With their backs to the shore, four surfers floated, watching wave after wave roll in to Apple Bay on Dec. 21.
They didn’t know it yet, but their individual performances that day would secure them each a place on the Virgin Islands’ National Surfing Team, positioning them to represent the territory internationally over the coming year.
In custom jerseys emblazoned with the logo of the recently formed BVI National Surfing Association (BVINSA), Zebedee Bamford and Rush Broderick were fighting to preserve their place on the team, while brothers Danny and Oli Henderson competed alongside them.
Messrs. Bamford and Broderick previously competed alongside former teammate Teshawn Jones in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, last February for the International Surfing Association World Surfing Games, but a scheduling conflict forced Mr. Jones to put his place on the team up for grabs.
According to Mr. Jones, he’d planned a surf trip to Puerto Rico before the BVINSA announced last month’s contest, but he warned whoever took his place that he would return.
“Whoever wants it, it’s yours,” Mr. Jones said Dec. 16. “But I will be coming back for it — I’ve worked hard to get it.”
The inaugural BVI National Surfing Championship at Apple Bay took place a week after Mr. Broderick won the class for boys ages 12-17 at the Josiahs Bay Surf Classic hosted by Surf School BVI.
In the Dec. 21 Apple Bay championship, the 17-year-old went on to win both the open and closed contests, retaining his spot on the national team and winning $1,000 in prize money.
“It’s a dream come true, really,” Mr. Broderick said after the awards ceremony at Sebastian’s on the Beach. “I was quite nervous about this day. I had a lot of thoughts going through my mind, but I just went out there and did my best, and I’m lucky enough to be able to say that I won.”
Three classes
Collectively, there were three available classes in the competition. The men’s and women’s open contests saw competitors from as far as New York, while the men’s closed contest was limited to Virgin Islander surfers competing for a spot on the national team.
The top places in both the men’s and women’s open each received $1,000.
“There was no women’s closed as only two eligible women applied,” said Tom Chapman, who was acting chairman of the BVINSA at the time of the contest.
“Those two surfed in the open with two others in a single heat final in a more sensible format than having just a one-on-one heat for a closed.”
After congratulating the surfers on their achievements, Mr. Chapman told the Beacon after the contest that residents can plan for a second annual championship next winter.
“There will 100 percent be a national championship next year,” said Mr. Chapman, who this week reverted to his original position of BVINSA secretary when Bryon Russ was elected chairman at the association’s annual general meeting on Monday. “Whether it’s held at Apple Bay, the question is kind of out of my hands.”
Controversy
In the weeks leading up to the Dec. 21 contest, discontent brewed among many surfers who disagreed with holding the championship there.
“Everyone’s got their opinion. I thought [Apple Bay] was a great location to have it,” Mr. Chapman said. “I live here in the community, and we love to surf Apple — it’s very consistent. Josiahs Bay has its own contest already run by the surf school, and we don’t want to step on their toes.”
(Photos: RUSHTON SKINNNER)
‘A lot of heat’
Still, he acknowledged that he took “a lot of heat” from surfers who disagreed with the choice.
For many VI surfers, however, that “heat” was needed to keep the contest community-focused, according BVINSA member Tiara Jones.
Like many other surfers in the territory, Ms. Jones said she became concerned when she heard that the contest would be a major event that could bring international attention to the surf break. Across Facebook and WhatsApp, surfers expressed similar concerns in public and private groups.
“We’re a very small surf community, and it’s always been that way,” Ms. Jones said. “Obviously, we’ve always had the tourists that do come down here, but a lot of the fear for a lot of locals who have been here for a long time was that having an international contest would put us more out there in the world, and they were scared that more people would come here and it would destroy what we have.”
Wes Markin was also on vacation from South Carolina, but decided to compete for the $1,000 in prize money for the men’s heats as well during the inaugural BVI National Surf Championship. (Photo: RUSHTON SKINNER)
Scaled down
Partly because of the discontent, Mr. Chapman said he was convinced to reduce the scale of the Dec. 21 contest.
“It’s not that it was planned to be bigger: It’s more that plans were floated amongst the executive board for a bigger event in the early stages of concept,” Mr. Chapman said. “Board members at the time objected to a large event and indicated preference for an event of limited numbers.”
Mr. Russ, the new BVINSA chairman elected Monday, told the Beacon Wednesday that he will work to organise the annual championship without “blowing up the spot.”
“My job, and the reason why I was voted in, is to really control it from becoming a big, commercialised fiasco,” Mr. Russ said. “We just want to try out the kids, but at the same time preserve Apple Bay as a relaxing surf break for all. We just don’t want it to turn into a zoo.”
Surf etiquette
Asked to explain how one minds their manners in surf culture, Ms. Jones said many of the unspoken rules come down to priority in the water.
“Sometimes you get tourists who come down here, and they’re just absolutely horrible and just don’t care,” Ms. Jones said. “There’s this thing called ‘priority’ where a person who’s been out waiting the longest, the next wave that comes through, usually that will be their wave. … So sometimes we’ll get tourists who’ll completely disregard that: They’ll go for whatever wave they want, cutting locals off. That’s just not something we really want to see here.”
In any case, Ms. Jones said the BVINSA’s membership — which expanded during the recent controversy from less than 20 to nearly 100 people — should vote on future major decisions like the site of next winter’s national championship.
Family affair
For Mr. Broderick, last month’s championship was a family affair.
His father, Alistair Broderick, commentated and deejayed each of the heats from the shade of Sebastian’s beachside patio, and his sister Tola created the artwork that was featured on the limited-time apparel available for sale.
“I looked at a lot of reference pictures of Sebastian’s [on the Beach],” Ms. Broderick said. “But a lot of the stylised things and the texture: that came from 1970s French surfing posters.”
Ms. Broderick, who started working on the project months before the Dec. 21 contest, was also present for her brother’s winning heats.
“I’m so proud,” she said. “He’s always been good, and he’s always been so passionate, but the amount of improvement he has done in the last two years is crazy.”
