Solid waves have managed to continue for the 2009 season with plenty of solid 4 footers thumping into Maroubra for the second comp of the year.  Saturday definitely didn’t disappoint, with the day providing a little bit of everything for everyone having plenty of action in the water and also on the beach.  There were broken surf boards, mass surf rescues, ex-members returning to the fold and of course a few blow-ups inside the judge’s tent.

The forecast was for a clean 4 foot ESE swell with W winds and the boys were fairly pumped the week leading in. Upon arriving at dawn, we were greeted with a lumpy 3 to 4 ft swell and light S winds keeping the wave surfaces fairly clean for the time being. The call was made by the boys who had been surfing there all week to hold the comp about halfway between Southend and middle, as that was where the most reliable banks had apparently been during both tides.

Once again there were some pretty demanding conditions on offer early for the cadets, but they wanted nothing to do with sitting out and watching. With 1^st comp winner Hank Hartley away on holidays the boys wanted to claw back some ground and take home the valuable points. They paddled straight out into some heavy waves that were slapping pretty hard on the bank but they definately rose to the occasion with some excellent surfing.

The highly competitive Opens Women division were  at it early and they were definitely not scared to mix it up throughout the day taking on anything that was thrown at them with the Open Mens division also going hard and surfing extremely well providing a good spectacle for everyone on the sand. The senior men’s division this year is very competitive and it’s good to see some healthy rivalry forming already and It’s even better to see so many of the original Southend members rejoining and being a part of it all again.

Conditions definitely deteriated by the end of the day but all in all the standard of surfing was really high and a good day was had by everyone. Karl Melo-Richards (who had to surf on his mums board after snapping his), Gustav, Jackson Giles, Shepps, Kalvin, Baz Channel, Harry Bartlett, Sami Goldrick, Ian McLaughlin and pretty much the entire open women were my standouts for the day.

 In saying that though, there was no doubt part time life saver and rejuvenated Opens men’s surfer Jason Platts was the best surfer on the day. In between rescuing drowning grommets that were swimming in a rip (instead of the flags) and taking the winners title for the second time from as many attempts (just like our mate Parko) in a row, Platts managed to score some great waves and never really looked in doubt of winning the day and throwing down the gauntlet for the rest of the year. 

Also I want to mention and thank Steve Bennett’s, Brad Koolis and Tom North for helping out on the BBQ and cooking up the 'bacon and eggs' storm that was kindly supplied by John from Jazzright Production Services.

Matt Lawson

Micro Boys:

1^st: Will Johnston

2^nd: Tye loolis

3^rd:Luke Michaels

4^th:Max Miguigan

Micro Girls:

1^st: Kirra Richards

2^nd: Sami Goldrick

3^rd: Jemma Corner

Junior Girls

1^st: Mia Wearne

2^nd: Hayley Frasa

3^rd: Shanelle Peeti

4^th: Montana Picthall

5^th:Yasmin Grivell

6^th: Haylee Baird

Cadets:

1^st: Daniel Coote

2^nd: Nick Kennedy

3^rd: Jack Clifford

4^th Jackson Giles

5^th Rory McGovern

Juniors

1^st: Harry Bartlett

2^nd: Jack McLaughlin

3^rd: Ned Love

4^th: Alex Sorge

5^th: Judd Atkins

6^th: Cameron Henwood.

Senior Men’s

1^st: A Matter

2^nd: Steven Attwood

3rd: Con

4th: Kyle Stevens

5^th: Tony Johnston

Grand Masters

1^st: Tom North

2^nd: Brad koolis

3^rd: Craig Wearne

4^th Andrew Williams

5^th: Ian McLaughlin

Open Men’s (A Grade)

1^st: Jason Plats

2^nd: Gustav

3^rd: Karl Richards

4^th: Simon Sheppard

Open Women.

1^st Phoebe Miley-Dyer

2^nd: Vanessa Richards

3^rd: Olivia Miley-Dyer

4^th: Rose Hollows