Surfing

THE words 'surfing', 'Dorset' and 'successful' don not usually occur in the same sentence, but for Lyme Regis born pro-surfer Martin Black those words are certainly true.

Now based in the south of France, Martin was introduced to surfing aged 12 when his father took him to Saunton Sands to give it a try.

It was love at first sight between Martin and the waves and ever since he has been going from strength to strength.

Martin said: "The water around Lyme Regis is about as exciting as a beige v-neck, so I got my early inspiration from a collection of surfing videos."

Coming from a sporting family - his father Andrew was the resident golf professional at Lyme Regis and brother Ian toured on the world windsurfing circuit - Martin was a pupil at Woodroffe School and spent every spare minute to practice the sport in a year out before moving on to Exeter University.

"While continuing my studies I found surfing to be an ideal way to escape the pressures of university life and my surfing improved at a greater rate than ever before because of this," he said.

By the time he had left university, Martin had won his first contest, the Tedzo Classic in Bude.

A competitive year in England followed and he decided to take his chances in Europe.

Three years later, he has moved up from in the European Professional Surfers Association rankings from 65th in 2000 to 22nd in 2003.

Over his six competitive years of surfing, he has come first in three Tedzo Surf Classics (1997, 1998 and 2000), won the Tedzo Surf Trophy (1996) and the Valentine Memorial Contest (1999).

With the help of sponsorship from West Bay-based clothing company Tantrum, Martin plans to continue following the World Qualifying Series, which so far has awarded him the accolade of the highest-placed Briton.

"I am surfing far better now than I ever believed possible," Martin explained, "I followed the ESPA tour for two years previously and learnt many of the subtleties of competition.

"I am ready to apply this knowledge with an improved level of surfing and hopefully to improve both my free and competition results."

Tantrum have signed a two year sponsorship deal and boss Matt Walkden is looking forward to following Martin's fortunes.

He said: "I was extremely pleased to be introduced to Martin on his way to Martinique for his pre-season training, he is an excellent surfer whose name will start to appear more and more frequently in the surfing press over the coming years."