Full Steam Ahead For Surfers Chasing Title Glory
Newcastle Herald
Thursday March 30, 2000
WHILE Newcastle Beach was buzzing with the excitement of Surfest last weekend, seven local surfers slipped out of town in pursuit of national titles at the Australian Surf Masters Championships in Tasmania.
Event headquarters is Scamander Beach, which has a fairly good record for surf but the water is cold and competitors will definitely be into their steamer wetsuits to keep warm.
Catherine Hill Bay surfer Paul Parkes is Newcastle's only representative in the blue riband open division, in which he is not without a winning chance.
Clubmate Scott Myers lines up in the seniors division, while Redhead's Grant Brooks is in the over-40s and Nelson Bay's Dean Shaw is contesting the over-35s.
Newcastle surfer girls Angela Scheibel and Kelly Bashford will line up in the open women's division, while Dudley's Julie Anne Smith is a great chance in the women's masters division.
The Aussie titles run throughout the week, with grand finals on Sunday. * More than 130 competitors took part in the seventh leg of the Rip Curl Search Sessions tour event at Scotts Head last weekend.
Cameron Ebert won the under-25s division from Paul Evans, while Mitch O'Grady won the men's under-18s.
The only upset was in the women's under-25s, which was won by Wollongong's Carmen Buecher.
Two rounds will be held in Queensland over the next two weekends before the regional winners head to Victoria for the Rip Curl Bells Beach Easter Classic. * What can I say in the the wash-up of Surfest? It was simply awesome.
Despite the incredible spate of bad weather during the week, every day produced a feast of surfing that had to be seen to be believed.
The finals weekend produced some amazing surfing, the Saturday night tribute to the 12 world champions was wonderful and Sunday's grand finale with all 12 champions surfing at the same time had the huge crowd totally mesmerised.
The team that put it all together ? and held it all together ? through good and bad weather deserve plenty of accolades.
One thing that was emphasised in watching the heats on the weekend was the amount of luck that comes into play, especially in four-man heats.
Luke Egan and Mark Occhilupo are two names that readily come to mind. Both surfers only needed an average wave to progress to the semi-finals with three or four minutes to go.
Under normal circumstances it would have just been a formality but on both occasions there was just no motion in the ocean for the dying minutes of their heats and both were eliminated. * The Catherine Hill Bay Board Club will hold its club contest at North Catherine Hill Bay from 7am on Saturday.
© 2000 Newcastle Herald
