Small but clean waves greeted school children this morning as they made their way down to the beach after a little sleep in….they should hurry up though because its going to blow nor'east.
Apart from the bluebottles it will also swing today's 2ft of sou'east swell around to the north for tomorrows surfing activities.
Friday is the day though when a new south swell peaks around the 4ft mark (swellnet) with sou'west to sou'east winds before dying in the bum for the weekend where typically it will be 2ft for all the weekend warriors.
I took todays pics at a little secret rip bank (or so I thought) until the tear-rific trio of Connor, Harrison and Jared paddled out. I exited stage left but it does show with only one bank at John Davey it's hard to spread the love when there’s a closeout from Southies to the end of the Wall and from Wanda to Voodoo.
After the weekend when the girls got a smashing at the Alley, Kobie Enright (Tweed Heads) claimed the prestigious Junior Qualifying Series event, earning herself $1000 for the win plus valuable JQS rankings points.
Enright, managed to get out to a strong start in the final and never looked like relinquishing the lead as she threw down a barrage of snaps and carves. Enright’s performance hit its climax early in the exchange when the natural-footer managed to post a 8.83 wave score which put fellow finalist Keely Andrew on the ropes for the remaining portion of the final.
In addition to the ASP Australasia JQS event, the NRMA Women's Surf Classic saw some of Australia's best female surfers participating in a variety of different surfing disciplines including junior and open longboard, shortboard and stand-up paddleboard.
Meanwhile on the World tour the Swatch Women’s Pro Final was an all-Australian rematch of this year’s Fiji Women’s Pro, this time decisively clinched by five-time ASP Women’s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore, 26. Gilmore notched the event’s only Perfect 10 and added a 9.50 to take the win over Sally Fitzgibbons. Final scores were 19.50 for Gilmore and 14.03 for Fitzgibbons (7.03 and 7.0). Second place for Fitzgibbons was sufficient to move the 23-year-old to the No. 1 spot on the rankings. Gilmore sits behind her in second place, and Carissa Moore (HAW), who was eliminated in Round 4, has dropped from first to third.
In the mens,South Africa’s Jordy Smith claimed a last-minute victory at the Hurley Pro over Hawaii’s John John Florence to put a season of close calls behind him and move him up to No. 11 on the WCT rankings. Smith, 27, recently relocated to San Clemente and his local knowledge provided crucial wave selection in the final moments of the heat to steal the lead from Florence. The final scores were 16.50 (9.33 and 7.17) for Smith to Florence’s 15.87 (8.6 and 7.27). The Hurley Pro is Stop No. 8 of 11 on the 2014 Samsung Galaxy ASP World Championship Tour, and the first Final of the year for both surfers.
In back to back contests, and with only small surf on offer at the primary site of Les Estagnots this morning, Roxy Pro France event organizers have called a lay day for competition, but a projected increase in swell overnight could see the world’s best female surfers commence the event as early as tomorrow.
“As expected, the surf has dropped since yesterday and we’ve called a lay day for competition,” Jessi Miley-Dyer, ASP Women’s Commissioner, said. “We expect a new system to fill in overnight and through the next several days so we anticipate a probable commencement tomorrow morning. We’ll be back at 7:30am to reassess the conditions.”
In more contest news, the 20th Annual Siargao Cloud 9 Surfing Cup is only weeks away from creating history as the first ASP Qualifying Series event at Cloud 9 in the Philippines. The event will be co-sanctioned by both the Association of Surfing Professionals and the Asian Surfing Championship with surfers battling for precious ranking’s points and prize money at one of the world’s best waves.
For those of you who aren’t scared and want to wax up the guns, the ASP Big Wave World Tour (BWWT) Southern Hemisphere season has come to a close and, following a short break, the Northern Hemisphere season will get underway on October 15, 2014. The world’s best big wave chargers are preparing for the second half of the season and the chance to compete at the three remaining world-class big wave venues.
The 2014/2015 BWWT season is divided into two parts, the Southern Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere components, each hosting three potential events in line with optimum swell windows at some of the planet’s most renowned big wave sites. The Southern Hemisphere window, which is now complete, ran from April 15 to August 31, 2014 with event options in Chile, Peru and South Africa. The Northern Hemisphere window begins on October 15, 2014 and runs through February 28, 2015 with event options in Mexico, the Basque Region of Spain, and Maui, Hawaii.
After all that you might want to eat and if you are in Perth you can join Former two-time ASP world surfing champion Tom Carroll and some of Australia’s top chefs for the Surfing Chefs for SurfAid cocktail party at The Cottesloe Beach Hotel in Perth on Wednesday 22 October.
The fundraiser, held in The Beach Club, will be a special evening of gourmet food and outlandishly fine liquor prepared by Russell Blaikie (Must Winebar Perth) and his team of award-winning celebrity chefs, who share a common passion for surfing.
The Surfing Chefs, who all donate their work, will serve up an exquisite multi-course canape menu sourced from local produce .
Celebrity chef Russell Blaikie came up with the concept of Surfing Chefs for SurfAid in 2011 and the series of events has now raised nearly $80,000 for the humanitarian group, which works in the Mentawai and Nias islands, off the coast of Sumatra, and Sumbawa and Sumba in Eastern Indonesia.
So after that little canapé it's time to go surfing-till next week!
