BARREL OF FUN

By WOMT Ken ‘Smiley’ McPherson

The action was hot and plentiful at the inaugural NSW Interservice Surfing Championships last month at Port Stephens.

Photo: ABPH Helen Frank

In testing conditions, Navy rode the victory wave at the inaugural NSW Interservice Surfing Championships late last month taking out the Teams Challenge, the Shortboard contest, Best Wave, Best Manoeuvre and Best Wipeout.

The championships, held at One Mile and Barubi Beaches, Port Stephens, saw 72 Defence Force personnel, including 24 Navy surfers, battle a 1.5 - 2 metre swell with plenty of skill and ability, to decide which Service had the better surfers on the day.

On arrival at One Mile Beach the Navy team wasn’t disappointed.

It was going on high tide with a ground swell of between 1.5 and 1.8 metres and the banks were just right for good session of serious surfing and for some, some nice big hollow barrels.

Thursday morning saw a thick fog blanketing the Port Stephens locale, and with no wind, the Navy team was confident of revisiting the conditions of the previous day.

The tide was low, the swell was big and the straight crashing lines put quite a few hearts in quite a few mouths. The tents went up, Navy claiming its own headquarters while the first heat of shortboarders hit the water at 8am.

AB Azz Ibbett paddled into his heat with trepidation after creasing his board the previous afternoon.

On his first wave he had two pieces of foam and glass, the first casualty of the day.

The morning bought plenty of oohs and aahs as surfers tackled the waves while the longboarders were relieved to be surfing on the higher tide.

The banks were not kind and the wave position seemed to remain in the shallows, bringing on some interesting if not exciting surfing.

Navy shortboard standouts for the day were Matt Withers, Adam Cross, Jordan Danks, Nathan Adamson, Brett Klotz and Tom Leworthy.

Standouts for the longboarders were Ben Marsh, Mick McBay and Al Brown, though in fact they were all standouts.

With a genuine lack of waves on Friday, the event was quickly moved to Burubi beach at the northern end of Stockton beach. A clean peak with left and right breaking waves was selected and the longboarders hit the tepid waters to show the guys how it was done.

Ben Dawson and Al Brown put on a great show to secure places in the finals. The shortboarders took the challenge and put on an excellent display of powerful and explosive surfing with Jordan Dank continuing to dazzle the crowd with an assault of very slick manoeuvres.

The longboard final was well received by the crowd with some long walls carved and many hard turns executed by all competitors.

In the shortboard, Navy’s Tom Leworthy showed great form executing a myriad of powerful turns and slashes, but it was Jordan Danks who again put on a display of moves which milked every wave he rode. Danks was undoubtedly the in-form surfer for the contest.

The team challenge took up the afternoon with many excellent heats surfed. Navy and Air Force continually swapped the lead until the third heat of the longboard.

The Army team remained determined but was struggling to meet the intensity that RAAF and Navy exuded. Through the final heats the Navy cheered, hooted and hollered their team with great enthusiasm, sensing victory.

At the final hooter, six weary surfers cleared the water and awaited the championship results. Hosted by RAAF Base Williamtown, Air Force team captain and event coordinator, CPL Grant Robinson can be very proud of putting together a brilliant competition.

The winners were as follows:

• Best Wipeout - Navy - LCDR Steve Penny in a harrowing over the falls “Ouch”,
• Best Wave - Navy - SMN Matt Withers pulling into the tube twice on the same wave “Fantastic”,
• Best Manoeuvre - Navy - SMN Jordan Dank for executing an aerial 360 degree turn “Sensational”.
• Shortboard - SMN Jordan Danks
• Longboard - Murray Stabler (RAAF) who just pipped LCDR Al Brown
• Team Challenge - Navy To those surfers who were unable to attend, you can be happy that you were very well represented.
  
  To the unit and ship COs, a hearty BZ from the team, for without your support we may not have achieved these victories so decidedly. The team also would like to thank BRAND NAVY for helping us look like a team, thank you.
  
  To our competitors, great competition and thanks.
  
  We are looking forward to next years event.

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