Another Red Alert – Put This Date in Your Surfing Calendar

From the 11th – 19th October, Costa de Caparica in Portugual will be hosting the ISA World Surfing Games, one of the world’s most important surfing competitions.

Costa de Caparica is 13km of beautiful beaches located on the central Portuguese coastline, half an hour away from Lisbon International Airport. It is a chain of very consistent left and right beach breaks with swells that come from the south and west with different variations. The waves start to break at a half metre or more, and can support up to 8-feet swells.

They are busy preparing themselves for the spectacle that begins in less than a month.

The event holders are expecting about 300 surfers from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Tahiti, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay and the host nation.

This competition brings surfers from around the world together for the twentieth time to test their skills against their fellow participants. ISA President, Fernando Aguerre, speaking for Portugal, says: “We are very happy and honored to bring the ISA World Surfing Games to Portugal for the second time in history.”

The competition was first held in 1964 in Sydney, Australia and both main titles were won by Australians, Bernard “Midget” Farrelly and Phyllis O´Donnell. 15 World Championships followed until, in 1976, the ISF (International Surfing Federation) took over the event. The ISF is recognised by the Internation Olympic Committee (IOC) as the world governing authority for surfing, bodyboarding and surfriding and it is the ISA (International Surfing Association) which supervises the world championships.

Portugal first held this competition in 1998. The Portuguese Federation and the event producer, Natural Factor, organised a superb ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in 2007. “We are very confident in their ability to deliver a top level event. I’m sure that all delegations will enjoy the Portuguese hospitality and friendship,” they said.

There will be medals in the following categories:

Open Men – four members per team
Open Women – two members per team
Bodyboard Men – two members per team
Bodyboard Women – one member per team
Longboard – one member per team

To refresh your memories, the defending champions are:

Jordy Smith from South Africa in Open Men
Julia Christian of the United States in Open Women
Manuel Centeno of Portugal in Bodyboard Men
Kira Llewellyn from Australia in Bodyboard Women
Mathew Moir from South Africa in Longboard

]

Thanks to Manulaboy for this video on 18 year old Jordy Smith.

A word of advice from the ISA:

ELIGIBILITY FOR PARTICIPATION RULES
Surfers interested in participating in ISA surf events MUST contact their country’s National Governing Body (NGB). If your country does not have an NGB representative, please contact the ISA. Should you wish to find out more about ISA Events Open for Bidding, please contact ISA Headquarters, surf@isasurf.org

Fancy Giving Scuba Diving A Go? HURRY – time is running out!

For all of you who live in the UK, have you heard that BSAC (British Sub-Aqua Club) are actively encouraging newcomers to try scuba diving?

As part of this year’s National Try Dive event BSAC branches across the UK have a September Special on offer… for £10 you can have a lesson in a pool with a qualified BSAC instructor. You still have time to sign up for the Try Dive which takes place from the 24th – 30th September.

“It is ideal for anyone who has always wanted to try out scuba and is the first step towards learning to dive,” says BSAC. “Try Dive participants are offered a lesson, which includes poolside tuition on diving skills and equipment, followed by diving in the pool. Almost anyone from the age of 12 is welcome to come and learn to dive with BSAC.”

So why would you want to spend £10 on a wet and drizzly, cold and damp day in early autumn in Britain?

Well … because you can dream about hot sunny beaches, blue skies, coconut palms and an unbelievable plethora of marine life to be absorbed and enjoyed….

Does that not sound a good enough reason? I mean, how cool is this?

my thanks to Rebecca at Rebox671 Flikr for this wonderful photo

Then again, and here I offer my apologies to anyone in England who might have been offended by my suggestion that it might be a miserable day (!)…  it could, of course, be a beautiful Indian summer day and then what better way to spend it!

We have talked a lot about scuba diving on this blog and, as you might have gathered, we love it! But we have also erred on the side of caution in our advice to anyone reading our articles that it is a very good idea to get a proper license for scuba diving – something more thorough than a quick holiday course. Water, after all, is not our natural element – and it is best to partake in the best possible training before finning down to great depths. Which is what makes this offer so interesting – not only does it introduce you to scuba diving but it also introduces you to an esteemed scuba diving license. BSAC, PADI and NAUI are probably the most recognised licenses worldwide.

Refresher courses are also a good thing. I got my BSAC license and then didn’t dive for 2 years. The next time I got into the ocean I couldn’t believe how little I remembered – and how close to panic one could become! It was a good wake-me-up call.

So, if you haven’t done it and have always wanted to, I suggest you get hold of your closest BSAC club very quickly – it’s an offer not worth ignoring.

To find out more information about Try Dive with BSAC 2008 phone the club free on 0500 947 202 or check out their website: http://www.bsac.com and register online.