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
