Scotland’s surfers look set to lose hard-won independence

In October 2014, in the aftermath of the Scottish Independence Referendum, it was a pleasure to be able to report in this column that Scotland’s surfers, at least, would soon be celebrating their independence, having won permission to send a national team to the World Surfing Games at Punta Rocas, Peru. It was, the president of the Scottish Surfing Federation (SSF) William Watson told me at the time, “the biggest thing that’s happened to Scottish surfing in 40 years.”