G'day Pops
It was an awesome weekend, put wave comps on the map for sure and will serve as a good teaser and trainer for the Nats.
Approx 55 entrants from NSW and QLD turned up, plus probably 30-40 other kiters who did not enter the comp.
Wind was NE both days ranged from 10 to 20 Saturday, mostly around 20, and Sunday was more like 15-25, with a few lulls which were exaggerated by the tidal sweep. Waves were crumbly and about shoulder to head high on the biggest sets on the outside of the channel, with reformed waves inside about waist high but still offering good opportunities to score.

Riding standard was very high, I still have some great visions of JB laying down the biggest bottom turns, Mike Walker transitioning onto a wave face from about 10 feet up, Tobes (the mens open winner) laid back, techinical style complete with backloops onto the waveface, Lee Cav's powerful carving style (2nd), Stu Martin, etc, etc.
The Juniors were dominated by Joel and Happy, with Joel edging out Happy in the final, these 2 guys and some of the other young guns abolutely rip, and will be raising the bar for the mens open when they move to that division. There were only 3 women entries and CJ won it with newbie Marine Sudre (15YO) coming in 2nd, and I'm sorry I cannot remember the winners of the Legends and lots of the other riders names.

One of the reasons for that is that the judges only had colours to differentiate one rider from another and I think this helped make the judging very impartial and fair.
Saturday night at the pub (main sponsor) was epic, with a really cool band that played an interesting mix of rock including excellent drumming and slide guitar at times. It got very loose towards the end, which was way past my bedtime, apparently there was a dance comp that was pretty funny??

BIG THANKS to Susie from Byron, Mike Walker, Jason from lennox, Beaver for the mad commentary, and all the other local and interstate volunteers that made this a great event.

I hope we can learn from some of the experiences over the weekend to make the Nats and all other wave comps better for riders and easier on the organisers.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve McCormack

yes was awesome thanks to everyone who organize this comp !!Good wind , good fun