Big plans for Flying Squirrel on their way
AS the current generation of budding surfers hit the waves at the Burleigh Pro, one of the sport’s brightest talents was watching the competition she hopes to win one day.
Quincy Symonds, known affectionately as the Flying Squirrel, is the nine-year-old Tweed Heads surfer who is biding her time until she can take it to the best in the world.
“Maybe I can compete next year or the year after,” Quincy said of the Pro.
Quincy said the small conditions that had been cast up by the ocean in the event’s opening days would suit her small size but was more eager to test her skills in bigger surf.
“The waves were quite small but everyone seems to be having fun and working around the conditions,” she said.
“I like bigger conditions but I have an advantage in the smaller conditions as well because I’m pretty small.”
It isn’t new-age big-name surfers that Quincy links the iconic Burleigh Heads break with but rather one of Coolangatta’s original “Cooly Kids’’, Michael Peterson.
Peterson was at the forefront of the shortboard revolution in Australia in the 1970s and one of the most successful professionals of his time who won the first man-on-man competition at the Stubbies Pro at Burleigh Heads.
“It’s a good event and a whole bunch of local heroes have won it like Michael Peterson,” Quincy said.
The youngster’s dream is to one day join the world tour.