A South Milton surfer is thrilled to be selected for the 2018 ISA World Longboard Championships in Wanning, China.

Ben Howey will be competing in China in mid January next year at the left hand point break of Riyue Bay located on Hainan Island along the coast of China.

“I’m really excited to get out there and compete on a good wave as it will really allow for some high performance surfing and will be good viewing!”

The ex-KCC student started surfing down at Bantham Beach at the age of six and has never looked back, continuing his passion for the last 23 years.

His competitive career started about ten years ago and this year he competed on the European Tour finishing 7th with fellow team mate Ben Skinner finishing 16th.

“I was happy with this result, but a few decisions didn’t go my way meaning I didn’t finish as high as I wanted to,” said Howey.

“I came back to the UK and won the Jesus Classic Longboard contest with a final heat total of 18.27/20, which built my confidence again.”

The selection made by Surfing England, the surfing national governing body, was made shortly after this competition, revealing that Ben had been chosen as part of a four athlete team, made up of two men and two women.

“The level of longboarding in the UK is high,” said Ben, describing how one of his fellow team mates heading out to China finished second in the world and the whole team continually finish in the top 10 in Europe.

Consequently, Ben believes that, “we have a real chance of bringing back some silverware.”

“The contest is being held on a left hand point break so my training will involve lots of trips to North Devon to surf similar waves.

“I have just returned from a trip to Bali where I have been surfing some more similar waves.”

Ben is hopeful that because Surfing England now has a national governing body status, some funding could be available to help push the UKs longboard talent to national and international level.

An important factor of Ben’s success is Xcel wetsuits, Skindog Surfboards and Dryobe who have sponsored him throughout his whole career and made all this possible. Additionally, Ben would like to thank Plymouth University for their support and he hopes they will give him time off his PhD to compete.

The team will self-fund to attend the event and would welcome any sponsors to get involved and join them on the journey.