Welcome to the worst report for the year — mainly because I am in Adelaide and can’t see the surf for the red wine and cyclists - and I’m writing this on Tuesday night!
I do know that the waves have picked up and the waves are 3-4ft all along the beach.
The winds have been bad and onshore, but have now backed off and the Wanda banks are still good so you may have waves.
My report is so bad that I actually put a couple of photos from the same day last year up! Which is an interesting concept looking back - facing forward.
It is ironic that the biggest weekend of pro-surfing at Cronulla (The Be the Influence Australian Boardriders Battle National Final at Cronulla on January 25 and 26) since the 80s is happening this weekend and I won’t be there. Looking at swellnet it looks like the swell will pick up Thursday before backing off and picking up during the day on Saturday to 3-5ft from the south…so they may be in luck!
So come to the Alley and watch the surfing. There are two free concerts, buy a limited edition T-shirt and sausage sandwich from the Cronulla boardriders stall and don’t waste the opportunity to watch some of the best surfers in the world — at our home.
Now to the news (which I can do from anywhere) Tricky two-to-three foot waves provided the perfect setting for Kelly Norris (Coolum, Qld) to claim the inaugural 2014 Carve Pro Junior at Maroubra Beach from fellow event standout and local surfer Jackson Giles (Maroubra, NSW) who finished the event in the runner-up position.
Both surfers engaged in a fierce dog-eat-dog battle throughout the final with the lead shooting back-and-forth between both surfers. However, after locking in a series of impressive scores, it was Norris who managed to nail down the victory by a 1.67 point margin. As a result, Norris has moved into the number one position on the ASP Australasian Pro Junior Series rankings.
Jared Hickel was the best performed local with a quarter final placing.
Joel Parkinson, one of the most successful and popular surfers of this century, has just signed a long-term contract extension to keep the Australian a key part of the Billabong team for the foreseeable future.
“Parko,” 32, captured his first Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship in December of 2012, and has been ranked firmly inside the list of the top five surfers on the planet for most of the new millennium.
Joel, a resident of Coolangatta on the Gold Coast of Queensland, has been a part of the Billabong family for most of his life, having first gained sponsorship by the iconic surf company in 1992 at age 11.
At the other end of the spectrum, after six years of battling on the ASP Qualifying Series, last year Dion Atkinson's (Seaford, SA/AUS) dream came true, he officially qualified for the elite ASP World Championship Tour. Dion has been close to qualification in the past and narrowly missed out, but this time he made it, securing spot 31 out of 32.
Atkinson is renowned for his hard, powerful and fast approach and he's hoping that these characteristics will help him be successful on this year's WCT, especially in waves of consequence at Fiji, Teahupo'o and Pipe. ASP caught up with Dion while he was at home in South Australia, a few days after he found out his qualification spot was official.
So Cronulla surfers, get down to the beach all this weekend and make the most of this one-off opportunity and support the local teams — the Sharks and the Dunnies!
