THREE surfers from Bude recently competed in the ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador.

Stan Norman, Emily Currie and Ellie Turner, qualified after finishing in the top three of their respective categories at the British Championships in Thurso, Scotland, back in April, where representatives from England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands take their top four surfers.

The ISA World Surfing Games has 51 nations and about 250 surfers and acts as part of the Olympics qualifier.

Emily explains how the games worked.

She said: “We’re drawn into heats in our categories determined by our previous year’s ranking. In this year’s event the team put in some great performances and we finished 14th place, which is the highest ranking British Surfing team place in a long time.

“From the first heats, which has four surfers in each, two go through to the next round with the other two dropping into the repechage. Then it continues like that until the final.

“In the first heat I was drawn against the current ISA world champion from Peru, Sofia Mulanovich, and unfortunately I came third meaning I was in the repercharge.

“From there I won the next heat, came second in the heat after that which was against the ISA world champion and the same people as the first heat, after progressing through I unfortunately got knocked out of the heat after that.

“In the final heat I only caught one wave in the 20-minute heat because I had about 20, 8ft set waves hit me on the head, knocking me out of position meaning I only had eight minutes out of the 20 to impress the judges. The sea then went flat. All I had to do was get a small score, but it wasn’t to be.”

Emily admitted she learnt some valuable lessons as she looks forward to the rest of the year.

She said: “I didn’t perform as well as I’d have wanted to, I’d like to have done better. But it was a great experience competing against the top women in the world, and I’m confident I’ll do better next time.

“I’m already looking forward to Boardmasters in Newquay in August, and then I’m off to the USA in September to compete in three longboard WSL World Tour events.”

Ellie and Stan also did well in the Central American country.

Ellie got through to Repechage Five where she finished third, missing out on second to Uruguay’s Delfina Morosini by 1.16 points, while 18-year-old Stan, reached round three of the main competition.

Stan finished second in heat 22 of the men’s first round, before hammering out a score of 13.64 to win the second round.

In round three, he finished third, coming 1.73 points behind Indonesia’s I Ketut Agus Aditya Putra, who went on to finish in the final six.

Stan was placed in Repechage Four where he came third with a score of 6.3, just 0.87 behind Portugal’s Miguel Blanco in second.

Stan said: “I enjoyed some amazing heats out in El Salvador, even beating the world champion in one.

“I learnt so much out there, just being around such a great environment. The people were also incredible and I’m looking forward to building on it throughout the rest of the year.”