Cronulla’s Shark Island could once again be on the world stage when the world’s top 48 bodyboarders make their way to the NSW south coast at the end of the month for the inaugural Kiama Bodyboard King Pro.
The elite world grand slam event will run from July 30 to August 9 and be mobile between Cronulla’s Shark Island and Bawley Point. However, it will utilise Kiama as its main hub for competition days.
“I am beyond stoked to finally have Australia play host to the world tour,” said Cronulla’s Association of Professional Bodyboarding CEO Alex Leon.
“We have worked extremely hard for years to bring the tour back to Australia and we can finally showcase our sport to the Australian community and hope it helps the development and participation of the sport of bodyboarding in Australia.
“We hope to run at least one or two rounds at Shark Island if the swell is good inside the window.”
Member for Kiama Gareth Ward said that the event was great news for the region.
“This bodyboarding competition will see the top 32 men and top 16 women of the world compete on various beaches of the south coast to become the champion of the Australian grand slam,” he said.
“It’s a terrific draw card for our region and will provide a real boost for local tourism and the hospitality industry in Kiama and surrounding areas during this event.”
Wildcards for the event include locals Andrew Lester and Jase Finlay, 2016 Shark Island Challenge champion Mitch Rawlins, six-time Australian champion and Cronulla local Lilly Pollard, world title runner-up David Winchester and Bodyboard King wildcard and former world champion Ben Player.
Kiama’s Surf Beach will host an array of different happenings on August 4 and 5 with a pro junior series event and coaching clinics with nine-time world champion Hawaiian Mike Stewart and the Australian women’s professional Pollard from the Bodyboard Academy.
There will also be the “Fling 4 Bling” tow out air show pending wave size.
Local surfers can enter the qualifying event on July 30 with Cronulla athletes from the world qualifying tour – Jack Baker, Shaun Pyne and Chris Deller – competing.
The Kiama Bodyboard King Pro has been secured by the NSW Government via its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW, in partnership with Kiama Council, APB and Surfing NSW.
If Cronulla surfers thought it couldn't get any better they were wrong,with the past week really putting on an exhibition of perfect conditions.
From a Saturday surprise 8 ft swell to today's 2 ft-and something for everyone in between with offshores everyday,but we may have had the best of it.
I took todays pics over the last weekend,with the Point and Wanda being the star,this morning its very small(1/2ft) with a Sou'wester roughing up the small faces-wait for the tide to fill in if you can .
The immediate forecast doesn't look good with a fading SSE and ESE swell dropping to tiny and near flat levels for the remainder of the working week-there is a hope for a shoulder high spike on late Friday afternoon, Saturday morning with 20 knot West/Sou-West winds,dropping again for the start of the week.
The Gold Coasts Stephanie Gilmore won the Corona Open J-Bay, Stop No. 6 on World Surf League Championship Tour last week, in pumping four-to-seven foot conditions at the world-renowned Supertubes.
In a marathon day of competition, Gilmore took down Lakey Peterson (USA) in the Final,Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) in the Semifinals, Bronte Macaulay (AUS) in the Quarterfinals, and Nikki Van Dijk (AUS) in Round 3 to claim the win at the women’s first CT event hosted at Jeffreys Bay in almost 20 years.
The Corona Open J-Bay win for Gilmore marks her record 29th CT victory and her third in the 2018 season (Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, Oi Rio Pro). In her first-time visiting and competing in South Africa, the six-time WSL Champion made herself at home at Jeffreys Bay with stunning performances and she left with the world's number one ranking.
The Vans US Open of Surfing is the next event on the tour and will return to the southside of the Huntington Beach Pier to host the world’s best action sports athletes from July 28 through August 5th-then its off to Chopes on August 10.
