We caught up with Mango's newest team rider Beth Leighfield, on all things competition, straight after a beautiful morning surf in Cornwall, and just before she left for the WSL Longboard Qualifier in Galicia, Spain. The event runs June 25th to 29th. Good luck to all involved.
Let's just jump in at the deep end. How could you potentialy qualify for a spot on the WSL Longboard World Tour, as someone from the UK?
The WSL have got two qualifying events for Europe at the moment. We've already done the Boardmasters last year and then Ferrol in Spain this week, I think, if you finish top three in these two events overall, it will give you a good chance to qualify for the world tour; because often people double qualify. So Alice and Zoe are on the tour already and they might double qualify, that means it could be third place also gets through .. but you pretty much want to just aim to take the European WSL title. 
How do you get into the events?
Anyone can enter a WSL QS longboard event. It's not the same structure as the shortboard because there's not multiple levels .. it's literally just your regional QS's and then World Tour. So yeah, anyone can enter a QS, if you want to splash your cash.
Is it a solid entry fee?
Yeah, there's an entry fee, there's a membership for WSL and Surfing England membership because you need insurance, that's also really key for the BLU events too.
The contests you just did in Portugal & Morocco, is that anything to do with it ?
No, so that's a different tour; that's part of the European Surfing Federation. They used to run a longboard tour but I think it stopped about 12 years ago. This year they've restarted and it's got four stops. It's a great tour in beautiful places, and it's another chance to compete on a European stage beyond the normal comps in England.
Which brings us nicely to home: You won the first British Longboard Union stop of the year. Is the BLU just another area where you can practice your competition surfing specifically? Does it equate to any points for anything else or ?
So I think, for me, the British Longboard Union events are just really important because without them we wouldn't actually have any other comps, other than the invitational events and English Nationals. The BLU is always most consistent with creating a space in our surfing world for longboarding, for competing, so it provides a training ground because without competing regularly it's going to be really hard for us to compete on the European stage successfully. Using heat tactics and just being in that competition environment. It's definitely a different ball game compared to just a free surf. But with the BLU, it can (depending on the year) also determine qualification for the team to represent either Great Britain or England at the World Championships.
Really? Like the El Salvador ISA World Championships. That's huge. You're representing your country .. That place is so consistently solid, isn't it? What was it like when you were there?
Yeah, I've been to El Salvador a couple years ago. It was pretty big, I think it's just always big, I think you go there with the expectation that it's going to be head high plus. And it's just bigger. When Emily and Lola were there, I don't think it got below head high, it's super consistent.
Is it a good wave for longboarding?
Yeah it definitely can be, there’s a lot of sections for both cutbacks and nose rides so you’re able to get a bit of variety in. Can get a bit more on the challenging side, especially when it comes to high tide and the shore break. Not sure if you’ve watched the video of Rachel Tilly on Instagram navigating getting out the water on a spring high tide, it’s worth a watch. But overall it provides a great platform to challenge yourself and showcase your logging.
Do you think surf events and tours need to make it even lefts and rights or A-frames .. the a-frame world tour would be epic!?
This has been the first year that I've had more than one or two events out of the country, I'm gonna have five or six. On the European Surfing Federation Tour I think there's two right hand point breaks and then two beachies.. I mean I'd prefer it to be equal, yep the a-frame tour haha. But I guess people like Chloe Calmon, she still rips it up back hand. I've got no excuses.
Is there any advice you could give any aspiring young longboarders?
I would say, from a grassroots level, just make sure you support or show up to your local and national events. So in our case, it would be doing all the BLU events and then getting a little bit of international travel if you're you're able too .. it's a big part of it .. for me this past year I was able to go to Peru for a couple months in winter and that has made such a big difference, I was doing a bit of volunteering when I was there as well, so it wasn't just surfing, but to be able to focus consistently on surfing long waves because we don't really have any point breaks in England, that break consistently, it gives you time on the wave to practice and you can actually think compared to shifty beach breaks .
How was Chicama? the world's longest left?
I would say it lived up to the hype for me definitely, just what I would imagine a perfect mechanical wave, like a wave pool but better, it's all natural. It's just takes a little bit of effort to get there, a little more thought than your normal surf trip. I was based in a town called Huanchaco, which is about 45 minute drive away.
Born in middle England, you moved to Cornwall, what age were you then?
My parents moved the family down, when I was five, to a place 20 minutes North of Bude, you see the big dishes on the hill at GCHQ. When I was 18 I did a year in Scotland for Uni and then I moved down to Falmouth and did my full degree there. Now I'm in Newquay. This will be my second year living here. It's just easier because it's right on the, well, we're sat staring at the sea right now! There is a good surf community here, which is really nice. And it's easy to link up with photographers & videographers and everyone's always keen to work on a project or do something. 
Thank you for taking the time with us Beth, and once again good luck, and have fun.
All photos captured by Jamie Elliott at the Surfing England Nationals.