Rhythm Kirra Teams Challenge

Surfing Australia
Kirra Point, Australia
5 - 7 February 2010

Australia’s most prestigious Boardriding Club Teams Title

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 6 February, 2010 : - - The first stage to Mark Occhilupo’s return to competitive surfing was a successful one today as  he pulled on the rash vest and won his heat for his beloved Snapper Boardriders Club  at the prestigious Rhythm Kirra Teams Challenge.

The heat win by Occy put the powerful  Snapper Rocks Boardriders club to the top of the leader board at the half way stage of this event which sees Australia’s top 32 Boardriding clubs competing for bragging rights as to Australia’s number one surfriding club!

Occy has accepted a wild-card into the upcoming ASP Breaka Pro at Burleigh Heads in 10 days time and a fit looking Occhilupo showed today he’ll be no easy-beat at the Burleigh Heads event!

A little rusty to begin with, Occy opened with a strong 6.3 ride but with 1 minute  remaining in the heat  was in third place when  he found a strong 6.7 scoring ride to take the heat out defeating Corey Ziems (Alley Boardriders/Currumbin). Former ASP World Tour competitor Jake Spooner (Wollongong) was the day’s standout surfer posting an impressive 16.60 out of a possible 20 for his combined top two scoring rides.

With a day to go in the 3 day event Snapper Boardriders (Coolangatta) holds a narrow lead over Werri Beach Boardriders (South Coast NSW), Coff’s Harbour, Coolum and Lennox Ballina club known as Le-Ba! Late in the day, Snapper Boardriders suffered a significant set-back when Mitch Crews had a shocker of a heat placing third in the four man heat behind Duranbah Boardriders surfer Brent  Dorrington.

Tomorrow’s final day promises to be super exciting as all clubs chase the prestigious Eagle Trophy that goes to the winning club along with $6 000 prize money and the right to claim Australia’s best Boardriding club.

In torrential rain, The swells were solid all day and up to 2m – and at one stage the event had to warn competitors that the line up might be cleaned – up as a fishing trawler ran into serious difficulties trying to return into the Tweed River! Fortunately the trawler righted itself and narrowly avoided what appeared from the beach a near disaster.

A winner will be decided tomorrow afternoon and waves are expected to again be excellent. The point at  Kirra has been breaking although not as consistently as Duranbah, however a slight increase on today’s swell would see the event run at the famed point on the final day – for the first time in 16 years!

After tomorrow’s final, results, digital images, press release and TV newsfeed will be available.

The Rhythm Kirra Teams Challenge is made possible by support from Rhythm, Allstate Partners, Rainbow Bay SLSC, Southern Gold Coast, Electric, Gold Coast City Council, Suncorp Bank, Gold Coast Surf, Stagg Chill, SolrX, Aluminium Access Systems, FarKing, Raptor, Surfing World, Surfing Australia

Surfing Queensland, DNA Sound, C.M & S.M Fraser Pty Ltd, Syco

Previous reports:
# 1 : Rhythm Kirra Teams Challenge set to roll at Kirra Point
# 2 : Rhythm Kirra Teams Challenge opens up at big D-Bah
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon  

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Steve Robertson

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