Six­teen-year-old surf­ing sen­sa­tion Aiden Al­ba­da dom­i­nat­ed the waves at Beach Break, Sans Souci, To­co, on the week­end June 21-22, claim­ing the cov­et­ed Open event ti­tle at the an­nu­al Na­tion­al Surf­ing Com­pe­ti­tion host­ed by the Surf­ing As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (SurfTT).

In a re­mark­able dis­play of skill and de­ter­mi­na­tion, Al­ba­da al­so se­cured vic­to­ry in the Ju­niors (Un­der 18) di­vi­sion, ce­ment­ing his sta­tus as the ris­ing star in the lo­cal surf­ing scene.

The pris­tine con­di­tions at Beach Break pro­vid­ed an ide­al can­vas for the na­tion's top surfers to show­case their tal­ent, draw­ing a pas­sion­ate crowd of spec­ta­tors. The com­pe­ti­tion, a high­light of the lo­cal sport­ing cal­en­dar, saw fierce but friend­ly ri­val­ry across mul­ti­ple cat­e­gories, all vy­ing for the pres­ti­gious na­tion­al cham­pi­on ti­tles.

While Cal­i­for­nia-based Al­ba­da was the un­de­ni­able stand­out, oth­er di­vi­sions saw im­pres­sive per­for­mances from sea­soned vet­er­ans. Kei­th Lewis demon­strat­ed his mas­tery of the waves, tak­ing home the ti­tle in the Mas­ters di­vi­sion. In the Long­board cat­e­go­ry, Do­minic Thomas show­cased his flu­id style and con­trol to emerge vic­to­ri­ous. The Grand­mas­ters (over 50) di­vi­sion saw Sean Moruf ride to glo­ry, prov­ing that ex­pe­ri­ence and pas­sion con­tin­ue to thrive in the sport.

"It was an in­cred­i­ble day of surf­ing, and the wave qual­i­ty and com­pe­ti­tion shows that beach break is back!" said Surf­ing As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Ronald Ri­ley. This sen­ti­ment was mir­rored by var­i­ous lo­cals who re­call lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions host­ed at Sans Souci in the past.

Ri­ley con­tin­ued: "The tal­ent on dis­play, es­pe­cial­ly from young surfers like Aiden, bodes well for the fu­ture of the sport in our is­lands. We ex­tend our con­grat­u­la­tions to all the win­ners and par­tic­i­pants for mak­ing this year's Na­tion­al Com­pe­ti­tion such a re­sound­ing suc­cess."

Al­ba­da will con­tin­ue his quest for glo­ry at the USA NSSA (Na­tion­al Scholas­tic Surf­ing As­so­ci­a­tion) Na­tion­als event in Hunt­ing­ton Beach, Cal­i­for­nia, this week­end. He al­so looks for­ward to com­pet­ing in the ISA World Ju­nior Surf­ing games lat­er this year, hop­ing to bet­ter for Team TTO on his equal in­ter­na­tion­al 29th place show­ing in 2024 at the same event in El Sal­vador.

“I look for­ward to lead­ing the Ju­nior team rep­re­sent­ing T&T at the up­com­ing ISA event,” said Al­ba­da.

The event not on­ly crowned new cham­pi­ons but al­so served as a vi­brant gath­er­ing for the lo­cal surf­ing com­mu­ni­ty, cel­e­brat­ing the unique cul­ture and spir­it of the Olympic sport in T&T. The event was run by mem­bers of the SurfTT com­mu­ni­ty, and fund­ed by gen­er­ous do­na­tions from Cus­tom Grains, Caribbean Awards, and Learn to Surf.

Fur­ther, in­ter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised (surf­board) Shaper and SurfTT vice pres­i­dent, Alan Davis of Alan Davis Surf­boards, spon­sored a cus­tom board for the first-place open win­ner which in turn has been do­nat­ed to a lo­cal surfer. Spe­cial recog­ni­tion al­so goes to top surf­board brand, Chan­nel Is­lands, out of San­ta Bar­bara, Cal­i­for­nia, who do­nat­ed var­i­ous equip­ment ac­ces­sories as prizes for the event."

Re­sults

Open: 1 Aiden Al­ba­da, 2 Ste­fan Lue Chin, 3 Jude Gomez, 4 Kei­th Lewis, 5 Kevin See­tai, 6 Josh Aqui Crouch, 7 Justin Tang/Don­ald Koo, 9 Do­minic Thomas/Ed­ward Al­ba­da, 11 Kai Lewis/Shawn Ros­tant, 13 An­gad Sand­hu/Shel­don Fran­cis, 15 Dario Jor­dan/Alec Mendes, 17 Chris Peake/Ronald Ri­ley, 19 Mar­cus Bor­de/Adri­an Kong

Ju­niors: 1 Aiden Al­ba­da, 2 Kai Lewis, 3 Mar­cus Bor­de

Mas­ters: 1 Kei­th Lewis, 2 Don­ald Koo, 3 Kevin See­tai, 4 Shel­don Fran­cis

Grand­mas­ters: 1 Sean Moruf, 2 Ed­ward Al­ba­da, 3 An­drew Awai, 4 Ronald Ri­ley