WBA Event One 2011 - Cronulla Beach

Below is a wrap-up of the first WBA event of the year at Cronulla on Sunday 22nd May. Words by Lilly Pollard.

Fun times and fresh faces to the first event of 2011...

7am, Elouera Beach. A nice little crew of girls arrived bright and early to a beautiful sunny morning, light offshore winds, and 1ft peeling rights. Yeah, it was small, but it was still fun!

“Lilly the Lagger” as I not so proudly tend to call myself, turned up a little late with newcomers to the club, Loren Collyer and Kate McAdam, not far behind.

Stoked to see a few new faces showing up, and everyone looking happy and keen to surf!

Wasn’t too long before we were set up on the beach, kicking the football around while some filled out registration forms. Yes Laura’s last name is that tricky she even spelt her own name wrong as she filled out her form. I was quick to point this out to her… Um, isn’t there a “J” in there somewhere? Ha…

Rani, Kerry and Julia were lagging even worse, almost an hour late, but to their credit, they were the only ones dressed up to the theme, “Hen’s night!” Um, not sure why I picked that theme, because it’s kind of stupid, and too general, considering that “Hen’s nights” usually have a theme themselves ha. Anyway, their outfits were cool. Julia came in fluoro tights and running gear, claiming she chose that outfit because last hen’s night she went on they did a 10km run… Ok then… And, by the way, I forgot to take photos of their outfits, but they looked good. ha. Moving on….

Everyone got ready and we ran through the rules of competing for the newcomers and “A” division then headed out.

The WBA “A” division is basically for the girls who are just learning and developing their bodyboarding, and we encourage them to catch the bigger waves, longer rides, and any attempts at moves are rewarded

with higher scores.

First heat, Rani the rocket shot straight out the back on her air mat, first out the back! For someone who has no use of her legs, Rani can damn well paddle fast! So awesome…

The three girls traded waves, Rani going for length of ride and bigger sets, charging hard as always. Loren showed that she had really great natural style, and setting a really good line on her waves, even doing a cutback and trying to land a roll! Pretty impressive for someone who has only ridden a bodyboard a handful of times!

However, today, it was Jayda Sharpe that stole the show, with a good shaped wave in the final seconds that she managed to get a nice little barrel on! It even got the crew cheering on the beach! Woo! 9 point ride for the super grom, and enough to take out the division for today J

Next up, the “”AA” girls headed out.,. Right from the beginning, it looked like Kate McAdam was onto all the best waves, and completed a couple of fast spins as well. Awesome work considering it’s her very first contest!

Kerry Head executed a really impressive carving reverse with spray, looked so sick! Definitely the best wave of the heat, but she couldn’t find a second good one.

Julia Heasman, went for a few spins in her very smooth spin style, but wasn’t having much luck making them today, while Ali had a similar problem. The surf was just so tiny!

“AAA”

Always a pretty tough division, but also usually lots of fun (and a nice relief from the seriousness of Aussie and World Tour contests J), the top level WBA girls headed out to try and impress...

Straight up, Nicole (Tassie) Fleming found a set wave and completed a nice spin to roll.

Laura Verjbitski found a few nice ones to execute her text-book style spins and reverses…. So smooth.

Jane Keel seemed more focused on drowning yours truly, and then, when she caught waves, her aim was mostly on ensuring that she didn’t lose her jiggy-jig hat.

Jane completed a nice reverse and then landed a roll, while still keeping her hat on her head, she was stoked! Unfortunately she soon lost the hat and I quickly snapped it up, wanted a go of the lucky jiggy-jig cap.

I did manage a spin and a roll during the heats, and despite completing three hat spins (which involves spinning the hat around on my head, as it was way too hard to actually do a spin in the wash in this tiny surf ha), followed by a DK ride into dry sand to face plant, my efforts were not rewarded, and Nicole scored the win, with myself second, Jane third and Laura Vee in fourth.

The surf was small, but the weather and clean conditions had everyone keen to stay in the water for longer, so we got out the Milkshakes soft surfboard and the Surfing Green wooden bodyboard to play on. Good times!

We headed up to Emerald’s new store for the presentation. The shop looks so good! Comfy couches and bodyboarding videos playing on the big screen all day, we didn’t want to leave! Des is always so entertaining to talk to as well!

Soon our tummies started grumbling, so we ventured off for some sandwiches at a café in the mall, which included some conversations and laughs that scared off the people from surrounding tables ha.

Thanks again to the support of our sponsors for this event:

Emerald Surf City –for the supply of tent/equipment/judges and first place prizes for each division! Yew! http://www.emeraldsurfcity.com/

Hive Swimwear -15% discount voucher for every competitor today  http://www.hiveswimwear.com/

Treehugger Surf Wax –free (and all natural, and so sticky!) bodyboard wax for every competitor http://www.treehuggerwax.com/

Milkshakes Designs -20% discount on custom bodyboards for all WBA members http://www.milkshakesdesigns.com/

RESULTS:

A

1^st -Jayda Sharpe (Sutherland) –won a pair of Stealth fins

2^nd -Loren Collyer (Gerringong)

3^rd –Rani Head-Toussaint (Avalon)

AA

1^st –Kate McAdam (Port Kembla) –won a Swarm bodyboard hoodie

2^nd –Kerry Head (Avalon)

3^rd –Julia Heasman (Seaforth)

4^th -Ali Kriz (Avoca)

AAA

1^st –Nicole Fleming (mobile in the van…) –won a pair of Dragon sunglasses

2^nd –Lilly Pollard (Gerringong)

3^rd –Jane Keel (Shoalhaven Heads)

4^th –Laura Verjbitsky (Cronulla)

Lilly Pollard