Bournemouth's surfing community is gearing up to welcome surfers from across the region to the annual South Coast Surfing Championship.

This year's venue is Boscombe Pier, Bournemouth home to the artificial surf reef currently under construction. A full turnout of over 100 competitors is expected over the two days of competition on the 22 and 23 November.

The South Coast Championships were started by the Isle of Wight Surf Club in the late 1960's. Since then it has become an annual event rotating between three surf clubs: Wessex, based in Bournemouth, Shore in East Wittering and the Isle of Wight.

This exciting event brings together the main surfing communities on the south coast in a weekend of friendly competition run to BSA rules.

This year the event is being organised by Wessex Surf Club and supported by Bournemouth Surfing Centre, Bournemouth Surf School and Bournemouth Council, through their new Seafront Sports Development Officer.

The South Coast Champs is an open event and covers all categories of surfing - Longboards, Shortboards and Bodyboards, along with all ages of rider from Juniors to Veterans and Ladies and Men, so a wide range of styles and talents will be on display.

Throughout the weekend there will be a number of board demos and a retro surf session taking place, so everything set up for the biggest surfing weekend of the year on the south coast.

A1Surf, the UK's leading community surfing website are the headline sponsors for this year. David Somerville from A1 said: "We are really pleased to be able to sponsor the South Coast Championships".

"We feel it's very important to support the surfing community through events and are really looking forward to the weekend."

Contest Director Paul Clarke said: "We've had an awesome start to the season here in Bournemouth and hope we can get the same classic swell for the contest".

"The South Coast Championship always brings out the best in the regions' surfers. We are expecting a large contingent from the Isle of Wight, Witterings and Brighton, so the competition will be fierce but fun".

"We expect to have 100- 200 competitors over the 8 categories with heats run over two days, finals and prize-giving to take place on Sunday afternoon."

A raft of local and national sponsors has already come forward with prizes, but if you would like to get involved please contact paul@bournemouth-surfing.co.uk

To enter the competition simple click HERE to download the entry form.

Call 0800 0437873 for more info.

South Coast Championships supported by: