Ju­nior surfer Jyiell Lewis once again proved the strongest chal­lenger in the Boys' 18-and-Un­der cat­e­go­ry, when he took a top place fin­ish in the said di­vi­sion, when the Surf­ing As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (SATT) held its sec­ond na­tion­al tri­als for the year at Ba­lan­dra Bay, on Sun­day.Lewis, who hails from Ba­lan­dra, has been im­prov­ing steadi­ly and used his lo­cal knowl­edge of the surf break to al­so gain a spot in the fi­nals of the Men's Di­vi­sion. In the Boys' U-18 Di­vi­sion, he de­feat­ed El­ton John, al­so of Ba­lan­dra, by con­nect­ing a va­ri­ety of turns in the tricky con­di­tions.

This es­tab­lished for­mat of com­pe­ti­tion has long been a means for the SATT to main­tain a points stand­ing sys­tem for lo­cal surfers.In windy, chest-to-head-high wave con­di­tions, surfers com­pet­ed in the Men's Open, the Women's Open and the Boys' 18-and-Un­der Di­vi­sions.The Women's di­vi­sion saw the con­sis­tent young­ster Jor­dan Van Reeken tak­ing the top spot over the more ex­pe­ri­enced Kathy-Ann Smith, who was un­able to find two strong waves in the shifty beach break con­di­tions.The Mens' Open fea­tured surfers of a wide ex­pe­ri­ence range and ages.

Ab­sent na­tion­al cham­pi­on Chris Den­nis left his usu­al­ly oc­cu­pied spot in the fi­nal for an­oth­er surfer to cap­i­talise on. Both Lewis and Shane Hen­ne­man seized the op­por­tu­ni­ty and were re­ward­ed with spot in the fi­nal heat.Vet­er­an surfer Che Lovelace man­aged to bat­tle his way through the field to meet Lewis, Hen­ne­man and even­tu­al win­ner Jesse Jarvis in the fi­nal.Jarvis sep­a­rat­ed him­self from the field with a se­ries of strong rides, gain­ing mo­men­tum as the 20 minute heat pro­gressed.

Re­sults

Open Men

First- Jesse Jarvis

Sec­ond- Che Lovelace

Third- Shane Hen­ne­man

Fourth- Jyiell Lewis

Open Women

First- Jor­dan Van Reeken

Sec­ond- Kathy-Ann Smith

Third- Ash­leigh Spiers

Fourth- Zoe Van Reeken

Boys Un­der-18

First- Jyiell Lewis

Sec­ond- El­ton John

Third- Shane Spiers

Fourth- Andy Lewis