SURF CLUB: MAY 5

Comp Wrap by Cass Hurrell
Photos by Caigan Meade

Oo la la Belongil you delightful place by the sea, a wonderful morning we scored indeed. Blue skies, offshore winds, an incoming tide, serving up super fun two foot a-frames. Plenty of parking and dogs can run freely... what more could you ask for on a Autumn Sunday?

Surf club members (and a few new faces) joined us with their logs, some dogs, and a few tiny gremlins! Fresh parental's tag teaming as mum and dad took turns surfing. The heat draw filled up by 7:30am with 5 mens heats and 3 womens heats ready to take to the water. Once again the running order rotated between mens and womens heats and the judging panel was mixed up too. The fellas judging the fellas and ladies judging the ladies - eight waves were allowed and the top two counted. With dreamy aMAYzing conditions, and the great mother serving up clean consistent waves, everyone enjoyed the chance to entertain and boogie on their surfing board. Throughout the whole morning we saw high-quality wave riding. Solid yet ever so graceful drop knee turns and smooth hanging fives and tens. Entertainment plus!

Women's final was super fun, almost call it Team Atmosea final. If there was an award for rookie of the year, it would already go to Eb. Eb has found her way to the nose, hanging five and her pure stoke flourishes. Bri and her signature steezy take off is best described as crouching tiger - she grabs the rail and bottom turns, fluidly riding the face of the wave. Maddie and her eccentric style always keeps us entertained, so bloody great to see her back in the ocean post birth of her babe Blue. Me, I found my lefts (all day), chucking in a few rights to mix it up. Always loving a cutty and cross stepping trim trimity all the way, hoping to hit that end section to the beach. Clareo’s ever so smooth take offs, fives, cut backs where flawless - sticking 99% of every section of the wave saw her take out second place. Ro Ro.. wowsaz. Solid as a rock, in a fem way, watching her effortlessly stride to the nose, ten toes curled as she stands tall doing absolutely nothing at all. Drop knee turns, walking back to the nose with speed, power and flow earned first place in the Womens final.

Womens Final
1st Roisin Carolan
2nd Clare Sullivan
3rd Cass Hurrell
4th Brianna Occonnell
5th Maddie Gross
6th Eb Gracie

The Mens division was hotly contested on Sunday, there were new local faces and guys from as far as Vicco. Reed and Jaya were real stand-outs through the early heats and it was great to see a few Juniors put on a show in the Open Mens division. Conditions were pretty interesting by the time the mens final came around, the water was draining off the bank fast! Myles was calling it "Palmy club closeout conditions", but that didn't stop the guys turning it on. In fact it just sped everything up! Zac ripped his Old Mal all day and made it look way too easy to finish 6th over all. Saxon made the trip up from Sydney for the day and was a stand out in each of his heats, some epic turns and tens landed him in 5th. Joey picked off some perfect little waves through the final with one of them providing a sneaky little head dip, earning himself a 4th. "Cass's" left was well and truely given a work out by Locky as well, he was all over the place on Sunday, every time you looked at the left he was floating a section, or on the right he was pulling through some sort of angry switch cut back which landed him a 3rd on the day. Myles hung out the back through the finals picking off the bombs, going for fast 10's then rushing back to turn off the bottom into Big floaters on the closeout sections. In the end it was Kai who took it out, sitting a little further inside and managing to select some long rides with plenty of turns, 10's and heels all the way to the beach.

Mens Final
1st Kai Ellice-Flint
2nd Myles Doughman
3rd Locky Hill
4th Joe Hoffman
5th Saxon Watson
6th Zac Arena Foster

After the finals wrapped up it was back to Wild Things (Surf Club HQ) for a barbie, with the yummiest buns from Bread Social and some Stone and Wood on tap. A surfed out bunch enjoyed a couple of drinks, and the good mellow vibes were flowing. BIG thanks to the local companies sponsoring the event, Stone and Wood, Bread Social, Indosole and also to the Daily Bar and Bucha of Byron keeping us fuel'd through out the day, and Feel Good zinc protecting us from the elements. Thanks to everyone for coming along and making it such a fun day down at the beach.

Happy to say and see that Surf Club is definitely finding it's groove, as we all look forward to our wintery next gathering - tentatively a Sat/Sun late June.