The two Fijians both competed for the first time today in the World Surfing Games – Biarritz, France.

First up at 7.40am French time was Che Slatter up against world class Australian and Nicaraguan surfers.

Although Che was placed in second midway through the heat to the Nicaraguan, the Australian Dane Atcheson snagged a pair of high scoring waves through superior wave selection and quick snaps all the way to the beach to move past Che into third, leaving the fourth surfer in the heat – the Greek Christos Chatzis in last place. Che goes into the repecharge heats today.

Commenting on his performance in the heat Che said he learnt a lot about board selection and about having a quiver of boards that suit the French conditions – strong currents, shifting peaks and big tidal ranges which cause fast changing conditions in waves which have less power than Pacific Island swells.

Later in the morning Lesi Navuwai was also up against both an in-form Australian and Nicaraguan in his heat.

His best chance was to beat the competitor from Chinese Taipei in this four-man heat, however the rising tide caused the waves to lose power and this worked against Lesi who at 88kg of muscle is probably the heaviest surfer in the event. Lesi placed a gallant 4th and also goes into the repecharge rounds.

Both surfers are up again today in the repercharge heats beginning at 8.4oam

The Fiji Surfing Association is recognised by the International Surfing Association as the governing body for surfing in Fiji.

The World Surfing Games creates history by being the first World Championships during an Olympic cycle for the newest sport on the Olympic programme (in Tokyo 2020).