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WABA DOMINATES 30 - 10 INTERCLUB CHALLENGE

Last Sunday the 4 th of May saw the running of the Illawarra’s premier inter club surfing contest the 30 - 10. This sees the board riders clubs from Scarborough to Wollongong compete against each other in a format that includes age groups from the under 16’s to over 45’s, a women’s division as well as a tag team competition.

The day started off with everyone meeting at Woonona for a surf check. The surf here was pretty small and struggling to break on the high tide, so the decision was made to move the contest to East Corrimal. The surf here was two to three feet but the wind soon picked up from the south east making things very messy. The first surfers in the water were the under sixteens. WABA were represented by Druon McGovern and Kurt Lovegrove, both representing WABA for the first time in an interclub competition. Both boys surfed well in difficult conditions and against a high class field. The nest surfers for WABA were Josh Noble and Brad Wilson surfing in the under 18’s. Again both surfers easily held their own in the very competitive heats. The open division saw some of the best surfers in the Illawarra competing for their local clubs. WABA was represented by Reagan Cartwright, Hayden Blair and Michael Hopkins who had only four days earlier arrived home after surfing 15 foot waves at Teahaupoo in the Von Zipper trials. Hoppo showed that not only he can he preform in the heavy surf but he can also blow apart on shore crap. Wade Budd and Ryan Doyle surfed in the twenty eight to thirty four year age group and both surf strongly in conditions which continued to deteriorate with the on shore wind. Craig Morris surfed strongly to win the over thirty fives years division and Joe McGovern made the most of the few waves that were coming through in the over forty five years division. In one of the most convincing wins of the day Carmen Boucher used her compition experience to pick off the best waves and win the women’s division. In a close fought heat, WABA president Adam Cartwright took out the presidents heat. The tag team section of the event was an opportunity for WABA to show what a great depth of talented surfers we have. The surfers involved included Owen Cramp, Mabo, Ben Hearn and Seamus Fox. There was even a late entry from Nick
Squires who had been knocked out of the Jesus pro am in Manly earlier in the day and had driven straight down, the whole time ringing Carty every ten minutes telling him that he was on his way and would be there in time to surf for WABA. He ran straight from the car park into the water to smash some off the top turns and put WABA into lead. The other teams were unable to catch up.   Overall it was a great team effort by all the WABA surfers. A big thanks to Gob who put in along day in the judges seat as WABA’s representative judge.

BlueScope Steel Illawarra Regional Junior Series Round #1

The weekend saw Illawarra’s top Junior surfers compete in the BlueScope Steel Illawarra Regional Junior Series. Round 1 of a 3 round series kicked of on Saturday at Stanwell Park Beach. It was a superb turn out with some very contestable conditions. There was much praise given for a well run, professional and enjoyable day thanks to contest director Christian De Clouette, head judge Gary Mortan and president Paul Oyston The results for round 1 are as follows: Rachel Campbell had a smooth victory in the Cadet Girls followed by Georgia Riordan second and Emma Davies in third. The Junior Girls final was impressive with Skye Burgess having a fantastic first wave remaining strong to win ahead of Rachel Campbell second and Georgie Campbell in third. Watch out world the sizzler is here!!! Josh Szele has raised the bar smashing his way to an outstanding victory in the Micro-Cadets. Styling in second was Conor Tapsell, Riley Killham third and Conor Riordan in fourth. Harry Steele of the WABA club coming in 5th. The Beach Street Surf Scene Cadet Boys final saw a solid performance by all the competitors. Troy Langendon had an impressive win, Brett Connellan surfed well in second, Leroy Davies third and rounding out the final was Cameron McLaurin in fourth. The Junior Boys had a cracker of a final with high quality surfing by all. Justin Arnold took out the title followed closely by Phill Watt in second, Sean Dorahy a strong third and Jack Hobbs fourth. Surfing Illawarra Inc would like to thank their major sponsor BlueScope Steel and Cadet boys Divisional sponsor Beach Street Surfscene , as well as all the host clubs for there support and assistance on the day.

Further information: Paul Oyston on 0405 036 787 Email: Paul.oyston@surfingillawarra.com