2ND AUGUST SUNDOWNER TIONA
9TH AUGUST SUNDOWNER PORT MAC

The world’s biggest DK riders from around the globe will be descending on the first event at Sundowner Tiona placed in the wave haven of Pacific Palms, Forster. With guys like Micah McMullin and Colin Black representing Hawaii and loads of aussie lads like Jake Sharp and young gun Keegan Cronin set to do battle, its looking like a great draw for both events. Organiser Clayton Pickworth mentioned that the numbers are looking the goods so far, “Yeah we already have more numbers than last year at Tiona and it looks like healthy numbers again for the Port Mac comp so it’s all good”. “Waves along the coast have been pumping over the last week so things are set for an awesome battle between the guys”.

Maurice Wakeling will head up the judging panel with his vast experience and knowledge of the jack stance along with international judges from Peru and experienced locals like Ash Murray. “I really wanted to mix it up with the judges this year, and to have some oldschool dk riders like Ash involved is certainly pleasing” Pickworth said. Riders will assemble this Friday arvo at Sundowner Tiona for a meet and greet BBQ and the announcement of the heat draw. Then around 7am Saturday morning the contest will kick off, then the presentation that night back at the park.

DKS HOODIES WILL ALSO BE AVAILABLE AT THE COMPS

It has been reported also that Town Beach in Port Mac is under some dune reconstruction at the moment and beach access is limited. “Yeah its barrier taped at the moment but I am working on council to have some sort of access ready for the contest” Pickworth said. As usual contests like this only happen with good support and the people getting behind this years events are Sundowner Holidays, Turbo Surf Designs, BSC, Liquid Malisha and Quantum Assessments.

Anyone still wishing to enter needs to get online and download an entry form from www.dksessions.com and send it in ASAP as there are still some spots available.

Western Australia’s most prestigious and longest running professional bodyboarding event, the EBB Pro was completed over the weekend, with some of the country’s best bodyboarding talent converging on the South-West corner of the state. The seventh event on the Bodyboarding Australasia Pro Tour will go down in the record books as one of its finest, as a combination of clean offshore winds and pumping swell greeted competitors.

EBB Pro - Smith’s Beach WA. July 26th – 27th 2008. Bodyboard Australasia Pro Tour Event # 7.

South-West WA delivers sun, surf, and some simply epic performances, as one of the events of the year unfolds.
The ‘2 star’ rated event which offered a total prize pool of $4000 culminated with Queensland’s Michael Novy taking out one of the biggest wins of his career. “Im stoked to have finally won an event, it makes the trip West all that much sweeter”, said Novy who secured his win in the dying minutes of the final with an 8.33 ride that he backed up with a 7.33 for a combined total of 15.66 out of a possible 20.00.

Novy took the title by less than one point from Dave Winchester (Curl Curl, NSW) who finished with a combined total of 15.00 points. The old saying close enough is good enough was not the case for Winchester who had to settle for second place, after looking to be the man to beat early. ‘Winny’ as his know to his peers on tour scored an 8.00 ride in the first few minutes of the final, and looked to have the win stitched up after locking away a 7.00 ride as a back up.

Former WA resident and long time pin up boy of the sport Ryan Hardy finished the final in third place, but wasn’t at all disappointed with the result. “It was great to get back to WA before I shoot off to Chile’, it’s good to be a part of the only WA event and I was definitely impressed with how smooth everything went and the hard work done by all” said Hardy, who will continue living the dream in his pursuit of World Title glory that has thus far eluded him.

Gracetown local Ben Delfs finished in fourth place, struggling to find the waves he required. Delfs had been one of the form surfers of the day winning each of his heats on his way to the final. Delfs provided the highlight of the day with a massive back flip that had the whole beach in disbelief, finishing the event as the highest rated WA competitor.

The 25 minute final was somewhat wave starved compared to earlier heats where Smith’s Beach produced some solid sets in the 3-4 foot range, allowing competitors to weave through some seriously deep tubes, as well as attack the lip with real ferociousness. With a diminishing swell and strong winds forecast for Sunday, event officials decided to make the most of the great conditions on offer Saturday and pushed through the pro divisions in one day. Competition Director Ian ‘Goldy’ Goldthorpe commented, “The forecast for Sunday was looking really bad, so we made the most of what was on offer and the guys seemed really pleased with the outcome.” It made for a viewing spectacular; great waves coupled with awesome riders, it was like nothing the WA bodyboarding scene had witnessed before.

Some worthy performances included that of Gold Coast ripper Tom Rigby who made it through to the semi finals with flair and style that has him touted as the next ‘big thing’. WA local’s Adam Luehman (Bunbury), Ian Fergusson (Scarborough) and Brad Hughes (Trigg) also flew the flag on home soil, all made it through to the semi finals with impressive and innovative surfing.

The EBB Pro Drop Knee final was a two horse race with Trent Sanford (Perth) showing great skills and taking out the title form close mate Kim Feast (Gracetown). Sanford and Feast went blow for blow, but it was Sanford’s huge repertoire of manoeuvres that guaranteed him the win ahead of Feast in second, Mark Boehm (Scarborough) in third and Liam O’Keefe (Trigg) in fourth.

It is so good to have a number of real superstars of the bodyboarding world on hand including Ryan Hardy, Dave Winchester, Brad Hughes, and Chad Jackson, it provided a huge opportunity for some of WA’s up and comers to see and meet their idols first hand and continue the sports development into the future. 2008 has seen the EBB Pro’s profile grow to one of Australia’s biggest bodyboarding events and is assured of becoming bigger and better in 2009. The great waves that WA has to offer along with a bigger prize pool and higher ratings points will see the event firmly placed on the minds of Australia’s best bodyboarders in the future.

