Burleigh fires for year’s first surfing event

It will be a weekend to remember for the Burleigh Boardriders after club members claimed the double in the first surfing event of the year.

Over the first weekend of 2024, the Burleigh Single Fin Classic returned to the Gold Coast with surfers competing in junior, women’s and men’s open age groups.

The current world record holder for surfing the biggest wave by a female, Laura Enever, was among the athletes competing on Saturday and Sunday and former world champion Joel Parkinson headed out to take on some of the best surfers in tough conditions.

Burleigh Boardriders Club representative Terry Teece said it was by far the biggest event they had ever had.

“This year was massive, a step up from last year’s event.” Teece said. “It was great to see new competitors, old competitors battling it out.

“Even with the rain, the crowd was massive on both days.

“There was probably about 4000 people checking out the action from Burleigh point, screaming at the top of their lungs.

“Both Laura (Enever) and Joel (Parkinson) made the final, only one point separated first to fourth in the men’s open.”

In November 2023, Enever claimed the title of biggest female wave rider after taking on a 13.3m wave in Hawaii.

For more than two hours Enever played cat and mouse with monster swells at Oahu’s Outer Reef, the well-known big-wave location on the Hawaiian Island’s North Shore.

That was until a little voice in her head whispered, “This is it, time to go.”

Saturday was the warm-up to the final events on Sunday, with tougher and bigger waves hitting the coast on day two of the event.

Youngster Ricko Haybittle from Burleigh took out the juniors title, while Liam O’Brien claimed the men’s opens with Parkinson finishing second.

Sunshine Coast surfer Tayla Green edged out Ellie Brooks and Charli Hately to claim the women’s title with Enever finishing fourth.

“You should have heard the crowd go nuts for Liam when he went on stage to collect his award,” Teece said.

“His nickname is Lob and the crowd started the chant ‘Lob’ way before he even went up there.

“It was just amazing to hear from the home crowd.”