A promising university student drowned while surfing for the first time during a dream holiday, an inquest heard.

Stuart Randall, 21, was on a three-month volunteer project to Ecuador when he was swept out to sea by a riptide. His body was found on a beach six days later.

It was the first time Stuart, from Worthing, who was studying civil engineering at Bristol University, had tried the sport.

An inquest into his death yesterday at Worthing Hospital was told he had been surfing with friends in Montanita on August 1 this year when the tragedy happened.

In a statement read out at the inquest, fellow volunteer Anna Johnson, from Edinburgh University, said she had stopped surfing because the weather had worsened.

She said: "The sea was rough. I saw a wave coming in and Stuart and another student were near the wave.

"I didn't see if they got on it but both of them disappeared. The other student reappeared but Stuart didn't and his surfboard washed up on the beach."

With other surfers she mounted a rescue bid from the beach but they were unable to find Stuart, who had been sucked under the water.

Other friends ran to a nearby village for help and divers searched for his body for three days in vain.

Stuart's mother Maggie Randall, 49, of Windsor Road, Worthing, and his sister travelled to Ecuador to help the search.

While they were there his body was washed up on a beach in Monglarilto. A post-mortem revealed he had drowned.

Mrs Randall told the inquest the volunteer project had been organised by a Leeds-based travel company I-to-I holidays.

Stuart, a former pupil at St Andrew's High School for Boys' in Worthing, had been staying on a reserve in Bilsa, Ecuador, since the beginning of July.

The project involved replanting saplings in rainforests, trekking through the jungle and learning about flora and fauna.

On the day of the accident Stuart and his friends had a week of free time.

West Sussex assistant deputy coroner Martin Milward recorded a verdict of accidental death.