March 1st
It was the first day of a new month, the first day of Autumn, and the first competition for the new year. Today also marked the first shark attack on the northern beaches in over a decade but also the third in Sydney in three weeks. The attack at Avalon today happening around the same time our grommets and cadets were entering the water just a few beaches away at Curl Curl. The rest of the day we saw helicopters and jet skis constantly patrolling the waters in case of a sequel to the morning’s attack.
As for the waves, we were greeted by 2ft with the odd 3ft mega bomb in Curly’s predominantly shorey style banks. The waves were punchy and definitely not a bad way to start off the competitive year, with the wind going onshore during the day but never strong enough to be completely ruin the waves.
Results as follows;
Grommets
As always the groms can always be relied on to be full of energy and generally frothing on the whole day. Chuck a few coca-colas in the mix and you have a bunch of enthusiastic maniacs who are like the energizer bunny and never run out of energy. The final impressing me highly, with Cameron Drake and Matt Banham being unlucky in the final to not make the top two. As with all the finals on the day it was only a matter of 0.5s between the winner and other placings. Alex Miller and Wil Mulham were too good taking our first and second respectively, showing style I didn’t know was possible in kids that young. Congrats to the young guys, and pretty sure after a few comps everyone will know who they are, Alex is the kid who runs around changing the flags with more enthusiasm than any flag barer before him, and Wil is the kid showing his muscle around campus often tackling you to the ground if he doesn’t agree with your scoring on a wave.
1. Alex MILLER
2. Wil MULHAM
3. Matt BUNHAM
4. Cameron DRAKE
Cadets
Cadets saw a bunch of newcomers this year as did Juniors. Was good to see so many kids falling in love with the boog at a young age. The final was jam packed with a six kids hitting the watrer and the surfing was the best standard seen in cadets in the past few years. Whale beach grom Jesse Mulham showed off his skills in the final picking up where his younger brother left off in the grommets, but doing one better and taking first place. Alex Wilson, Nick Summers and Harry Sarin all surfed well specially considering it was hard to get waves in such a packed out final. Zac Duryea and Eugene “I have a long last name so I must be destined for greatness” Head-Toussaint shared the top three podium with Jesse.
1. Jesse MULHAM
2. Eugene HEAD-TOUISSAINT
3. Zac DURYEA
4. Harry SARIN
5. Nick SUMNERS
6. Alex WILSON
Juniors
The Juniors took the cake for most improved over summer, the kids were ripping. The standard of Juniors has gone up a massive level this year with kids throwing flips, reverses with the style of an opens surfer. All the guys in the final should just be stoked on making it that far, taking into account the amount of guys in Juniors this year and extremely competitive form of all the guys. Martin Smith, Tim Bond and Guy Williment dominated the final lucking into the best waves and pulling off the best moves. These guys will be the ones to watch in Juniors for sure, all pretty much catching their maximum of ten waves. Martin “marty” Smith (who has clearly been using his mum’s AB KING at home) ending up winning with some combos all the way to sure, the kid looks identical to Pierre and his surfing is damn similar too, technical and smooth. Tim and Guy were close on his heels tearing any wave they got to shreds with technical spins and leg crosses going down all over the place. Alex Natoli and Miles Mortensen were unlucky the waves did just not come their way, this division will be the one to watch for up and coming rippers. I’d say a few will be sporting a few stickers on their slicks before the years out.
1. Martin Smith
2. Tim Bond
3. Guy Williment
4. Alex Natoli
5. Miles Mortensen
Mens
It is good to see that every division this year is more competitive than ever, and Mens was no exception. Av kid Corey “the greenskeeper” Daglish came out blazing, showing in true Avalon style how to surf a heat; technical and aggressive. The other three guys in the final all surfed well with all round good guy Luke Shearer taking his first day off from BSC in three years to come take fourth place in the final. Alex and Ryan both had tight combos but just weren’t enough for the title. By now the waves were starting to drop with the tide going out and making it harder for any big moves to go down, so the combos came out firing.
