A Dunedin father and son won a rare double at the South Island championships at St Clair over the weekend.
Scotty James (33) won the senior men's title and son Xavier (13) won the under-14 grade.
For Scotty, a former Otago junior and senior champion, the South Island title was his first.
The closest he had come was last year when he was eliminated in the semifinals, finishing eighth.
Xavier, a year 9 pupil at King's High School, has been surfing for the past four years and last year finished third in the under-14 (grommet) grade at the South Island championships.
Both father and son are now ranked No 1 on the South Island circuit after their victories in Dunedin.
Xavier rose quickly up the rankings last month with his victory in the South Island grommet event at Gore Bay, lifting his ranking to No 3.
He followed that result by finishing third in the Canterbury championships two weeks ago.
Scotty gave his ranking a major boost when he finished runner-up in senior competition at the Canterbury championships.
In the final round at St Clair, James senior scored on his first wave with an international-class score of eight, the highest single-wave score for the whole weekend.
His son gave glimpses of his talent with wave scores of 5.0 and 4.93.
