Porthtowan surf boat team head south to the world championships in NZ

I just thought I would put up a quick post on behalf of a friend of mine called Nick Healey from Porthtowan Surf Boat team. I went out for a sunday roast with him and Lizzie last night and it came up in conversation that he was shortly heading out to New Zealand to compete in the world surf boat championships (like that sort of comment comes up in conversation every day!)
I was taken aback that I hadn't heard anything about this on the news or in the local papers and it made me wonder just how many sports we have in Britain where by we have teams which compete at international level and excel against the worlds best.

Here we have a tiny surfing village on the North Cornish coast going up to represent Britain and compete against the worlds very best at an international event, lack of financial support and minimal sponsorship means that the team will have to pretty much fund the venture themselves which (A) shows a massive amount of commitment on their behalf, but (B) also indicates to me just how much we support some of the more widely recognised sports, but have little in the way of help in other lesser known activities of which we in the sea kayaking world are also no doubt aware of.

The team from Porthtowan will be the only British team competing against the world's best in a country where surf boat rowing is as popular as soccer, they will not however be going to NZ as complete under dogs, they are the current european champions. How great an achievement would it be if they came home with a medal or two, with approximately 6000 competitors the odds are certainly stacked against them, but knowing how hard these guys have trained and committed they are, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a little bit of bling floating around North Cornwall again in the not to distant future.

For more information on the team where you can show your support, view video and images of them all in action go to:

http://www.porthtowansurfboat.com//