Young, Competitive and at the Euro Juniors

Sunny Ingram

15-year-old English surfer Kaja Millward caught up with the up and coming English U16 girls as they compete in Portugal this week.

Meet the English up and coming U16 girl surfers who have been ripping at their home breaks since they were very young. These surfers have put in a lot of hard work and training into their performance. From surfing throughout the winter in some pretty cold and big swells or going out in some very difficult conditions that many people would choose not surf in. I believe these girls deserve some more recognition, so I have featured some of them in this article to show just how committed to their sport these young girls are.

Kaja Millward

Just three of these surfers get selected every year to compete for England in events such as the ISA World Junior Championships and the European Junior Championships. In the 2024 ISA World Junior Championships Sunny Ingram, Lila Skinner and Harlyn Sykes were fortunate to be selected to compete for their country after doing well and coming top in multiple competitions. As well as the European Junior championships Sunny Ingram, Lila Skinner and Willow Smith were selected to compete for England after coming top three in the English National Surfing Championships. There are two main competitions which are used to help with the selection of these events, which are the English National Surfing Championships and the Rip Curl Grom Search.

Meet Lila Skinner

At the age of 14 Lila Skinner has achieved the U16 and U14 English title. She has also won a spot in the U14 European Rip Curl Grom Search final after winning the 2024 Rip Curl Grom Search U14 category at Great Western Beach, Newquay.

Lila has grown up around an extremely high level of surfing, for example her dad being a professional longboarder and her brother Lukas competing at a very high standard from a young age. This has kept pushing her towards a high level of surfing herself and has competed for England in two ISA world Junior Championships and European Junior Championships, along with European U14 Rip Curl Grom Search finals too. “I am so grateful to be given these opportunities this young and competing against all these amazing surfers really pushes me to be the best I can be!”

Sunny Ingram

Willow Smith. Photo by Kevin Harmer

Training for events in another country can be very difficult when the standard of European surfing is so high. And the UK waves most of the time will not match the waves abroad so many of the competitors will go to wave pools to help with this.

How do you train for such a big event when it is in another country?
Willow Smith: “I go in the sea every day after school” but if there is no surf she says, “I have been going swimming instead and doing a bit of kickboxing.”

What is it like being a young competitor traveling to other countries for competitions? 
Sunny Ingram: “It’s amazing being a young competitor surrounded by amazing surfers from other countries. It pushes me to be the best I can be. It is really good to see friends that I have made through surfing, from other countries also.”

Do you travel with your parents or are you taken up as a team?
Willow Smith: “I travelled to Portugal with the team. We left on Saturday so we would have a few days to do some training.” 

Team England

European Junior Championships

The European Junior Surfing Championships will be taking place on the 18th-26th July 2024 in Santa Cruz, Portugal. Three surfers are selected from each category to surf for their country, based on the countries National Surfing Championships. The categories are: U16 boys and girls, U18 boys and girls, and longboard. Last year, they brought home multiple European titles, and England placed 4th as a team, what will it be this time?

Team Ireland

See the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish girl’s teams below that have been selected – good luck teams!

Irish Girls:
U16 Girls:
-Maria Butler
-Ruby Fanning
-Caoimhe Skinner Syme

U18 Girls
-Akiya Moore
-Sadie Shalloo
-Evelyn Moore

Longboard:
-Evelyn Moore