Representatives from Cronulla's surfing clubs joined with community leaders to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the dedication of Cronulla's National Surfing Reserve at Rydges Hotel on Saturday.
National Surfing Reserves founder Brad Farmer acknowledged the outstanding and ongoing commitment made by the Cronulla surfing community over the last 10 years, declaring it to be the reserve of the decade.
Also announced were the winners of the Spirit of Surfing photo competition, with Josiah Cocking's wave picture selected as the high school winner while Ben Kiggins' picture, shot by himself in a tube, the open winner.
Sutherland Shire Mayor Carmelo Pesce also unveiled the Shark Island sign which will be the next inclusion to the signage program on the Esplanade that identifies the significant surfing breaks within the CBNSR.
The Surfing Reserve acknowledges the surfing way of life and links past, present and future generations who share the natural ocean environment in Cronulla. It celebrates the riding of waves and the significant contribution that local surfers and surfing culture plays in the community.
The event was generously supported by Olsen's Funerals, Wavechaser, Force 9 Surfboards, Rip Curl, JS Industries, Rydges and Miggo.
Meanwhile, Connor O'Leary's quest to re-qualify in Europe is still on track after the QS 6,000 Azores Islands Pro contest finished with a victory to Portuguese surfer Fredrico Morais.
Round four was the best battle of the final day as Brazilian Luel Felipe, O'Leary and Portugal's Vasco Ribeiro threaded the big lefts and posted huge scores one after another. O'Leary had the single highest score in the heat with a 9.20 but somehow lost against Felipe's incredible 17.04 total and Ribeiro's 14.46.
O'Leary, who kindly donated his JBay contest singlet to the Cronulla Surf Reserve dinner, now sits at equal 13th on the qualifying rankings still within easy reach of the top 12 as he and some of the world's top athletes once again take on the perfect rights of Ribeira d'Ilhas for the upcoming QS 10,000 EDP Billabong Pro Ericeira from September 24 to 29.
In Queensland, Cronulla and Elouera sent junior teams to the 2019 Junior Kirra Teams Challenge which is regarded as the best inter-club junior teams event in the world with more than 55 clubs represented.
The Cronulla Junior Highland Real Estate team had the best result finishing seventh with three wins to Cruz McKee, Kash Brown and under-18s champion Jay Brown.
Cronulla surfers are in for a run of fun small waves over the next week with today's 2-3 ft clean conditions set to stick around.
Its been small but surfable so far this week with good off-shores keeping the small faces clean and the banks are evenly distributed all over the Bate Bay beach's.
The forecast is for the swell to swing south for the week with a 3-5 ft peak on Saturday along with some onshore winds-apart from that its waist high plain sailing and steady as we go heading into the dreaded summer doldrums.
In the Californian desert ,American Lakey Peterson and Gabriel Medina (BRA) won the World Surf League Freshwater Pro presented by Outerknown on the weekend
Peterson and Medina bested their respective fields at the Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California for the seventh stop on the women's Championship Tour (CT) and the eighth stop on the men's CT.
Peterson's and Medina's wins put the 2019 World Title race in full swing with Peterson vaulting up to No. 2 on the World Rankings and Medina climbing to World No. 1.
Medina's comeback is in full swing with his second win at the Surf Ranch. The Brazilian's opening runs in the Final eventually secured his second win in three events this season and sent him from World No. 4 to No. 1 to begin a surge toward a third World Title.
The 2019 CT will not only decide the prestigious World Title but will also determine who from the world's elite will qualify to represent their country at surfing's Olympic debut in Tokyo next year.
