Day 1

 

For those that turned up early on Thursday they scored cranking 3-4ft Snapper. Most of the team had filtered in by mid arvo and the waves were still reeling off down the line for 200-300m with some going from Snapper halfway down to Kirra. D’bah was a perfect 4ft but crowded as the Fanning Grom comp was on. Out of the 100 or so people out at Snapper Fletch amazingly runs over Wez out there and snaps his board. Lucky he’s got a back-up.

 

The groms see Parko wandering the streets. They cream themselves

 

In between surfs the crew chilled out on the balcony of this old school hotel Cooly View taking in the killer view of the waves from Greenmount to Kirra. Booth and Platts entertained the groms with stories of the old days when they ruled the place in the mid/late 90’s. Stories of “Tune Rock”, epic Kirra for 32 days straight, the running battles with the Snapper boys, the old place on the hill at D’bah. With every beer consumed the stories which I'd heard before became more and more exaggerated.

 

Dean Morrison and Taj rock up to our hotel to chat with central coast photog Spence. They come over and have a beer with us. Wez and MOR cream themselves

 

It was a pretty chilled evening. Everyone is surfed out. We register our team, have a few 1000 beers rub shoulders with the who’s who of aussie surfing. The boys pay out a few of the pros with Ry Craike & Parko copping a pasting. The groms are so stoked to see all these pros around they file into the dunny to give each other a Dutchman’s Rudder

 

Day 2 – Opening Day of the Comp

 

The swell was still pumping through at D’bah. Clean 3ft waves with the odd bigger one. Josh Ku is in 1^st but was nowhere to be found. Platts and Pete go on a mission driving around town looking for him. Found sipping a Mocha reading the Financial Review and talking about his share portfolio at a posh cafe down the street. Platts gets him into a headlock and within 2 min we had him down on the beach. He got out there and carved it up. His last wave was bullshit. 3 vertical backhand wacks and finished up with a huge backhand air. An 8.5 to give him 2^nd place.

 

Fanning went for a surf mid morning. The groms, MOR and Wez creamed themselves

 

The waves were still clean as for Fletcher’s heat at around midday. Fletch busted out some big 1^st turns on the low tide bank in the corner but couldn’t link them through to get the bigger scores. Close tussle for 2^nd position. Fletch misses out by 2pt and comes in 4^th

 

Talk about 4 seasons in 1 day. Perfect sunshine gone. A wild storm passes through cools things off then sun again. We hang out watching perfect D’bah whilst Semo is psyching for his heat. Just as he hits the water a southerly comes up and destroys the waves. Semo starts off well with 2 nice waves but as time went on he just couldn’t get in position to get those ones that ran through. He finished 4^th but again could of finished 2^nd if he had scored a 4.9 on his last wave

 

Adriano De Souza walks past our hotel. Groms & Wez cream themselves for the 100^th time today

 

Dan McNaughton rolls into town that arvo and the groms are frothing. He’s brought his beatbox which means that all we will listen to all w/e is DeadMouse. Dan is so stoked to see his mates and spends the 1^st hour trying to coerce them into the bedroom to make some sweet sweet love. None take up the offer although Ku goes close. That night the groms ventured into surfers and ripped it up on the dance floor at melbas. Only 2 make it home whilst the others 2 boys spend the night in luxury in the Crowne Plaza with 2 lovely lady men.

 

Day 3

 

Wake up early to see the waves have all but disappeared on the points. D’bah was 2-3ft and super clean early. I miss Platts heat at 8am as was too hung-over to drag myself outta bed. The boys said Platts ripped it up but somehow came in 3^rd when he shoulda got a 2^nd. Maybe the judges were too busy watching the free surfing instead of judging the event.

 

Someone mentioned that the announcer and judges finally worked out that Southend is in fact part of Maroubra not South Wollongong or South Newcastle. Is this the kiss of death??

 

Boothy and Gussy surfed the wind had swung onshore and conditions have deteriorated. Both surfed really well but could only manage 4^th. Both surfed against 3 WQS guys in there heats. Booth had the killer heat Corey Ziems, Dean Hazza and Dean Brady.

 

Jay “Bottle” Thompson jumps on the Southend bandwagon for Gussy’s heat. MOR creams his duds

 

It’s one of the Queenscliff lads bucks day and he’s made to surf in a bikini. He rips and wins the heat.

 

D’bah get the beer bong on the beach going. DC skulls 3 cans in one go and is declared the king of the beach

 

Semo returns from GoodVibes. In the last 16 hours Semo has spent 8 of them on a bus. He is seriously considering chucking in his apprenticeship to take up driving GreyHound buses.

 

Later that arvo the old boys start showing up. Gazza “Benchong” Wilson, Giddies, Jay Dono and Burleigh’s own Gleekis. It was a pretty loose night with Gidds sparking up talk of re-establishing the Rifle Range Rebel Riders with Head & Gaz. Gaz trades in his long time lover Wez to chase the young groms , Gidds and Jay Dono showing the boys how NOT to get chicks at the Cooley pub. The boys dance moves were so ridiculous it was embarrassing. Even Gleek left the scene

 

Day 4

 

Come the final day of the competition we were well and truly out of contention but Wez and Mat O give it a go. D’bah was still 3ft with some nice waves coming through. Wez gave a solid showing pleasing the crowd with his big powerful cutties but somehow the judges only placed him in 4^th. Again I thought to myself he deserved a 2^nd place. Matty went out there with no pressure and it showed. His backhand attack was brilliant. He placed 4^th missing out on 2^nd by 1.2 points.

 

The final results saw Southend finish in 30^th place overall. At the other end of the table the result went down to the second last heat of the day where North End surfer Damon Nicholls surfed his clubs final heat knowing that a 1st or 2nd placing would win the event. While a 3rd or 4th would hand it to Le-Ba. He played it safe and came in 2^nd giving his clubNorth End Qld their 1^st ever Kirra Teams Title on 29 points out of a possible 32 points. Out of their 8 surfers, surfing in four man heats, North End Qld scored their win with 5 heat wins and 3 seconds.

Top 5 (out of 36) for 2009 Rip Curl Kirra Teams Challenge were:

1 North End Qld Boardriders - 29 point
2 Le - Ba Boardriders - 28 points
3 Kirra Boardriders - 28 points
4 Noosa Boardriders - 28 points
5 Snapper Rocks - 28 points

The presso was all time a Snapper Rock Surf Club. The beers flowed, Matt “Mr Queensland” Gleek introduced us to everyone. The North End lads got booted so we rocked around to some cocktail bar at Kirra to party on with them. We certainly didn’t win the comp but we sure won the drink. By 9pm the North End crew had all departed the scene meanwhile we were only just getting started. We eventually get the punt at god knows what time.

 

Thanks to all the boys who got up there to compete, cheer on ,drink, party. It was a great weekend away and I’m already counting down the days before it all happens again next year. Congrats to North End Qld for taking out the title & to Kirra Boardriders for putting on such great event. Finally a huge thank you to Jen from the Coolangatta View Hotel for putting up with our antics over the w/e.