This weekend will see thousands of students from all over the UK descend on Newquay for a packed weekend of surfing in the Brittany Ferries BUSA (British Universities Sports Association) Surfing Championships in association with GUL and Skinners. The 2, 3 & 4 March will see a continual contest schedule as over 400 students fight it out to become the top individual student surfers and the top university teams in the first British Surfing Association (BSA) contest of the year.

Depending on the conditions, the event will be held at either Fistral or Towan and in conjunction with a host of top sponsors including Brittany Ferries, GUL and Skinners Brewery, the BSA and BUSA will provide all the necessary infrastructure for the contest.

Last year’s event saw a phenomenal Men’s entry with 71 Men’s teams in total. The eventual winners were the team from Plymouth University, closely followed by Exeter and in the Women’s event Plymouth University took first place with the Marjons receiving second. In the individual winners Matt Le Maitre from Jersey, surfing for Plymouth University was the Men’s champion and Shauna Ward from Ulster was the victor in the Women’s event.

For 2007, a new team from University College Falmouth will also be in the running and with University Surfing on a continual rise, exciting action and an impressive level of Surfing is expected throughout the weekend.

Prizes will be supplied by Brittany Ferries and this year’s victors will win the chance to travel anywhere from a Brittany Ferries port in England to any port in France. Additional prizes will be supplied by GUL and Skinner’s Breweries.

A large number of supporters accompany the teams and after the day’s Surfing events are over, there’s plenty for the students to do in Newquay. Gul will be running lots of great promotions on its wetsuits, neoprene accessories and clothing during the BUSA weekend in its store in the centre of town. There is 10% discount available with valid NUS cards or University Library/ID card and Overhead Surf Shop is also offering a 10% discount with the correct ID.

On the Friday night, a special party at Buzios will see a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band. On the Saturday, the students will also arrive en mass at an official Surf Championship party in association with Gul being held the Koola Club in Newquay. There are a range of drinks offers and a number of top DJ's who will be heading for the town especially for the weekend party.

Karen Walton, National Director of the BSA said, “The BUSA Championships always set the contest year off in style. It’s an amazing weekend and all of the students really go to town to support their counterparts in the water. We’re expecting to see some really top Surfing this weekend and I know all the guys are looking forward to the awesome post contest parties!”

BUSA is the governing body of university sport, running national competitions in 49 sports from Athletics to Windsurfing, and co-ordinating the Great Britain representative teams for the World University Games and World University Championships.

The BUSA Sporting programme draws on 1.4 million students with over 3500 teams engaged in BUSA competition on a typical sporting day. With over 600 leagues, it is the biggest such sporting programme in Europe. Fixtures and results from all BUSA competitions can be accessed at www.busa.org.uk.

Many university participants have gone on to achieve British and International success in their chosen sport, such as Paula Radcliffe, Monty Panesar, James Cracknell, Stephaine Cook, Nasser Hussain, Kate Howey, Audley Harrison, James Gibson and Will Greenwood.

Issued on behalf of the BSA by Excess EneRGy Communciations. For more information please contact Rhona Gardiner on Rhona@excessenergycomms.com or 07740 4410052.