Middle Cell surfers reran their faction surfing carnival last Friday at the River Mouth in conditions which began reasonably, but deteriorated throughout the morning, as the onshore wind grew stronger and a few light showers rained down on parent spectators and contest officials.
In an exciting first semi-final Sun faction pipped Forest at the post by 0.5 of a point to scrape into the grand final against Ocean who managed to get over the top of Earth, as the swell built and the wind blew stronger. Surfing well for Earth were the McGregor brothers, Murray and Cliff, as well as Ziggy B. Ocean really profited from its female surfers, Maybelle and Ella who both scored lots of waves in their heats, as did Felix in his.
The grand final between Sun and Ocean started off in really fine style as faction captains Gus (Sun) and Jonah(Ocean) surfed a really tight heat, throwing lots of big manouvers, whilst surfing the outside bank. The rest of the Ocean team surfed very tightly and consistently and in the end managed to outscore Sun by 8 points. Surfing really well for Sun were Jezrah and Amara (who ended up surfing a double heat … not easy in conditions which were pretty cool by this stage.
Contest director Josh Palmateer said he was extremely pleased with the positive attitude of all surfers and thanked lifeguards, Azza and Richie for their work, as well as the parents who assisted Courtenay and him with the judging and timekeeping.
Written and photos by Gary Gibbon; Posted by D. Veary
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