1. Corey DAGLISH
2. Ryan FENASSE
3. Alex BENNETT
4. Luke SHEARER
Grand Masters
The Grand Masters paddled out with the class and experience of a young Sean Connery playing James Bond in his heyday. The BBQ King Mal Leydon took the final out, took some time out from supervising the snags to show us he has the goods to win finals. Greg Webster, Tony Rabbidge and Steve McPherson were sledging each other trying to put off each other’s game in the water and is hard to say what really decided the placings, the surfing or the witty remarks? Good to see the guys who run the club took time off the paper work to compete and show they can spin just like the rest of us. Bodyboarders running a bodyboard club, how it should be.
1. Mal LEYDON
2. Greg WEBSTER
3. Tony RABBIDGE
4. Steve MCPHERSON
Senior Mens
Iain Fullarton and Nick Chandler were showing experience in the water, and were close on the heels of Daniel “Daggles from whaley” Reynolds all heat until Dan took the lead with a clean barrel. From then on he took control of the heat with a few combos sealing his first place fate. In true whaley class Dan was humble in victory and strolled off into the sunset without saying much, he will now hide out in some south whaley wedges, not surfacing until next comp. Nick Chandler celebrated his second placing with some burnouts in the car park in his flaming hot vehicle.
1. Daniel REYNOLDS
2. Nick CHANDLER
3. Iain FULLARTON
Dropknee
Straight out final for the jack stance followers, good to see everyone’s been watching Roach and Dave Hubbard vid sections this summer and improved the dropknee level immensely. Daniel Reynolds, Shane Davis and Ed France the usual DK leaders had some new talent biting at their heals. Matt Pike the guy from whaley infamous for getting Ryan Hardy and Ben Player both drunk and dancing at his party threw the knee up with a new confidence and his summer DK sessions paid off earning him third place. Ed hadn’t slept that weekend, so fourth place was the best he could achieve. The DK veterans prevailed and won the division. Was awesome to see the whole final full of talent. Excited to see some Lackey Laybacks later in the year from the fellas.
1. Shane DAVIS
2. Danel REYNOLDS
3. Matt PIKE
4. Ed FRANCE
5. Alex NATOLI
6. Luke SHEARER
Opens
The opens final was full on, the bank moved out the back with the tide dropping to a lower than low. The six man final saw what I’m calling one of the best SBC finals I’ve seen in a long time, with Wilkie throwing flips like they were rolls, and Seb Miller spinning an air reverse that made me dizzy. Ewan Donnachie surfed with his usual class, chucking tight combo after tight combo on every wave. Timmy Minter was close on Ewan’s back chasing third place but was a bit distracted by his female friend waiting for him on the beach. Matt “Puerto” Pike was too busy sending any randoms in the comp area down the beach enforcing with his usual brawler attitude to really worry about surfing, and Jake Herbert a usual victor in the club was unlucky the waves just didn’t come his way. The standard was so high in this final it was hard to really find a standout winner, Wilkie and Seb simply pulled the two biggest moves of the day and were just too tight for the rest.
1. Alex WILKIE
2. Seb MILLER
3. Ewan DONNACHIE
4. Tim MINTER
5. Matt PIKE
6. Jake HERBERT
Overall the day was a big success, thanks to all the young guys for making an effort to judge all day. Thanks also to Mick our major sponsor from BSC for coming down, and of course to Greg Webster, Steve McPherson, and Nick Chandler who without we would not have a club. Next comp is at Whaley Sunday 5th of April, hopefully it turns on some wedges for the lot of us, and I hope we see another massive turnout for the second comp, because remember without the boogers we can’t boogey!
Love Timmy Boreham
PS>
We have engaged the services of Doug McFarlane from wozthatyou.com to document as much of the action from the comps this year as he can. He'll be at each comp taking shots and will upload them onto the wozthatyou.com site where they can be purchased for $5 for a jpeg. Pretty good deal for a snap of your competitive glory! We can't guarantee we'll get shots of everyone on the day but if you keep checking it out you might catch yourself. The web address to last comp's shots is here to paste into your browser:
http://www.surfphotosofyou.com/portfolio50972.html
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