Eastwood leads home surfers’ challenge

The surprise package of them all, however, was Sam George who, in finishing second behind England’s junior champion, Oli Adams, pushed seeded surfer, Scott Rannachan, from north Devon, into third place and out of the competition.Only the top two surfers from each heat went through to the next round which begins today when the top seeded eight surfers join the contest.They include last year’s winner in Jersey, Spencer Hargreaves, last year’s overall tour winner, Mark Harris, and talented South African Llewellyn Whittaker.However, after yesterday’s closing first round, the one surfer who seems to have the edge on the competition and the surf is England’s Russell Winter, who achieved scores of nine-plus in his heat, even though the waves were down to as little as 1-ft high at times.Winter must be in with a chance, for although he is not seeded one to eight, that is purely because he missed last year’s tour to take part in the world championships.Also surfing well yesterday was John Fryer, British junior champion, who won his heat with eights, while seven Jersey surfers made it through to tomorrow’s competition by finishing second.They are Sam George, Andy Cummins, James Hick, Ben Chapman, Fabian Baker, André Le Geyt and Christian Boletta.Only Scott Eastwood won his heat, but this year he is determined to finish in the top 16 of the 150-plus surfers who compete on the tour.Currently lying in 22nd place, if he does finish 16th or higher, he will win a free trip to Sri Lanka.Action was scheduled to start this morning at 9 am with the Headworx BPSA Juniors.