SURF Kayaking is an exciting and rapidly growing genre of paddling, which involves specialist light weight craft, usually carbon fibre, a good knowledge of surfing and an understanding of waves, writes Sam Davenport.

Competitors are judged in several heats, each heat normally consisting of four people.

The marking criteria is subjective and based on length of ride, style and the number of manoeuvres on a given wave. Each competitor must ride the wave to its full potential making fast dynamic moves such as top and bottom turns, cut backs and aerial manoeuvres.

My trip to the World Championships started on the Monday September 25 flying out of Heathrow to Washington. I had been selected to be a part of the England Surf Kayaking Team for 2011 and I had also entered for the individual world championship title in the High performance and International class.

For the full report, and a round up of the area news and sport, please see this week's edition of the 'Post'.