Boardriding clubs work together

The Surfing Sutherland Shire boardriding clubs all worked together on Saturday to hold the inaugural Cronulla Point Classic, a surfing contest held to raise money for Cronulla Point surfer Mark Rogers.

The Point wasn’t breaking in the small nor-east swell but the North Cronulla Alley rip provided good waves for the open and surf tag contest to run through.

Due to the Fishbowl Surf Tag team event in Wollongong, the open surfers field was reduced but it provided opportunity for Cronulla’s top-ranked junior Jay Brown to show his class by taking out the first Cronulla Point Classic over clubmate Jordy Turansky and Elouera’s evergreen master Glenn Pringle.

It was a good day for Cronulla Sharks Boardriders with Brown taking out the open final, Turansky the under-16 male division and Grace Gosby the under-16 women’s division.

The tag team was a different story where Elouera, Cronulla Point, Team MR, Cronulla Surfing Academy and the Sandshoes team finished early, picking up bonus points. But Cronulla, surfing to their schedule, didn’t get any extras and finished an agonising 0.5 behind rivals Elouera in the final tally with Sandshoes third.

Cronulla Point Boardriders manned the barbecue and all clubs helped in judging,  which raised approximately $4000 for the cause with former ASP head Graham Cassidy even running his eyes over a few heats.

At an emotional after event at Cronulla RSL, Rogers personally thanked all the sponsors, organisers and surfers saying the support of family and friends is what keeps him positive.

The Cronulla Point Old Boys donated $1000 from their last reunion and money from the major raffle and auction items raised more than $20,000, with Julian Wilson’s contest singlet going for $2500 and Connor O’Leary’s surfboard for $2000.

This is what it looked like this morning.Picture John Veage

After a week of good waves its back to average for Cronulla surfers-the small clean (ENEast) waves on the beaches for Monday and Tuesday have been blown up a notch by the Southerly that blew through last night picking the waves up to 4 ft but with a howling onshore thats forcing all the surfers into the southern corners.

The banks on the beach are very tide dependant so if you can choose your surf times it will help-Next high tide in Sydney is 1.35pm and low tide is at 7:32 tonight .

The forecast is for this windswell to drop leaving a lingering 2-3 ft East swell all week with a small spike on Saturday giving us a glimmer of hope for the early part of the weekend-the bad news is it looks like it will be onshore all week.

Elouera’s Joey Sear gives it to one on Sunday.Picture Bernadette McAlinden

In Wollongong, Maroubra United and North Narrabeen Boardriders raised the winner’s trophy at the Fishbowl Surftag NSW qualifier over the weekend.

North Narrabeen dominated the women’s division with Queenscliff finishing runners-up. The Cronulla girls finished sixth.

Maroubra United won the men’s final holding the lead from start to finish over North Narrabeen, Elouera and Scarborough.

Elouera surfed their “A” team on Saturday with Connor O’Leary and Shane Campbell heading to Newcastle for the QS6000 which let Nathan Rohr and Ben Sear step up, finishing third.

The top 12 men’s teams qualify for the Australian surftag championships, with Cronulla Sharks Boardriders also making the cut.

Hawaiian Alana Blanchard was eliminated in Opening Heat.Picture WSL / Matt Power

The Newcastle Surfest has seen another day of small waves for the Burton Automotive Pro and Holmes Civil Developments Pro WSL QS6,000 events. Dixon Park, near Merewether beach, was clean but very small with 1-to-2 foot waves providing tricky conditions for the completion of Rounds 1 yesterday.

Cronulla’s Shane Campbell progressed into round two where he will surf against Caio Ibelli in heat three and where Connor O’Leary also makes his first appearance in heat six, Jared Hickel did not advance.

2019 will mark the event’s 34th anniversary, attracting over 850 national and international competitors from more than two dozen countries. Surfest Newcastle Australia is the largest festival of surfing in the southern hemisphere.