Elouera Boardriders Club had a red hot crack at Newcastle on the weekend, busting into the team final. But they couldn't put a dent into Avoca Boardriders, who are the new nudie Australian Boardriders Battle champions after downing more than 24 boardriders clubs from across Australia.
The grand final match-up pitched the Central Coast club – anchored by WSL CT surfers Matt Wilkinson and Adrian “Ace” Buchan – against reigning champions Narrabeen, Snapper Rocks and Bondi, with Avoca reigning supreme after notching up a giant heat total.
It was always going to be hard work for the “Dunny Hangers” after star surfer Connor O’Leary posted a 9-point ride and still only finished second in their skins heat on Saturday. A fourth place in the women's left them languishing on the bottom tier of the table before a fantastic team effort rolled them into the team's final on Sunday where their momentum finally ran out.
O’Leary showed he won't be a passenger on this year's CT Tour, continually hitting his mark as the team's power surfer was backed up in every heat by his teammates Shane Campbell, Jared Hickel, Nathan Rohr and Nichola Turner.
The Elouera team finished in 10th position and will now set their sights on the Sailor Jerry Surf Tag event at Cronulla on March 4 and 5.
Cronulla surfers had another good start to the week with a super clean, off-shore day on Monday. A new 3-4 foot south swell really turned on at Wanda where the banks also lined up for a good day of surfing.
It is a bit different today with that swell dying overnight leaving smaller waves on Tuesday and also this morning where it has swung a bit east but still fun.
Swellnet predicts the new swell expected today will probably be wind affected from the nor-east. Thursday has a chance for a small mix of southerly groundswell and peaky nor-east swell with light winds, though don't get too excited.
This weekend we have the Nutri-Grain Ironman and Ironwoman Finals Series at North Cronulla with a cold front on the charts that’ll blow through the coast early Saturday, bringing gusty southerly winds to most regions. Surf size will build during the day but quality won’t be very good, south facing beaches should see some 3-4 foot sets by late afternoon.
Sunday will see slowly easing southerly winds and easing south swell.
The 2017 Maitland and Port Stephens Toyota Pro kicked off on Monday at Merewether Beach in Newcastle. The event runs in conjunction with Newcastle’s Surfest and is the first WSL Qualifying Series (QS) 6000 event of the season meaning it has attracted a huge international field including some of surfing’s biggest names.
Round 2 was completed yesterday and it brought with it the event top seeds. Merewether Beach served up slightly wind affected 2-foot waves for the second day of competition as the Anditi Women’s Pro had another lay-day.
Connor O’Leary kept his momentum going with a big win in round 2 over a stacked heat – his team mates Hickel and Campbell didn’t fare as well and were eliminated.
One of the biggest talking points has been the return to competitive surfing of Championship Tour (CT) superstar Owen Wright. Wright was out of action in 2016 due to an injury he received while surfing in Hawaii in late 2015. At the time, Wright was sitting at No.5 on the CT rankings and was a chance to win the world title that year.
It has been a long wait for Wright and his fans and today the wait was over with the hard charging goofy-foot hitting the water at Merewether and winning his first heat.