In pumping 4-5foot waves at North Curl Curl, North Narrabeen’s Davey Cathels, Dylan Moffat, Cooper Chapman, Benny Wilson and Jack Bannister posted a total of 80.10 to finish well ahead of North Shelly (65.04), Avoca (64.05) and Curl Curl (59.24) in the Men’s Final. Both Davey Cathels (8.07) and Dylan Moffat (8.93) scored in the excellent range early in the final with Moffat winning the Phil Courtney Highest Wave in the Final Award for the 8.93. “The Boardriders events are high stakes, so for Northy to get the win against these strong teams is really good. I’m frothing,” said Moffat.
North Shelly and Avoca Boardriders both started the Final with big scores. North Shelly’s Johnnie Keith secured an 8.17 on his opening wave and Avoca’s Sandon Whittaker locked in 8.27. Both Central Coast Clubs tussled with Curl Curl for second place with North Shelly finishing narrowly ahead of Avoca by 0.99. Curl Curl finished strong with both Ed Aubrey and Carter Harris scoring well but suffered a slow start on home turf.
In the Woodhill Estate Agents Masters Final, the Elouera Boardriders (48.04) team of Darren Curley, Luke Palmer, Mitch Warren, Jono Arnold and Dave Martin won the Club’s first ever Surftag Title finishing ahead of a star-studded North Narrabeen (44.85) team that included former World Champion Damien Hardman and World Tour surfers Nathan Webster and Brett Bannister – Current Australian Over 50’s Champion. Long Reef (41.18) finished in third position with the MOB – MacMasters Own Boardriders (37.99) finishing fourth on debut.
Elouera’s team captain Luke Palmer praised his teams game plan of time management, “Tag team surfing is all about time management. We have a big group of older surfers in our club, and we had to dig deep to come up with a team and this win shows the depth we have.”
Dave Martin secured Elouera’s spot in the final after locking in a 7.5 Power Wave (doubled up) in Semi Final No.2. that took Elouera from fourth position to second late in the Semi Final. North Narrabeen’s Nathan Webster won the Phil Courtney Highest Wave in the Final Award with a 6.70.
In much smaller conditions on Saturday, Long Reef Boardriders (46.13) won the Woodhill Estate Agents Women’s Division with North Narrabeen (38.99) finishing second ahead of Cronulla Girls Boardriders (37.46) and Ulladulla (31.74). The Long Reef team of Fiona Bamberry, Sydney Chevalier, Gabi Spake, Annalise Wong and Uli Kapferar set out to improve on their third-place finish in last year’s Women’s Surftag, which was the first time the Northern Beaches Club had entered a Women’s event.
Gabi Spake was the standout surfer for Long Reef posting a 6.83 and 7.10 Power Wave in the Final. “It feels so good to win this year as we came third last year and we always want to better our results”, Spake said. “Before the heat I wasn’t nervous, but on the paddle out I started feeling super nervous but I got it done”.
Ulladulla’s Bella Wilton won the Phil Courtney Highest Wave in the Final Award with a 7.33.
Head here for all Surftag info and follow @surftagseries on socials. See you at Queenscliff 28 & 29 October for the next event, the Guzman Y Gomez Junior Surftag