid membership, we are unable to accept any bookings.
It is essential to book a minimum of 24 hours in advance using the online booking system on our website. This really helps the guys at the Surf School to allocate the correct number of coaches each week and allow for more surfing time in the water! You will have the option to book per week or for multiple sessions at once, If you book up for the whole season (10 sessions) you will only pay £4 per session : )
The senior divisions of the English National Surf Championships were finally held at Fistral Beach, Newquay last week after three previous attempts this year were defeated by stormy conditions. St. Ives’ Jayce Robinson thought he might give it a go, some years after his last competitive outings. He has a tremendous pedigree in his history, comprising a win at Newquay Boardmasters, several National and UK titles as both a senior and a junior, and successes in Europe in his junior career too. Jayce can be seen styling at Porthmeor on every local swell but after a while away from the cutting edge of the sport he wondered how he might measure up against today’s national elite.
Well, it seems that he had lost none of his old heat strategy and competitive nous as he progressed smoothly to the final where he overcame his biggest test in winning the prize, taking down current double Boardmasters title holder Lucas Skinner, England team coach, Luke Dillon and current England international Heath Gillespie . The banner picture, courtesy of Surfing England, shows the post-heat podium . There is the video of the mens and womens final on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6mJLXDer1c
Well done Jayce! We never doubted that you still had what it takes!
Our last session of the summer is always a bitter/sweet event. We can feel the summer slipping into cooler days, but we are reluctant to call an end to our joyful surfing Saturdays. However, as previous years have taught us, we always manage to go out on a high. And this day was no exception. It was a very wet affair, both for the surfers and for the parents and others watching on the beach. There were few breaks from the driving rain, so our picture count of the contest is low, and there was no opportunity to catch the last nippers sessions on camera. As the hooter sounded on the final heat of the day everyone retired to the clubhouse to dry out and to learn the results of the contest and to share out the celebratory medals and the group accolades of 2025. The BBQ was already sizzling away on the balcony, a heady end-of-term brewing.
The clubhouse ceremony started with our St. Ives Surf School coaches reviewing their group progress for the year and making the tricky selections of prizewinners among their charges. There were celebratory medals for all participants and group photos after each summation. The chart below has the details:
Nemo – ages 4 to 5
Most Improved: Edie
Most Dedicated: Howie
Surfer of the Summer: Oscar
Dory – Ages 6 to 8
Most Improved: Mila
Most Dedicated: Otis
Surfer of the Summer: Josie
Swordfish – Ages 8 to 11
Most Improved: Emily
Most Dedicated: Lottie
Surfer of the Summer: Rosie
Dolphins – Ages 11 to 16 – Improvers
Most Improved: Dennick siblings – Noah, Ben and Anna
Most Dedicated: Joe
Surfer of the Summer: Solomon
Sharks – Ages 11 to 16 – Advanced
Most Improved: Jimmy
Most Dedicated: Reuben
Surfer of the Summer: Jude
And then our heroic contest judges, who had spent over two hours in the rain at the water’s edge scrutinising heat after heat, stepped forward to read the results of the Girls Final and the Open Final.
Elyse took the Girls gold with Lottie and Anne bringing in the silver and bronze. The Open Final was taken with a buzzer-beater of a wave by Bobby to deny Elyse a double success with Reuben and Joe in the minor placings.
Our thanks for the day’s event goes to St. Ives Surf School and their magnificent coaches, to our judges Steve, Joely, Teddy and Head Judge Jonny who steered the contest smoothly through a drizzly dank morning with humour and flair to give our novice surfers a taste of competitive surfing. To our BBQ wizards, who could ace any TV chef for enthusiasm, and to Tregenna Castle who supplied the bangers and rolls on the day. More generally, our season relied on The St. Ives Surf School for it’s booking system and coaches and it’s willingness to bring the joy of surfing to the children of the town who are lucky enough to grow up by the sea. Thanks also to those parents and helpers ( Are they secretly called ‘Penguins’ by the surfers and coaches? ) who keep everything rolling, battle the parking wars at Porthmeor Car Park on summer Saturdays and create that club vibe with their camps on the day. We offer our thanks, as always, to the RNLI lifeguards whose co-operation has been a welcome prop to our days from the very beginning of our club. We derive the greatest satisfaction when we see some of our alumni graduate to lifeguarding or becoming surf coaches at the school – in a small way we are giving back for their investment in us as youngsters in earlier days! Porthmeor Beach management continue to encourage and help us and we are ever grateful for their support.
So it’s ‘See you next year!’ when we can do it all over again. It’s been a blast!
