Alex Jacques Townsend

Alex Jacques Townsend

  • Date of birth: 14 January 2004
  • Hometown: Braunton, Devon
  • Sponsors: Spider Surfboards, Rip Curl, Hurricane Surf
  • Shaper: Spider (Matthew Murphy)
  • Local Break: Croyde
  • Favorite Break: Supertubes, J’Bay
  • Favorite surfers: John John, Filipe, Mick, Cotty
  • Other Activities: Snowboarding, skating, football and cricket
  • Favorite Board: 5’1” shortboard and 9” longboard
  • Instagram: @Alextownsend_1401
  • Why do you choose to surf Spider Surfboards: When I was growing up I lived in Cape Town, South Africa for a while and had the opportunity to train at the the South African High Performance Surfing Academy in Durban where Spider was a coach. He was an inspirational coach and helped me out a lot with my surfing. He makes really awesome boards, so I was really ecstatic when he asked me to be on the team.

Bio: I started surfing when I was about 5 – I had a lesson at a place called Muizenburg in South Africa where my parents were living. I loved it and carried on and surfed in my first national competition, the Grom Games, when I was 7, which I won. Since then I have carried on surfing and have had the opportunity to surf all over South Africa at some classic breaks like Jeffrey’s Bay, New Pier and Elands Bay as well as in places like the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, which I loved, surfing small Pipeline and Sunset when I was 8.

I was lucky enough to have some really great coaches – people like Shane Thorne, Llewellyn Whittaker and Andy Marr and to grow up surfing on the cold water reef and beach breaks around Cape Town. When I was 10, Magic Seaweed ran an article on my photos I took at one of Cape Town’s big wave reef breaks.

Now we have moved back to the UK and I’m loving our local beach breaks around North Devon and Cornwall surfing with my coach Damon Beveridge. I love surfing all kinds of boards and enjoy competing when I get the chance on short and long boards.

Some Recent Competitive Highlights:

2017:         3rd Place, English Nationals, Under 14

                   4th Place British Longboard Union U16 and U18, Saunton

2016:        1st Place Cape Crown, Under 12 (South African Pro Surf Tour)

                   1st Place Boss of Moss, U12 (Mossel Bay, SA Pro Surf Tour)

                   3rd Place Balito Pro, U12 (SA Pro Surf Tour)

                   Western Province Under 12 and Under 14 Longboard Champion

                   2nd Place SA Longboard Nationals

                   3rd overall South African Pro Surf Tour

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