Indigenous surfer Soli Bailey from Byron Bay took out last year’s annual DP Battle Royale invitational surfing event at Stanwell Park in a hotly contested final against Cronulla’s Jared Hickel.
This weeks invitation only surf contest is organised by Dylan Perese, Scarborough Boardriders Club and Geoff Latimer from Illawarra Sports High.
The innovative format will see the best 32 surfers from Sydney to the far south coast battle it out in the best waves between Stanwell Park and Sandon Point with the main venue to be Thirroul Beach.
Competition date is this Saturday, October 14th and there'll be live music, entertainment and some of the greatest surfing on the coast.
This year’s super competitive event will feature big names with Bailey defending his title plus ex-CT surfer Nathan Hedge and former world junior champ Dean Bowen. There'll also be hot WQS surfers such as Cronulla’s Hickel and Shane Campbell as well as Stanwell Park’s Australian Champ Kalani Ball.
An $11,000 prize pool awaits successful contestants with prizes to be won by spectators on the day. First place in the Battle Royale will take home $4000.
This year’s event is brought to you by the Telstra Wollongong store with the support of Ocean&Earth, Crankt Protein, Carve Futures Fins and VISSLA.
Cronulla surfers were blessed on Monday with a fresh 6ft north east swell that came out of no-where and delivered all day.
All the beaches reefs and points were breaking and the wind stayed offshore until early afternoon.
Tuesday morning wasn't so good dropping down to 2/3 ft with a light southerly blowing and Swellnet predicts Wednesday to be very ordinary as the swell dies out, and early light winds swing into a fresh afternoon nor’easter.
“We’re likely to see plenty of size by the end of the day - perhaps some 2-3ft + sets at NE facing beaches on dark - but conditions won’t be great with the local breeze.”
The good news is a solid short range NE swell will peak on Thursday morning, with offshore NW winds so it looks promising with 3ft of southerly swell going into the weekend.
The Roxy Pro France resumed in excellent conditions and ran through Rounds 3, 4 and the Quarterfinals to see the top four women emerge in clean three-to-four foot surf at La Graviere.
Sally Fitzgibbons had an extremely close call in the second Quarterfinal against injury replacement Bianca Buitendag (ZAF). The South African’s quiet start took a turn for the better when the powerful goofyfoot scored a massive 8.67 for her backhand vertical attack on a set wave. Unfortunately the ocean went quiet and Fitzgibbons who had stayed much more active, took an important win and spot into the semifinals.
With the event forecast showing very little swell for the next two days of competition, contest officials will reconvene at 8 a.m Wednesday.
Roxy Pro France Semifinal Match-Ups:
SF 1: Carissa Moore (HAW) vs. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)
SF 2: Lakey Peterson (USA) vs. Tyler Wright (AUS)
Meanwhile in the WQS battle,Hawaiian Ezekiel Lau has claimed the QS10,000 EDP Billabong Pro Cascais title over Italo Ferreira(BRA) in clean three-to-four foot surf at praia do Guincho, the back-up venue in Cascais.
“It’s the first year I even make a heat here so to be in the final is a huge win,” Lau said.
The final two QS10,000 events on the 2017 WSL Men’s Qualifying Series will be the Hawaiian Pro and VANS World Cup in Hawaii from November 12 - December 5.
Finally ,the World Surf League is pleased to announce an agreement with Titans of Mavericks and Cartel Management in which the world-famous Mavericks in Northern California will join WSL Big Wave Tour through 2021.
“We’re very pleased with this opportunity to work with the big wave community in bringing the Mavericks event to life on the international stage,” Sophie Goldschmidt, WSL CEO, said. “The League has always held a high amount of respect for the both venue and its community as one of the pillars of big wave surfing. The WSL intends to continue to run the Mavericks event and celebrate the stories of those who steward and surf it through the Big Wave Tour. This is a huge moment for both the organization and the sport of surfing.”
Thank God for that -its getting messy in the corporate surfing world,let's have some clarity,at 20 ft plus!
