Photo ISA, Mark Harris

Day four of the World Surfing Games at Huntington Beach, California, saw some disappointed faces amongst members of the Freespirit British Surf Team however hopes remain high for a strong overall team result. Two of the male surfers in the Open Team, Sam Lamiroy and Alan Stokes, are already through to the quarter finals and Johnny Fryer, from the Isle of Wight, has one more chance to make it into the quarters through his repercharge round. The repercharge is the round where surfers have one additional chance to make it through to the final heats

Unfortunately Cornish surfer Mark Harris, from Newquay, Cornwall, was knocked out of the repercharge during his heat and in now out of the running in the Men's Open. After his heat he commented, “It is obviously disappointing to be out of the contest, but I still think overall Britain has a good chance of going the distance.”

In the men’s bodyboarding rounds, Bjorn Storey, from Plymouth, Devon, and Damien Prisk, from West Cornwall, were both knocked out of the
repercharge heats. The first round of day four started well for Damien
who scored high points showing some of the most exciting bodyboarding manoeuvres possible. Bjorn also showed some extremely confident boarding moves with a high scoring wave but when he lacked a second good wave and was therefore also out of the contest.

Bjorn commented, “If I’d have been competing at home I probably wouldn’t have taken such a chance so early in my heat to get the high scoring wave that I did. Once I had that wave under my belt I felt more confident, but I just couldn’t pull it off.”

Female bodyboarder Gemma Harris, from Wales, is still in the competition and Ben Skinner, from Cornwall, is already through to the semi-finals of the Longboarding event.

Photo ISA, Damian Prisk