Fantastic South Aus

Day one of the event saw what looked to be cracking waves, and the event was put on hold. It was 3 to 4 ft, with random peaks breaking the length of Waitpinga beach. We were stunned. We returned at 10.30am anticipating the start of round one and were met with strange news. Today was a lay day. Confused and with nothing else to do, the majority of the competitors jumped in the rip to the west of the car park, then it was clear why we had scrapped competition for the day. What looked like enticing peaks from the shore, turned into unpredictable closeouts upon closer inspection. No matter where you positioned yourself, the better waves proved elusive. When you finally found yourself in the slot for a runner there would be five other juniors on your inside. The reality of the junior series is that we are a travelling instant crowd.  If you were able to find yourself on what resembled a wave, it would take a ridiculous amount of time and effort to return to the lineup. The conditions were tough  and everyone agreed that it was an acceptable call to scrap competition for the day.

Competition commenced on day two, with chest high sets breaking in a far more organised fashion than the previous day. The majority of scoring rides were on the left directly in front of the competition set up, but occasionally a natural footer would sneak down the bank to the east and find a cheeky score on the right.

I took out my first heat, with Sam Wrench sneaking second from Tyson Kosuzak in the dying minutes. My housemates, brothers Jordy and Ty Watson both progressed with solid heat wins. Unfortunately my bunk buddy, Dean Bowen, was a shock early elimination from the event. With Dean needing an emotional lift, we purchased a heap of ammunition of the Phoonk Gun* (a homemade rocket launcher) and under the cover of darkness we found a secluded area and unleased oranges into the atmosphere in deodorant fuelled mayhem.

Day three saw a further reduction in both the swell size and conditions. Hassling was at an all time high, with barely breaking waist high lefts and rights breaking off a tiny takeoff area. Davey Cathels went down in his second interference induced loss in as many events, venting his frustration with the judges on his way to the car park. I won both my round of 32 and 16 heats, setting up a career best result. Owen Wright was the usual standout despite the fact he was clearly surfing at 10%.  Both of the Watson boys lost their round of 16 heats in the afternoon and once again the Phoonk Gun was turned to for emotional support. Lemons were our projectile of choice this afternoon and no animals were harmed in our hour of adolescent rebellion.

The conditions improved for the final day of surfing, but it was still pretty average. To the delight of the groupies on the beach, Noah Lane surfed the first heat of the day in boardshorts. His quarter final opponent, Owen, had withdrawn from the event to chase the $100,000USD winners prize at the US Open, leaving Noah the perfect opportunity to carry out his losing bet with Davey on the state of origin results. I went down to David Vlug in our wave starved quarter-final. Needing a high 6 point ride, I waited with priority and nailed a 7.5 only to turn around and see Vlug throwing vertical combinations on the heat winning 8 point score.

Rather than returning to our Joy Court residence, I joined SA legend Todd Goudie on the commentary for the remainder of the day. Noah beat Chris “Wendy” Friend in semi final one and Vlug out surfed Billy Kean in the second. The girls were semis were a faced paced affair, with Kirby Wright going down to a rampaging Laura Enever and Tyler Wright leaving Ellie Jean Coffey chasing a combination of scores.

Rather than holding an expression session, the “Fantastic Noodles Next Wave Celebrity Drop In Challenge” was staged to pass time. Before The Game’s Lehmo nearly drowned in the shorebreak in a relatively uninteresting affair.

The womens final was a cracker, with Tyler Wright and Laura Enever exchanging blows on the walling rights. With five minutes remaining Tyler looked the goods, but two late excellent scores, Laura took the win in a thriller.

The mens final was a relatively one sided affair. Vlug never found rhythm and was forced to sit and watch Noah throw down consecutive nine point rides. Having finished second to Owen at the previous event in Western Australia, it was good to see Noah take out his first win on the Junior Series.

 The presentations went down in standard fashion, before everyone bailed to make their flight to the next event to be held at Keramas, in bomb riddled Bali.

I am writing this sitting in a cramped seat next to an overweight Englishman, 35649 feet from the ground, somewhere over the centre of the Northern Territory.

*The Phoonk Gun may or may not exist. We may or may not have fired it. This story may or may not be fictional and we may or may not have done burnouts in the hire car on the way to our secret location. I do not condone the use of illegal projectile firing devices.