It’s been a busy couple of weeks to start the second half of the 2018-19 13th Beach Boardriders season.
Starting with the new pairs format for the annual Tropical Doom Australia Day Comp, closely followed by an informative night with past WSL Head Judge and now WSL Commissioner, Ritchie Porte and finally the fifth Aggregate Comp sponsored by Quiksilver held at Beacon and Little Raafs.
Winners in the Australia Day comp were: Open Division – Ben and Sim Collier, Senior Division – Cam Lamperd and Michael Higgins, Parent and Child – Greg and Jack Bassett, Masters – Paul Kelly and Renee Forward, Boys – Jack and Max Bassett, Girls: Alexi and Dahlia Feldman, Juniors – Taj McPhee and Finbar Crapp.
Comp 5 for the Micro Groms and Super Grom Divisions was held at Little Raafs with great conditions that slowly deteriorated during the day.
A revised initiative saw the Under 6 Division returning to participation based event with all the Micro Groms ripping and having a great time.
In the Under 8s Kai Colman cemented his number one ranking with his fifth straight win. Alby Nuzium was second and Pat Edwards was third.
The girls Under 10 Division saw Arabella Amos with her first win, closely followed by Alexi Feldman in second and Lily Sopoviski in third.
The under 10 division was a tight event which saw Teal Lamperd with another strong win. Runner up was Kia Coleman, surfing up an age group and third was Kai Pritchett.
Dahlia Feldman found herself back on top of the ratings with a win in the Under 12 Girls. Ruby Edwards had her best result with a second place and Kaia Martin was third.
The hotly contested Under 12 Boys saw Harry Farrer in his comeback event with a win over the consistent Max Bassett. Joel Bartley took out third and Brodie Scott was fourth.
In the Premier Grom Division, the Under 14s Jack Bassett managed to come out on top narrowly edging out his great mate Isaiah Norling with Kai Keenan third and Remy Roberts fourth.
As the season rushes to a close in the Open Divisions and with the aggregate point scores close in most divisions, the competition was fierce at comp 5 sponsored by Quiksilver. With a bigish swell, strong cross winds and very rippy conditions, good waves were hard to come by at Beacon for the seniors, but some nuggets were found including a huge left-hand barrel by Josh Johnson Baxter in his Open A heat resulting in a 10-point ride.
Charlie Mahoney surfed with confidence and composure in difficult conditions finding two waves in the good range to hold out Zeph Lamperd in the Under 16 Cadet Division. Jasper Blair was third and Isaiah Norling fourth.
Unfortunately the Junior Men’s Division was low on numbers for this comp with Fletch Callahan taking out the top spot.
Congratulations to recent new arrival to the club, Daniel Ryan on winning his first Open B competition. Daniel surfed extremely strongly executing some radical turns and big hacks in his heat and the final. Dan edged out Trevor Sopovski in second with Brendan Johnstone third and Ben Stacey fourth.
The Senior final went down to the wire with Michael Crapp going wave for wave with Cam Lamperd and Shawn Todd, with Michael just edging out Cam in the dying minutes scoring 14.60 to Cam’s 14.40. Minor placings went to Shawn Todd and Marcus Casey.
It looked like club legend Mark Hutson was to get his revenge on young gun Greg Bassett in the Masters Division, with Mark leading up until the final minute when Greg dropped into a bomb scoring a huge 8.50 relegating Huston to second in consecutive comps. Trevor Sopovoski was a close third, Shane Vincent forth and Craig Lloyd fifth.
Josh Johnston-Baxter showed he was back in form with solid surfing in the Open A Division. After his 10-point ride in his opening heat he put the other competitors on notice.
In the final Josh again found two waves in the excellent range and was able to hold out fast finishing Shawn Todd to be back in the winners’ circle. Zeph Lamperd was third and Sim Collier fourth.
A huge thanks to all our sponsors for this comp, especially Quiksilver, Pretty’s Meats and Bakers Delight at the Ocean Grove Marketplace.
The next comp will be held over the weekend of 10 and 11 March and is sponsored by Green Room Surf, Skate and Cafe. Look forward to seeing everyone there, and remember to keep an eye on our social media sites for updates.
Gaz and Greg
