Victorians get chance to shine
A HUGE field of national and international surfers are descending on Phillip Island for the inaugural Phillip Island Pro, a men’s and women’s qualifying series event that boasts prizemoney parity.
It’s been some time since Victoria hosted qualifying series events and there’s probably no better place in Australia than at Phillip Island at this time of year.
The island has some of Australia’s very best surf spots and on any day you will find a quality offshore wave on the island as it’s open to Bass Strait swells on both sides.
The event is also important for nurturing Victorian talent and giving the emerging youngsters the opportunity to take on the best from Australia and New Zealand in our home waters where familiarisation with the surf breaks is often the difference between winning and losing heats.
There are a large number of emerging Victorian surfers across the ranks and it will be great to see them matching with the large numbers of interstate talent. The event runs from Saturday to Tuesday.
In Europe, the world title race is hotting up between John John Florence and Gabriel Medina of Brazil. Both have won a world title each and as expected both are now the dominating forces in surfing and their rivalry is growing by the day.
While Florence leads the world title race, Medina is now breathing down his neck and both are into the Portugal quarterfinals.
If Medina wins the final event of the season at Pipeline in Hawaii will decide the title.
While Florence is regarded as a Pipeline specialist, having grown up there at the beach, Medina is definitely no slouch at this venue and he can easily win.
I’ll be glued to the television watching the finals in Portugal because if Florence can win the title race will be over.
Another intriguing season in the World Surf League.
Four-day forecast: Nothing decent in the coming three days with only small clean beachbreaks through Friday and Saturday. Sunday looks a lot better with a building swell through the day becoming quite large early next week.