Surfing can be like a marriage – for better or worse. Today is not one of the better days!
Yesterday’s 3ft clean East swell is a distant memory, wiped away by the 15 knot southerly that blew in overnight. The 2 ft weak rubbish left behind is also bad news for the week ahead where Swellnet predicts it isn’t going to get any bigger or much better.
The Nulla is looking at 5 days of 1/2ft dribble with mainly onshore winds with the occasional westerly puff and a small swell increase on Saturday with Monday looking the best bet for a new South swell.
The only good news is the banks seemed to survive last week’s solid and somewhat testing conditions and are lining up nicely for the rest of the Spring.
There is a lot of surfing news on the world radar so read on if your interested.
Cronulla’s Jay Brown showed why he is the king of the local kids with a runner up position at the Rip Curl GromSearch presented by POSCA at Maroubra on Saturday. Jackson Roberts (Bateau Bay, NSW) ensured another title would head north to the Central Coast, taking out the 14-and-Under Boys division after performing an array of mammoth forehand hits. The powerful natural-footer took a stranglehold of the lead, bagging a 15.73 heat total to edge in front of Jay.
Stop No.7 on the 2015 European Qualifying Series, the Allianz Billabong Pro Cascais is on StandBy. A second lay day has been called with minimal surf breaking at Guincho. With only a handful of major events remaining in the 2015 Qualifying Series worldwide, theAllianz Billabong Pro Cascais will play an important role in the qualifying campaigns of some of the World’s most talented surfers, trying to access for some or stay on the Samsung Galaxy Championship Tour for others.
Cronulla’s Connor O’Leary ranked 24th is heading into the battle of his career, surfing in Heat 22 with current World(QS) no 1 -Alejo Muniz (BRA), Connor O'Leary (AUS), Tiago Pires (PRT), Joshua Moniz (HAW) after Aussie Jack Freestone won the SATA Azores Pro last week.
In the Philippines, local Jared Hickel got through one round before John Mark Tokong took out the Siargao Cloud 9 Surfing Cup QS1,500 (Qualifying Series) over fellow Filipino Piso Alcala (PHL) in clean conditions that offered up a mix of tubes and turn sections. The day saw exciting battles through the Quarterfinals, Semifinals and the Final with six countries represented between the eight surfers.
In the womans , Courtney Conlogue (USA) defeated Lakey Peterson (USA) to win the Cascais Women’s Pro and reclaim the WSL Jeep Leader Jersey. Stop No. 8 on the 2015 Samsung Galaxy World Surf League Championship Tour the Cascais Women’s Pro, concluded in solid two-to-four foot (1 metre) waves at Guincho.
The victory is Conlogue’s third of 2015 with previous CT wins in Margaret River and Rio. The win propels her up to first place on the Jeep Leaderboard ahead of 2X WSL Champion Carissa Moore (HAW) and our Sally who is 8000 points behind in third.
The inaugural ISA World Adaptive Surfing Championship presented by Challenged Athletes Foundation, Hurley, Stance and the City of San Diego, culminated on Sunday at La Jolla Shores in grand fashion, crowning the first-ever ISA World Adaptive Surfing Champions.
The newly crowned Gold Medalists were Bruno Hansen (DEN) in Prone, Jesse Billauer (USA) in Assist, Mark "Mono" Stewart (AUS) in Stand and Fellipe Lima (BRA) in Upright.
The Stand Final wrapped up the event in dramatic fashion with Australia’s Mark “Mono” Stewart who narrowly earned the Gold Medal with a heat total of 11.13, edging out South Africa’s Antony Smyth’s score of 10.66.
Finally and didn’t I tell you, surfing has made the final shortlist for inclusion at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
As one of Australia’s unofficial national sports, surfing will be competing with baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding and sports climbing before a final decision is made at the 129th IOC Session in Rio in August 2016.
Australian three times World Champion and current Word Surf League ratings leader Mick Fanning passionately backed the bid.
“It is probably the most watched sporting event in the world. It would be a huge honour to go and represent your country at such a prestigious competition.'
Told you so - Wave Pools here we come - til next week!
