Cronulla bodyboarder Lilly Pollard has cemented herself as Australia's most dominant female bodyboarder winning back to back Australian titles in the ABA Pro tour Championship.
The Australian bodyboard association held the NSW Pro round at Whale beach after last months Queensland event sponsored by NMD board co and The Bodyboard king .
A world class field took on the powerful slabs on offer for some of Cronulla's best bodyboarders to showcase their skill .
Caringbah's Nicholas Veldekis got the ball rolling placing third in the final of the Pro juniors . A 14-year-old team rider for The Handpicked Movement and supported by Emerald bodyboards ,Nicholas was joined by locals Oliver Ridgeway and Nathan McGregor who came fifth.
Lilly Pollard placed first in the Pro women's final in both championship events and won the overall pro women's Australian championship
Veteran competitor Pollard who runs the Bodyboard Academy in Cronulla has lost count of the number of Pro titles she has won and said she had been competing for 23 years.
"I've won it five or six times I think but really it would be good to see more young girls giving it a go," Lilly said. "It's a great competitive sport."
Three times world champion Ben Player won the mens with Cronulla's Michael Ostler runner up.
It's been a dry old argument for waves this week in Cronulla with a winter flat spell in progress.
A few waves on Saturday and Sunday slowly died into the new week leaving us with a couple of offshore days of ankle high slappers .
This morning there is a really south swell wrapping into Bate Bay leaving Northies flat but with 2-3 ft waves at Wanda-the problem is there isnt a bank on the beach at low tide and its just closing out.
The immediate forecast doesn't look good either with no waves predicted until a small east spike on Saturday afternoon,Sunday and the biggest day of the week with a new south east swell (2-3 ft) on Monday.
The International Surfing Association has announced the World Surf League Championship Tour surfers that have been nominated to represent their National Surfing Teams at the 2019 ISA World Surfing Games in Miyazaki, Japan September 7-15.
The nomination of the top WSL surfers will make for one of the best editions of the event to date and will promote the incorporation of the world's top surfers on their national teams. The ISA World Surfing Games have been held since 1964.
WSL Champions Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), John John Florence (USA), Gabriel Medina (BRA), and Carissa Moore (USA), along with ISA World Surfing Games Champions Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), Jeremy Flores (FRA), and Courtney Conlogue (USA), will be headlining the talent representing their nations and going for Gold in Miyazaki.
This event will be held eleven months ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. As per the Olympic Eligibility Requirements, up to the top three men and women per country on the WSL CT will automatically be nominated to compete in their National Surfing teams in the 2019 WSG. Surfers that are nominated must accept their nomination in order to retain eligibility for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
According to the Olympic qualification , the top ten eligible men and eight women, maximum two per country, at the end of the 2019 WSL CT season, will earn qualification slots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Nominated are the strongest Aussie team ever assembled for the event.-Men: Ryan Callinan, Julian Wilson and Owen Wright
Women: Stephanie Gilmore, Sally Fitzgibbons and Nikki Van Dijk
The World Surf League this week announced a series of sustainability commitments that set a new standard for global professional sports. These commitments are designed to inspire, educate and empower ocean lovers while addressing critical environmental issues and include-
Becoming carbon neutral globally by the end of 2019; Eliminating single-serve plastics by the end of 2019; and Leaving each place better than it was found.
.Kelly Slater,love him or not is right when he says "The ocean is vital to everyone, for food, for oxygen and especially to us surfers. I think everyone should make it their priority to care about this issue and make changes in their lives to help."
June 15 is International Surfing Day, founded by the Surfrider Foundation-all members of the ocean community should make a pledge to "Stop Trashing Waves".
