The week leading into ‘Comp 4’ saw some of the best barrels ridden in recent memory at Maroubra, and the Southend boys all over it and managed to get right into the thick of things. The 4-6 feet of perfect ENE swell fanned by light westerly winds had everywhere on the East Coast from Ulladulla to Snapper going off, but Southend was right up there with the best of ‘em’.  Jacko, Mills, Tom North and Brad Sly all managed to grace the pages of the daily surf reports and surf photography websites, but it was Wes’s 3 barrels on the 1 wave that had all the boys talking.

Comp Day:

The weeks great run of swell had been slowly dropping and it was actually predicted to be next to flat for the contest day but on arrival we were surprisingly greeted with a very clean 3 foot swell . There were some pretty good banks across the whole beach but the bowl at Southend had some especially nice ones that were running all the way through on the same right hand bank that had been going off all week. Once the water was cleared we probably had the pick of the entire beach all to ourselves in perfect sunny conditions.

The Cadets paddled out right on 8 O’clock and the action started straight away with some good match ups in early. The Opens, juniors, Women’s, Senior Men’s and Grand Masters all got to surf in early heats and showcase their stuff in the great conditions. Unfortunately for him Dustin missed his early heat due to some ‘bedroom activities’ he was engaging in and was actually still waiting for the bus when his heat hit the water.

With Plattsy still in Indo, Semo with a septic foot and Gustavo a no-show the door was left ajar for some of the other Open challengers to claw their way back into contention for the 2009 A-Grade title. The boys didn’t disappoint either and took full advantage of the clean conditions with a good display of surfing throughout the whole day with Adam Lawrence (the youngest ever hip replacement recipient) managing to score a couple of barrels in his first heat.

The Open Women also put another good display on and were tearing the waves apart early with Jeni-Lee and both Olivia and Phoebe Miley-Dyer the standouts. One particular vertical backhand re from Phoebe had the judges cheering and it was the one of the best turns I have seen any surfer do in competition, male or female.  Bec Tobin was also surfing well and made it through to the final but couldn’t actually contest it though due to other commitments.

Heat 4 was saw the Senior Men take the water for the earliest time this year and in what must surely be ranked as one of the lowest scoring heats in history. Steve Welch, Tony Johnson and Hickey all went over the falls consecutively one wave after each other looking for lobsters! Con was the only one managing to stand up and won the heat deservedly and easily.

The Micro Girls and boys surfed a nice little reform just down from the tent and really got their teeth stuck into it with some fantastic committed surfing especially from the girls.  The Opens final was another standout heat with Wes, Boothie , Matty O, Luke Fletcher and Adzie all ripping the bag. Wes managed to paddle around and snake Ads with 2 minutes to go for the wave of the day, and in a very tight tussle managed to seal the win with that wave.

Comp 4 for 2009 definitely was one of the highlights of the season so far with perfect contestable conditions on hand and some good surfing from all involved which had a few of the boys celebrating long and hard into the at the Sands Hotel and Randi-Wicks. Standouts surfers for the day for me were Phoebe Miley-Dyer, Shane Booth, Adam Lawrence, Jackson Giles, Con, Lewis kellick, Justin Brooke, Brad koolis, Kirra Lowlett, Max McGuigan, Monty Tait, Mia Wearne and Tori Black. There is really not enough space to write everything that happened throughout the day but ‘all and all’ a fantastic day was had by everyone.

Results:

Micro Girls

1^st: Kirra Lowlett

2^nd: Sami Goldrick

3^rd: T Ambrose

Micro Boys

1^st : Max McGuigan

2^nd: Luke Michaels

3^rd: Tye Koolis

Junior Girls

1^st: Tori Black

2^nd: Mia Wearne

3^rd: Haylee Baird

4^th: C. Ambrose

 Cadets

1^st: Monty Tait

2^nd: Jackson Giles

3^rd: Daniel Coote

4^th: Nick Kennedy

5^th: Luke Johnson

Juniors

1^st : Justin Brooke

2^nd: Lewis kellick

3^rd: Harry Bartlett

4^th: Jake Nurmi

5^th: Jarrod Sorely

6^th: Ned Love

Grand Masters

1^st: Brad Koolis

2^nd: Tom North

3^rd: John Sorely

4^th: Don Giles

5^th: Andrew Williams

6^th: Craig Wearne

Senior Men

1^st: Con Parris

2^nd: Dave Lowlett

3^rd: Hickey

4^th: Richard Cass

5^th: Tony Johnson

6^th: Steven ‘Epic’ Atwood

Open Women

1^st: Phoebe Miley-Dyer

2^nd: Olivia Miley-Dyer

3^rd: Jeni Lee

4^th: Bec Tobin

Open Men

1^st:  Wes ‘the Pres’ Moore

2^nd: Adam Lawrence

3^rd: Matt O’Reilly

4^th: Shane Booth

5^th: Luke Fletcher