This was how the heats turned out. Mark Boyd (SCO) in heat 1 and Chris Noble (SCO) in heat 17. Unfortunately this year both of us failed to progress through to the next round but it was good fun again competing against some of the best surfers in the world and learning a bit from the experience. I was absolutely astounded by the paddle fitness of these guys and their ability to hassle every wave off you - im sure Chris will agree that this fitness is much more noticable on a longer wave like thurso-east than it was at previous years at the bowl, and I thought I was pretty paddle fit after all the surfing I have been doing on the lead up to the comp. The one set wave I did manage to get on I scored a 3.8, but Dion Atkinson the heat leader at the time wasn't going to give it to me easily - he paddled me much deeper than I would normally be comfortable taking off and due to the paddle battle that I had just encountered I was still trying to get my breath back during my bottom turn. Much more heat strategy than I had anticipated and getting the waves in a 4 man heat seems to be just as important, if not more important, than surfing them - watch oot at the Scottish next year boys!
Check out some footage of the surfing at thurso-east:
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