Arthur Randell: The Long & The Short Of It

This winter we welcomed Arthur Randell to the Cord Surfboards team. St Agnes born and raised, 19-year-old Arthur’s continuing the local tradition of riding a wide variety of surfboards and excelling on them. He’s a talented and well-rounded surfer as comfortable on the nose of a log as he is on a shortboard pulling into barrels and sticking airs, and he’s got the silverware to prove it – with four U18 British Longboard titles and the 2022 U18 European Longboard championship to his name.

This Friday Arthur is travelling to El Salvador ready to compete in the 2025 ISA World Longboard Surfing Championship, set to take place from April 25 to May 1 in Surf City, El Salvador. He’s got a gofundme page set up to raise money to help towards the cost of travelling to and competing in El Salvador – we’ll pop the link here and at the bottom of this article for any of you who may be in a position to contribute. Arthur’s spent the last few weeks dialling in his boards with head shaper Markie Lascelles with the pair logging a lot of water time whenever there have been waves. Before he packed his board bag for El Salvador we caught up with Arthur so that we could introduce him to you all properly, and share a bit more about this talented young surfer.

How and when did you get into surfing?

I was a bit later than a lot of my friends getting into surfing. I had always grown up down at the beach and had always done surf life saving from a young age, but I think I was eight years old when my Dad got me my first foam board. And then I moved on to a hard board when I was probably ten. So I was a bit later than everyone else in my age group – the rest of my friends were going along the waves and doing little turns when I was still in the whitewater. But I managed to catch up.

Who were you role models in surfing growing up?

Growing up I’ve had some really good mentors. Ben Skinner has always been there, always guiding me. I wouldn’t have got my European title without his coaching and advice. Lucas as well. Everyone looks up to Lucas, including me even though I’m older than him! He’s definitely always been there and has always pushed me. Markie too. I’ve known Markie all my life. He’s always been there since I started surfing. I’ve always looked up to him. Then there’s Josh Ward. Jack Coombes. All the St Agnes area standouts really, I’ve always looked up to.

You have quite the collection of accolades! Have you always be keen on competing?

I’m super grateful for the fact that I’ve had so many opportunities to travel the world competing and I’ve had so much fun travelling with team GB. I do actually enjoy competing. I’m out of the juniors now and coming into the men’s and that’s a bit daunting. I’m quite competitive with everything anyway. I really like the edge of competing but sometimes I really don’t get along with it at all, so it can be a bit of a love-hate relationship for me.

Which was your most epic win?

My most epic win was definitely when I won the Under 18 European Longboard title. I’ve never felt a feeling like that. Everything sort of played my way. It was the first big proper competition I’d ever done and I went into it expecting absolutely nothing – 16 year old me going up against the best longboard surfers in the Under 18 category in all of Europe. I definitely did not go into it expecting to win but I’m super grateful that I did. I can still remember the feeling to this day.

How are you feeling about your upcoming trip to El Salvador with Team GB for the ISA World Longboard Champs?

I’m quite nervous to be going to El Salvador for the ISA World Longboard Games. It’s my first Open category competition that I’ve travelled for. But I’ve got Ben [Skinner] who’s a really great mentor with me, and I’ll always look up to him and listen to him because he knows that wave better than anyone. So I do feel comfortable in the fact that I have him there to guide me, and as I’ve surfed that wave twice in the past I’m grateful to have had those opportunities to get to know it a bit. But yeah, I’m honestly quite nervous - but really excited as well!

Any other trips in the pipeline?

The next big trip for me… I’m hoping to travel around the parts of Asia that I haven’t explored yet with my girlfriend. I’m quite excited for it. We’re going to try to go to Japan, the Philippines, the Island of Samoa, and then hopefully finish off in Western Australia. But you know, plans can always change – we might decide that we want to go somewhere completely different. But yeah, I’m really grateful for the amount of travelling I’ve been able to do so far. I’ve had a pretty lucky life, to be honest.

You are obviously a very well-rounded surfer, competing at longboarding but still ripping on a shortboard. How do you keep the variety?

When I was younger, I honestly did prefer longboarding. But that soon changed after I got barrelled properly and did a proper air and landed it. The thrill that you get from doing that is unbeatable. It’s a feeling that a lot of people won’t ever get to experience and I’m so grateful that I get to. It’s honestly the best thing ever. Longboarding can’t really give you that. There’s only so much that you can do on a longboard, but then when the conditions are right nothing can beat it. But I’m really trying to longboard more because usually I just don’t surf my longboard until when a comp comes up, and then I jump straight into it, and I’m usually really quite wobbly. I try to keep the variety there but it’s definitely improved in the last couple of months. Surfing Markie’s boards has really helped me with that too. Eventually I want to focus fully on longboarding though and really pursue that.

What are your surfing goals this year?

My most immediate goal is go as far as I can in the ISA World Games Longboard event next week. That’s my biggest goal for this year and I really hope that I do well there. Following that, my other big goal for this year is getting on the podium for the English Nationals Shortboard Open category. If I do that then I’ll get the opportunity to go to the Worlds, which is a big ambition of mine.

Tell us about the Cord boards you took to Indo this winter…

My most surfed board in Indonesia was definitely the Cord Otter. It’s similar to the Ark but has a swallowtail. Mine was 6’0” and 32 litres with a beaked nose and honestly I’ve never had more fun on a surfboard. It has a lot more volume than what I’d usually ride as it’s a step-up, but I took it out in small surf one day and really, really, enjoyed it. Everyone said it looks like a shortboard but you have way more fun on it because you catch twice the amount of waves. So that was my favourite board that I took away. I also took my swallowtail shortboard and had loads of fun on that and really got to know it by the end of the trip. It’s quite different to what I’ve normally ridden in the past and I really enjoyed surfing that. Those were my two most surfed boards on the trip. I had my Swordfish too, which is an unbeatable board if you just want to have endless fun, hit the lip and do some airs. I really enjoy that board. It’s super fast, super lively. It’s great. I also took a spare shortboard that I rode twice, and a fish model of Markie's which was a super fun board. I rode that on the smaller days and did my best turn of the trip on that board.

Do you have any more Cord models in mind to grow your quiver?

I’m sure in the coming months Markie and I will look into new models and creating something a bit different. I had a go on Isaac Dakin’s new fish the other day and I had loads of fun on that. I really enjoyed surfing that to be honest so I imagine Markie and I will talk about making something similar.

If you’re able to help Arthur with the costs of competing at the 2025 ISA World Longboard Surfing Championship in El Salvador, please click the link below to donate to his gofundme. Any contributions are really appreciated and help British surfers to compete on the World stage.

Support Arthur's GoFundMe Here