CAUSLEY House’s Nathan Rossiter describes how he and Archie Clarke (Hepworth House) have been making serious waves in surf kayaking.

Nathan said: “Having been selected for the England surf kayaking team, we travelled to Portrush in Northern Ireland to take part in the Home Internationals against teams from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“The competition started in poor weather conditions with a very strong offshore wind, making paddling very difficult. The competition consists of two types of boats, High Performance (HP) Shortboat, and International Class (IC) Longboat. I was selected to paddle the IC Longboat and Archie the HP Shortboat. Being by far the youngest competitors and this being our first international competition, we were both very nervous but performed very well; I came third and Archie fourth, contributing valuable points to the overall England team score.

“Our team consisted of the current men’s IC World Champion and the British Junior IC and HP champion, and the overall quality of the team was evident when the final scores were announced, with England in first place. A very proud moment for us.

“The British Individual Championship was due to follow the International competition later in the week but due to a very poor surf forecast, giving only about two or three hours of good surf on the weekend, the competition had to be cancelled and it was decided to run just a junior competition to give us experience.

“Archie and I were entered in both classes of boat, and I was amazed to find that I had finished second against much older competitors in both classes, with Archie finishing a very good fourth.

“The presentation evening on Thursday night was very exciting and we felt so proud to be part of the winning team.

“On the Friday, with no competition planned, we were able to have a ‘ tourist day’, giving us a chance to see local sights. We went to the Giants Causeway, a volcanic rock feature which was stunning, before the long journey home on Saturday.

“The British Championships have been rescheduled for March 2017 here in Cornwall and will take place at Sandymouth Beach near Bude, before we again travel to Portrush in Northern Ireland next October to take part in the World Championships.”