Surfing Sutherland Shire surfers made the most of their home advantage by taking out 7 of the 8 age divisions finals at the 2019 Ocean & Earth Sydney Southern Beaches Regional Titles on Sunday.
Held in big waves at the North Cronulla Alley Surfing NSW organisers were lucky to get away with it after massive waves on Saturday saw other contests called off.
The u12 girls may have had the least amount of entrants but they had the biggest ticker taking on the 4-6ft stormy closeouts without fear.
Cronulla Boardriders 2018 female champ Grace Gosby couldn't be denied, comprehensively winning her final before clubmate Kash Brown dominated the u12 boys final doubling second positions points and wave count.
In the u14's it was Cronulla's Lilly Brown who took the win before Maroubra's Mateus Bersot first place spoiled the Cronulla party.
In the 16's it was Elouera's Jarvis Earle who got us back on track with a close win over Maroubra wizkid Koda Killorn with Sharks Elyse Abrahams taking the girls.
In the u18's it was Cronulla's Jordy Turansky who dominated with clubmates Finlay kennedy-Browning and Charlie Chegwidden taking second and third and April Davey winning the girls.
Most finalists are now allocated positions in the upcoming NSW Junior and Crommet State Surfing Titles.
All the recent weather predictions proved correct as big surf lashed our coast over the last week.
Saturday dawned with a fresh 6-8ft south swell smashing our beaches making them almost unrideable although there were some waves surfed at the Point and Shoes.
Sunday and Monday, conditions calmed down with some nice waves to be had on all the beaches and reefs which was then blown out of the water with a massive South swell that blew through yesterday morning leaving the Cronulla sand banks in tatters.
It was 3 ft at 7am and 15ft at 9am that was how fast and violent conditions became as the southerly hammered away.
The forecast shows lots of swell for the next week but with a constant southerly onshore wind flow-today its still windy but only 6-8ft with waves at the point and southern reefs and it will drop to a random 4ft tomorrow with another 6ft spike on Friday and a gradual reduction over the weekend leaving Monday 1-2ft-something for everyone!
American Lakey Peterson and John John Florence (HAW) won the Margaret River Pro, the fourth stop on the 2019 World Surf League Championship Tour , in six-to-eight foot waves at Main Break yesterday.
Florence earned his second event title after defeating good friend Kolohe Andino (USA) in the Final, while Peterson clinched her first win in the West by taking down Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA).
With the first four stops of the season complete, the 2019 World Title race is starting to take shape heading into the year's halfway mark, the Oi Rio Pro. The 2019 CT rankings will not only decide the year's World Champions but will also determine the first 18 qualifiers into the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, where surfing will make its Olympic debut.
Florence currently leads the rankings on the men's Jeep Leaderboard and Peterson is gaining momentum with a move up to World No. 6-Steph Gilmore still leads the women's and the highest place Aussie man is Ryan Callinan in 7th.
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After eight days of world-class longboarding in Biarritz, France, the host nation continued to dominate their home break to earn the Team Gold Medal at the 2019 ISA World Longboard Surfing Championship.
France was led by a powerful four-medal performance, highlighted by Alice's Lemoigne's Gold Medal victory in the Women's Division. Lemoigne's teammates Antoine and Edouard Delpero earned the Men's Silver and Bronze respectively while Justine Dupont took the Women's Silver.
The Team Gold Medal is the second for Team France, after they took the top honors as the 2013 edition of the event in Huanchaco, Peru.
"This is amazing," said Lemoigne. "I've been dreaming of this since I was selected for the team. Today that dream came true.
"All my family and friends are here, which makes this very special."
Following the two-time World Champions France were Team Peru with the Silver, USA with the Bronze, and Brazil with the Copper.
Australia were punished into fifth place-winning no medals with their young and inexperienced team-we came third in the semi's in the Aloha Cup and made the 4th round in the men and womens.
