South Hams surfing star Ben Howey impressed in his world tour debut, finishing fifth in the individual category at the recent longboard world championships in China.

Howey believes his and the rest of Team England’s performances, where they also finished fifth, have helped to put English surfing on the map, particularly getting one over on the Australia team who, Howey said, “don’t even believe we get waves here”.

Howey got off to a flying start at the amazing venue of Riyue Bay on Hainan Island, coming first in his opening heat in the International Surfing Association’s World Longboard Surfing Championships before beating the number one seed, South African Alfonzo Pieters, in round two.

He continued his excellent form in round three, finishing top of his heat again and beating title favourite Kevin Skvarna of the USA.

He said: “I am really happy with how I performed in the event, it seems like all the training and preparation has really paid off. 

“Every round I was getting through, I couldn’t believe it, and trying to remain calm and collected until each heat was completely finished took a lot. 

“I have been in too many heats that completely change in the last minutes to let it happen out there! 

“Beating the number one seed in earlier rounds filled me with confidence heading into the later stages and then doing it again against Kevin Skvarna really made me start believing in myself.”

Howey’s stunning form continued as he finished top again in round four, before the right waves failed to emerge in the later rounds as he claimed fifth place overall.

Howey was rightly proud of his impressive showing on debut, saying: “I made the main event final and couldn’t quite find the waves that I needed to post the same scores as I had been, but I still had some decent scores so I am proud of my performance for me, team England and my sponsors!

“I would like to thank the team manager Phil Williams for doing an amazing job throughout the whole trip, organising social media and generally getting us where we needed to be! Thanks to everyone who helped get me there and my sponsors Xcel, Skindog Surfboards and Dryrobe as well as The Wave, Tregenna Castle, Boardmasters and the Tubestation, who were all team sponsors, making the whole thing possible!”

Howey’s superb result helped England to fifth in the team standings, a great result although close enough to the medals to leave the team of himself, Ben Skinner, Emily Currie and Jen Pendlebury wondering what might have been.

Ben, who lives in South Milton, near Kingsbridge, will be taking a break from competition until the new season starts in the spring with the European tour and British Longboard Union events, but aims to take forward the momentum gained from his result into the year’s competitions.