Shama Beckford won the first event of the 2012 Jamaica Surfing Association’s (JSA) National Junior Surfing Championship Series, which was held at the Roselle surfing beach in St Thomas on July 7. Akeem Taylor finished second, while Ivah Wilmot secured third place. Last year’s junior champion Garren Pryce was forth, and Conrad Smith and Okeen Thompson finished joint fifth. A total of sixteen under-18 surfers were registered for the event.

In the final, a dying swell presented the challenge of finding a scoring wave. The heat featured the best junior surfers in the country and each one wanted to secure the 1000 points on offer in the season opener. The sets were long in coming and after five minutes without any action the heat was restarted. The surfers then caught a flurry of 24 waves, and the lead changed hands on a number of occasions. As the heat wound down, Shama caught a beautiful wave that shot him into the lead. He followed it up with another good score to finish on top.

From left: Shama Beckford (winner), Akeem Taylor, Ivah Wilmot and Garren Pryce