O’Neill Highland Open Surfing Competition in Scotland
The O’Neill Highland Open will be held for a second time at the famous Thurso East reef break on the British mainland. Since last year, the Open has been taken to the next level and is now graded as a maximum prime six star WQS competition. In the United Kingdom the O’Neill Open is now considered the biggest professional surfing event with as many as 144 professional surfers taking place.
The O’Neill Highland Open has gained a lot of recognition for the progress it has made to produce surfing events of an international standard. Thurso East reef break is a great place to hold this prestigious event, as it boasts steady overhead swells where international competitors can display their moves for the judges.
Last year, British surfer Russell Winter took the event by storm when he not only won the Highland Open surfing competition, but he did so with a perfect ten. This year the event will be held from the 24th of April to the first of May and will be sponsored by SWATCH. The event will have an added twist with local Chris Noble, the winner of the Scottish Championships at Brimms Ness, taking part as a wildcard. He will have the challenge of competing against world-renowned surfers who are internationally recognized for their talents in this sport.
The ladies section of the Scottish Surfing Championships saw Jill Noble and Angie Fraser win the event respectively. Then on the junior side it was Ewan Fraser who took first place and Iain Scott with second place.
Of all the surfing competitions to be held on the WQS tour, it is here at the Thurso East reef in Scotland where surfers not only have to battle it out with huge waves but where they also have to contend with the intense cold. But with the grand prize of $125, 000 and the famous Highland Open sword trophy most surfers won’t even notice the cold or the weather conditions on the day. That is not all, those who win also qualify at the end of the event to participate in the second O’Neill surfing competition, which will be held in Tahiti’s beautiful warm waters.
