Craig McElrath started surfing in Hawaii at an early age and continued here in Fiji. He was passionate about longboarding and would surf every weekend if he could. Craig how was always keen to help the progression of surfing wherever he could. Craig was a past FSA treasurer and committee member. Craig unfortunate lost his battle to cancer in 2010 and soon after the Craig McElrath Cancer Foundation was formed.

Each year to celebrate Craig’s life surfers from all over Fiji come together to compete in the Annual Craig McElrath Memorial Surf Comp, which is kindly sponsored by McDonalds Restaurants and Namotu Island.

This year’s competition was held on Sunday the 18th of January at Namotu Island by kind invitation of Scotty & Mandy O’Conner. It boasted 35 competitors competitors this year. Surfers hit the water out at rights of Wilkes Pass with around head high waves to test out who could bring back the art of riding a long board. There where 3 categories surfed over the course of the day, Open Male Longbord, Open Female Shortboard and Junior Short Board (under 18’s).

This year’s competition was labelled as the best yet by Craig’s brother Marc McElrath and hopefully is a good indication of what is to offer in the coming competitions for 2014. Competition Director Andy Eames saying “It is great to see that everyone has pulled together to make this event as good as it can be. With some surfers and families having to travel over 3 hours to come and compete in these type of event, not including the boat transfers to get out to the Island and then again to the competition site really shows just how committed the surfers are to increasing their competition surfing abilities and just all round having a great time in the water”

Results :

Open Female Short Board

1 Talei Lovell
2 Sirkka Killmann
3 Ella Carling

Junior short board
1 Reef Doig
2 Aysha Doig
3 Mark Wakeham
4  Alivereti Kamanalagi ‘Kama’

Mens long board

1 Rusty
2 Tayler
3 Andy Eames
4 Scotty O’Conner