13th Beach Boardriders celebrated a great end to the first half of the 2018-19 season with a huge weekend of epic surf for the 4D Surfboards sponsored Comp 4.
The Saturday saw the Micro and Super Groms take to the water at Grove Main Beach. Although the conditions were slightly onshore, the groms revelled in the near perfect conditions that saw some outstanding performances and loads of fun in and out of the water.
It was also great to see the next generation of Colliers and Todds in their first comp, continuing the friendly family rivalry that has existed for many years between their fathers.
Isaiah Norling was a standout in the 14 and Under Mixed event taking out the final with a massive heat score of 15.9, second was Teilan Major followed by Lenny Allen and Jet Lamperd.
In the Under 12 Boys Joel Bartley surfed consistently in defeating Taiyo McEnroe, Levi Major and Finbar Crapp.
Teagan Evans showed great form in the Under 12 Girls just edging out Ruby Edwards and Dahlia Feldman.
The Under 10 Boys saw Cove McPhee ripping and taking out the final with Teal Lamperd second, Darcy Cotter, Felix Todd, Kai Pritchett and Jackson Collier filling the minor placings.
The Under 10 girls saw great surfing and a very close tussle between Shara-Fay and Alexi Feldman with only 0.2 points separating them as the final hooter sounded. In third place was Lilly Sopovski and fourth Iluka O’Loughlin.
Kia Colman ripped in the Under 8 Mixed event scoring 14.5 to defeat Bay Lamperd, Alby Nuzum, Luke Sopovski and Pat Edwards.
Ashton Edwards took out the 6 and Under final from Cooper Scott Koa Colman and Lachie Collier.
The final event of the day saw all the groms take to the water for the Expression Session. With loads of huge carves and hack, big reo’s and floaters there was plenty of spray flying and some inspiring surfing from our next generation of open surfers.
Sunday saw near perfect conditions for the Open event. A clean offshore breeze groomed the 3ft to 5ft waves to produce the best conditions the club has seen for a club contest in a long while, with near perfect Beacon barrels and long clean walls.
The heats were hotly contested with all surfers keen to stay and surf the best waves in a long while.
The first final saw Zeph Lamperd, fresh from his win in the Aussie Titles Under 16 Pairs, take out the Cadet Division with some very smooth confident surfing. Taking out the minor places were Jasper Blair, Jack Bassett, Jye Bartley, Isaiah Norling and Remy Roberts.
The Juniors Final saw last year’s winner Kian Major defeat Beau Bartley Harry Dott and Fletcher Callahan.
The Masters Final was one of the best in recent history with the ‘old boys’ going barrel for barrel. In the end it was the young gun of the division, Greg Bassett, taking the prize with a two wave total of 15.8 from Trevor Sopovski, Mark Hutson and Shane Vincent.
Michael Crapp displayed a great return to competitive form in the Seniors defeating Shawn Todd, Christian Pritchett, Jeremy Slattery, Tim Edwards and Simon Collier.
In the hotly contested Open B Final Justin Lowe just edged out Daniel Ryan to take the win from, Drew Lockwood, Flynn Hyslop, Samual Blackburn and Matt Seehusen.
With three minutes to go in the Open A final and no apparent waves on the horizon it looked like Danny Dales-Sutton, with a highest wave score of a 7.0, had the heat sewn up. However, a flurry of waves in the last two minutes saw each competitor get onto a set wave and boost their score. Shawn Todd dropped into the wave of the day to score a near perfect 9.5, Danny failed to exit a big left-hand barrel and his back up score of 3.5 wasn’t enough to hold out Lachlan Keath who picked up a 7.25 to take out his second win of the season. The final placings were first Lachlan Keath, Shawn Todd second, Danny Dales-Sutton third and Simon Collier in fourth.
The club’s next event will be its Australia Day Speciality Event. This will be a family day with loads of activities including a new format Teams Pairs Challenge.
See you there. – Gaz
