Girl power rules at Kirra teams event
MAYBE it was the announcement of equal prizemoney for the world tour competitors that fired up junior girl surfers at Duranbah beach on the weekend.
Noticeably the girls outsurfed the boys at the 10th annual Vissla Kirra Junior Teams event held in highly contestable waves.
The three-day club competition produced highvoltage surfing from 40 clubs and 320 competitors in one of the biggest junior teams events held in Australia.
The Snapper girls scored an impressive teams win over the Coolum boardriders.
The Snapper A grade lineup was full of stars and upand-coming talent such as Jasmine Crawford Kama, Lucy Tandler, Raya Campbell, Shaye Leeuwendal, Piper Harrison, Pacha Light, Alyssa Lock and Kobie Enright.
“It was the best the Kirra Junior Teams so far,” Kirra Surfriders Club spokesman John Robin said.
“The juniors standard of surfing managed to surpass the annual Kirra Open Teams event in March.”
Colourful team tents dominated the beach with vocal supporters cheering on their chargers.
The North Steyne Boardriders from Manly Beach in Sydney emerged victorious.
They were buoyed by their recent open club win at the regional Australian Boardriders Battle, which qualified them for next year’s national club final.
The final result at Dbah came down to the last heat of the day where the Snapper Surfriders were in the running but needed to win or place second in the final heat.
But in a boilover, it was Sawtell’s Boston Phillips – much to the delight of a huge support crew numbering in the hundreds – who created a massive upset.
The virtually unknown NSW north coast surfer posted the only perfect 10-point ride of the event to take first on 16.83 out of 20 points.
He was followed closely by Cronulla’s Jay Brown on 15.10 in second. Cabarita’s Jayke Mellows placed third and Snapper’s Kai Dobby finished fourth.
The Gold Coast’s best junior boys team result was produced by the Burleigh Boardriders who finished third ahead of Snapper in fourth place. Heat winners for Burleigh were Rico Haybittle, Tom Whitpain, Sean Fujimoto and Maddy Job.
Snapper winners included Zane Hill, Ty Richardson, Tane Dobbyn, Josh Boyle, and Jay Occhilupo.