This weekend get ready for 'Shire Shreds',which is a new youth event taking place at Wanda Beach on Sunday, May 19.
The event is a continuation of this year's Youth Week activities where Sutherland Shire Council has partnered with Cronulla Surfing Academy, Headspace and Belong Inc to bring a free, all-inclusive community youth surf festival for all levels and abilities to the community.
As well as a surfing competition,Shire Shreds has live music,skate sessions,food trucks,yoga,face painting and free surf lessons going on.
"Shire Shred is another great opportunity to celebrate our young people with activities for the whole family to enjoy," said Sutherland Shire Mayor,Carmelo Pesce.
Professional surfer Connor O'Leary will be there on the day to help coach the junior surfing competitors and organisers are encouraging the whole community to come along and be part of the fun youth event.
CSA's head coach Blake Johnston who does a lot for mental health awareness said it should be a "sick day".
There were a few sick days over the last week for Cronulla surfers with Mothers Day delivering a solid swell for the start of the week.
This morning there is a surprise 4ft south swell wrapping into Wanda on the high tide-the bad news is it's predicted to drop and the forecast was for 1-2 ft waves on offer all this week.
The banks are hanging in there after the weekend swell but the bigger it is look for the higher tides for the best waves.
The swell is predominantly from the south with a hint of east and the winds should be offshore with Friday afternoon the point where it reaches another peak at 3-4ft.
Saturday should still have some size before it reverts back to knee high for the new week-the good news is the water temp is still hovering around the 20 degree mark,as opposed to the 10 degree outside temperature in the mornings.
Cronulla Girls Boardriders club had its best ever result in a national final with a third place in the FISHBOWL Surftag Australian titles at Sydney's South Curl Curl Beach on Saturday.
North Narrabeen women (19.17) held on for a narrow victory over North Shelly (18.30) with Corina McGuire almost getting the job done on her last wave which fell less than a point short of the score required. Cronulla Girls Boardriders (14.03) finished in third position with Cabarita (10.40) finishing fourth in their first year competing in the FISHBOWL Surftag Australian Series.
The Cronulla Girls team of Jaz Turner, Sam Dewhurst, Sam Oakes, Rachael Whyte and Rachel Frankenbach had the best local result since the Women's Division was introduced in 2008.
In the mens Maroubra United Boardriders(23.27) have won their first FISHBOWL Title finishing ahead of Queenscliff (15.73), North Narrabeen (13.30) and North Avalon (11.53) in the big waves final.
Hawaii's Nathan Florence chose the spectacular setting of Shipstern Bluff off the Tasmanian coast to win his first big-wave surfing contest at the 2019 edition of Red Bull Cape Fear.
The invitation-only event which was born at Kurnell's Cape Solander saw 20 surfers such as Australian legend Mick Fanning and 2016 defending champion Russell Bierke tackle the famous 'Shippies' when a wave within a wave is created due to the shape of the reef bottom, causing several steps to emerge.
One of the most difficult surf locations in the world, Shipstern Bluff was first surfed in the early 2000s with triple-overhead waves up to 20 ft commonplace.
Contestants used impact jackets to help absorb shock from serious wipeouts in 12-degree water temperatures with frigid southerly winds also posing problems.
Surfing's unique big-wave event saw Florence start Monday strong in heat one after opting to paddle for the entire event instead of using the tow rope.
In the final Florence paddled into and successfully negotiated a double-overhead barrel and Shipstern's notorious 'step' to score an excellent 9.33 to cement himself as the one to beat and followed up with a 5.83 to seal the win as Hollmer-Cross failed to find a second wave.
Finally in Bali on Monday,the Corona Bali Protected, the third stop on the World Surf League Championship Tour , got an early start and completed the men's and women's Seeding Round (Round 1) on the opening day.
The competitors showcased their flair in the three-to-four foot waves at Keramas to improve their seeds and avoid the dreaded Elimination Round. The top two surfers in each heat advanced directly to Round 3 (Round of 32 for men, Round of 16 for women), while the third place finishers went to the Elimination Round 2 which was finished yesterday.