The forecast of gale force winds and a dropping swell rang true today, with the third and final round of the EBB State Bodyboard Series having to be postponed today due to horrendous conditions. The event will be rescheduled for the coming weeks with the National Titles approaching fast.

FINAL RESULTS:

Pro Men>

1st – Michael Novy (QLD) – 15.66 pts
2nd – Dave Winchester (NSW) – 15.00 pts
3rd – Ryan Hardy (QLD) – 13.73 pts
4th – Ben Delfs (WA) – 12.14 pts

Pro DK>

1st – Trent Sanford (WA) – 15.44 pts
2nd – Kim Feast (WA) - 13.60 pts
3rd – Mark Boehm (WA) – 9.17 pts
4th – Liam O’Keefe (WA) – 6.16 pts

Check out some of the highlights from the BSC Avalon Pro!

The NSW State Round 2 took place the day after the Pro Tour event in similar conditions, with a small but clean 2 foot swell and some very contestable peaks on offer. Congratulations to BSC team riders Alex Wilkie and Mandy Zieren who won the Opens and Womens divisions respectively! The pair demonstrated their superior skills at their home break and were simply too good for the competition. Congratulations to all competitors for contributing to what was a very successful event!

Here are some images from the days of competition:

The pro division was held today in some clean 2 foot peaks that made for some interesting competition. Big names fell and the South African contingent made their presence felt in the final. Congratulations to BSC team rider Corey McLean who finished 4th overall!

The final results were:

1st: Mark McCarthy (South Africa)
2nd: Nathan Blanch (Port Mac)
3rd: Wes Fischer (South Africa)
4th: Corey McLean (Gold Coast)

BSC team rider Dave Winchester will be competing in the upcoming BSC Pro being held at Avalon beach on the 17th – 19th July. Wingy will no doubt be looking for another victory to chase down tour leader Mitch Rawlins and better his chance of an Aussie Tour Title. Here is a recent interview to find out what’s going on inside the man’s head.

It seems to me that you are keener than ever when there are waves around, do you feel you are and is there anything in particular that is driving you?
Im way keener now than ever, before I had coco I could surf whenever I wanted, now my time is a touch more limited, so surfing when the waves are good are my main priority. My family is the most motivating thing in my life.

Do you look up to any riders like you use to as a grom, or do you just see them as your competition now?
Most of the older guys I looked up to as a grom have stopped bodyboarding, but I still look up to guys like ben and hardy although they are my competitors so it can get competitive for sure.

What’s the best wave you have ridden in the last year or so?
Prob those couple I got at shippies, that was good times.

If some groms out there were to say that they think your career is over, what would you say to them?
HELL NO, just starting out. Hoping to get an “in bloom” soon.

Plans for the rest of this year?
Get back on tour, dominate. Get some good shots, keen to do some airs.

Sponsors?
NMD, Bodyboarders Surf Co, Grand Flavour, Peak, Stealth

On Sunday the 13th of July, BSC Narrabeen was graced by the godfather himself, Mike Stewart. Mike was accompanied by his pro team of Tom Robinson, Tom Rigby, Mark McCarthy and Magno Oliveri along with a guest appearance from BSC man Chris James. Hundreds of frothing fans turned up to meet Mike and the boys, have some gear signed and enjoy the BBQ put on by BSC staff. Groms and veterens alike reveled in the spectacle as the world’s greatest waterman showed why he’s still a force to be reckoned with on the bodyboarding world tour - looking as fit and healthy as a man in his mid twenties! A big thankyou goes out to everyone that attended on the day, and those who queued up patiently to get their chance to meet Mike. Special thanks to Luke @ BSC for making the day run smoothly.

Results of Comp No.5 - Curl Curl as follows:

GROMMETS
1st Harry SARIN
2nd Patrick KELLY
3rd Jason FRAWLEY
4th Matt BANHAM
5th Nicholas SUMNERS

CADETS
1st Tim BOND
2nd Guy WILLIMENT
3rd B.J. LEEF
4th Alex PAPP
5th Russell DAVIES
6th Jack SARIN

JUNIORS
1st Tim MALCOLM
2nd Alex NATOLI
3rd Nathan PASHLEY
4th Mark BRENCHLEY

WOMENS
1st Julia HEASMAN
2nd Zoe EDWARDS

MENS
1st Sam MATTHEWS
2nd Kieran REDMOND
3rd Lachlan AINSWORTH
4th Chris STRADA
5th Luke SHEARER

SENIOR MENS
1st Dan REYNOLDS
2nd Nick CHANDLER
3rd Mick PARKHILL

GRAND MASTERS
1st Greg WEBSTER
2nd Mal LEYDON
3rd Tony RABBIDGE

OPENS
1st Tristan HOGAN
2nd Oli MINTER
3rd Alex WILKIE
4th Alex GOUGH
5th Tim MINTER

D.K.
1st Shane DAVIS
2nd Mick PARKHILL
3rd Dan REYNOLDS

Come up with a design for our 08/09 Summer range and win a $50 Gift Voucher, plus the glory of having your design printed on our BSC Tees!

We’re very excited to welcome some young blood to our all-star team. Northern beaches grom sensation Adrian Harper joins a team that has included some of the sports biggest and best names over the last decade. Technically outstanding, Adrian has developed his stylish and powerful brand of riding by clocking up some solid time on the South Coast over the last 12 months. He’s now hitting 6 foot warping reef bowls with the same approach he takes to surfing a 2 foot beachie and there’s no signs of this kid slowing down. Adrian’s already being supported by VU clothing and we’re very excited to see what the future holds for this rising star with BSC!