Billabong Alley Classic
Presented by Printpoint

Queensland Championship Circuit 
The Alley, Queensland Australia
19 - 20 January 2008

Luke Dorrington Wins Billabong Alley Classic

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 21 January, 2008 : - - The Gold Coast’s Luke Dorrington (Coolangatta) has bagged an early lead in the race for the 2008 Queensland Championship Circuit (QCC) title after trumping the state’s premier open-aged surfers to win the season opening Billabong Alley Classic on the Gold Coast today.

Dorrington, 22, made his mark on Currumbin Alley’s reeling 3-4ft point break waves, defeating Snapper Rocks Boardriders teammate Shaun Gossmann (Burleigh Heads), former World Tour competitor Luke Hitchings (Yamba, NSW) and Coolangatta young gun John Cummings to collect $2000, 1000 rating points along with a truckload of confidence heading into the next chapter of this year’s circuit.

What’s more, Dorrington joined a prestigious list of past winners including World tour stars Joel Parkinson (Coolangatta), Luke Munro (Currumbin) and Adriano De Souza (Brazil. The $5000 Billabong Alley Classic is the first of six stops on the $30,000 QCC. Showing no signs of nerves heading into the decisive final, the stylish natural foot defied wind-affected conditions to run away with victory.

“I’m over the moon,” said Dorrington. “It was great to surf against Hitcho (Luke Hitchings) in the final. I’ve always looked up to him as a surfer, so to beat him was even better.” Clearly in rhythm with the onshore conditions, Dorrington jagged a set wave before unleashing successive high-performance maneouvres to net an 8.50 in the early stages of the 30-minute final.

Leaving nothing to chance, Dorrington backed it up with an excellent scoring 9.10 to put the result beyond doubt. Dorrington finishing on a two-wave combined total of a 17.60 (out of a possible 20) to Gossmann’s 16.00. Hitchings and Cummings finished third and fourth respectively. 

Dorrington, who won the annual MP Classic at Duranbah last year, will be looking to use his win today as a major confidence boost heading into the start of the Australian World Qualifying Series (WQS) leg.

Not so lucky today was defending champion Corey Ziems (Currumbin, QLD), who felt the wrath of an inform Luke Hitchings (Yamba, NSW) in the day’s first quarterfinal, knocked out of competition after failing to progress in third place behind Hitchings and Ryan Campbell (Noosa).

Adding to the event’s already high stakes was the Tooheys Extra Dry ‘Wave of the Weekend'. Despite bombing out early, Ziems was awarded four cartons of the clean crisp taste of Tooheys Extra Dry for netting the event’s highest individual wave score, an impressive 9.25 (out of a possible 10).

The next stop on the Billabong Queensland Championship Circuit (QCC) presented by Printpoint will be the Billabong Creek to Creek, starting on March 15, 2008. The main event site for the Billabong Alley Classic will be Currumbin Alley, but the tournament does have the option of going mobile to the best surf from Southport Spit to Duranbah.

The Billabong Alley Classic is the first of six stops of the 2008 Billabong Queensland Championship Circuit (QCC) presented by Printpoint, a six event - $30,000 series, that continues to set the benchmark for surfers aspiring towards a professional surfing career.

The 2008 Billabong QCC is proudly supported by Printpoint.

Final
Dorrington (17.60),
Gossmann (16.00),
Hitchings (11.10) 
Cummings (8.25).

www.billabong.com 
www.surfingqueensland.com

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Jake White

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