Surfing Australia

Rip Curl Hosts a Battle of the Beaches This Weekend

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 22 February, 2006 : - - Australia’s premier surfing teams event, the Rip Curl Kirra Teams Challenge, hits the Gold Coast waters this weekend with 40 board-riding clubs from around Australia and New Zealand set to contest the prestigious 22nd annual showdown.

With $15,000 up for grabs, it will be a virtual 'battle of the beaches' as each club’s eight-man team challenges for the esteem of their home beach being recognised as base to the country’s top club. Board-riding clubs around Australia’s coastline are the breeding grounds that yield the country’s surfing talent, in turn defending and enforcing our international prowess and reputation.

With 20 Aussies listed amongst the ASP’s elite Top 45 WCT ranks, Australia remains by far the most dominant surfing nation, proof of the success and heritage of the club system. “Our boardriders clubs around the country continue to be supportive right throughout a surfer’s career,” testified Rip Curl team surfer Mick Fanning, himself a proud member of the hosting Kirra Surfriders Club.

“I joined Kirra in 1994 as a cadet, and all these years later, the Kirra crew are still there supporting and encouraging me like an extended family. Boardriding clubs are Australia’s surfing backbone and I’m stoked that my sponsor Rip Curl are in there supporting the grass roots of the sport this weekend, hopefully at Kirra.

The swell is pumping today, and it’s expected to hang around, so we’re hoping to look forward to bringing the event back to its original location there off Big Groyne”.  Queensland clubs have ruled the team surfing roost since the inaugural Kirra Teams Challenge was staged in 1984, with the banana-benders winning 15 of 21 annual encounters on the Gold Coast.

The host club Kirra Surfriders have won four times, though the virtually undisputed kings of team surfing over the past ten years, Kirra’s neighbouring Snapper Rocks Surfriders, have won eight times, and are keen to make this weekend’s showdown victory number nine.

Fresh from a strong win by a big margin in a teams event at Duranbah last weekend, Snapper are fielding an even stronger squad for the Rip Curl Kirra Teams Challenge which starts on Friday. Just as host club Kirra are keen to stage the event at their beloved Kirra break, local rivals Snapper are hoping that this week’s forecast strong swell will maintain and allow the event to be held in their home waters at Rainbow Bay.

“We’re really fired up for what will be the toughest team event ever,” conceded Snapper Rocks Surfriders Club President and Team Captain Shane Bevan. “It is by far the most prestigious team event, and we’ll be looking for the home advantage, hopefully surfing those excellent banks at Rainbow”.

The Snapper team’s awesome lineup will include Jay Philips, Will Lewis, Shaun Gossman, Josh Kerr, Damon Harvey, Luke Dorrington and the Harrington twins Shaun and Dean.

Besides Kirra, and other strong Queensland clubs including Noosa, MNM and Palm Beach, intense competition can be expected from south of the border, with 2002 champions Byron Bay and Newcastle’s Merewether club both fielding strong teams.

Twice previous event champions Merewether will be lead by former WCT surfers Luke Egan, Simon Law and Matt Hoy, while Byron’s young mix of talent includes Kieren Perrow, Beau Walker, Yerrin Brown, Jarred Sullivan and Garrett Parkes.

Besides the New Plymouth club from the Taranaki district of New Zealand’s north island, the Margaret River team will again be featuring in the long haul stakes, travelling over from Western Australia for the Rip Curl Kirra Teams Challenge. Boasting top talent like Yadin Nichol and Ry Craike, the Margs’ team will be out to improve on their runner-up finish in the 2005 event.

Each club fields a team of eight surfers, two of whom must be juniors, with each surfer representing his club contesting a four man heat, the first of which will hit the water at 8am on Friday.

Each of the 300-plus surfers representing their respective clubs will surf just once before barracking for his team mates over an exhaustive schedule that will continue over the weekend, concluding around 2pm on Sunday. The presentation will be held at Kirra Sports Club at 530pm on Sunday afternoon.

www.ripcurl.com.au

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Steve Robertson

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