10 May Kiama Challenge Her Teams Classic
The Cronulla Sharks girls surfing team upstaged the men last weekend by winning the Kiama Challenge Her Team’s Classic.
The Challenge Her Teams Classic invited women of any age and surf ability to form teams of eight. The teams took to the water in 80-minute heats in a relay-style event whereby surfers run out, catch their best wave and return to shore to tag their next team member.
Her Wave Program Manager Claire Ellem said it is diversity in teams like this that makes the event so unique and such a celebration of women in sport.
“I don’t know if there is anything else like this. It’s the chance for women to enter a surf team with mums and daughters, where age and ability isn’t a barrier.
“With stories like these, we’re going to continue to experience amazing things in women’s surfing. This is the reason we have developed the series, to bring women together, to have fun and show the world that anyone can fall in love with this sport and the ocean like we have.”
There were 12 registered teams from Clubs and social surfing groups from south of the harbour bridge to the Victorian border which were made up of women who surf longboard and shortboard of all ages, and abilities.
The unbeaten Cronulla Sharks boardriders team of Summa Longbottom, Grace and Jasmine Gosby, Sam Walker,Paris Whittaker, Ocean Coppleson, Zara Hyland and Linda Aulbach took out the event, but everyone was a champion on the day.
The action-packed event series aims to inspire and increase women’s participation in surfing across NSW without the emphasis on elite competition. The focal point is around having fun in the surf, making new friends and learning new skills that last a lifetime.