Crystal Cylinders
Competition will be stiff at the 2017 Australian Surf Festival underway on the Tweed Coast and set to run for a marathon 17 days.
Interstate entrants will come up against a strong field of local athletes keen to win an illustrious national title on home turf with four major events being run and won at the ASF.
Competitors have to qualify through state titles to represent their region at the pinnacle event for amateur surfers in Australia.
First up is the Open Surfmasters that comprises open and age divisions in the shortboard discipline followed by the Australian Longboard Titles, Australian Logger Titles and finishing with the Australian Bodyboard Titles.
Three new Australian Champions were crowned in the Open Men’s, Open Women’s and Over-35 Men’s divisions at Duranbah at the Surfmasters so far.
Lennox Head’s Mikey McDonagh started with a heat win but was eliminated in the quarterfinals in a close battle in the open men’s competition.
The O/40s, O/45s, O/50s and O/60s in the shortboards will finish this week.
Lennox Head’s Max Perrot and Byron Bay’s Neil Cameron are representing NSW in the Over-50s and Over-60s divisions respectively.
Title for Jai
The Havaianas NSW Grommet State Titles competitors faced huge waves at Maroubra so Surfing NSW opted to postpone the second day of the event, and then shifted south to Malabar where competitors were greeted by 0.6-metre lefthanders.
Jai Glinderman from Lennox Head ensured a NSW Title would be heading north, claiming the U/14 Boys division.
The powerful natural-footer synced his game-plan perfectly with the punchy lefthanders, nailing a bombardment of impressive backside snaps to post a 15.5 two-wave heat total and take the final ahead of fellow north coast native Touma Cameron from Byron Bay.
All finalists have qualified for the upcoming Surf Dive N Ski Australian Junior Surfing Titles, which takes place in Culburra on the NSW South Coast in November/December.
Lennox Head’s Jack O’Brien also qualified for the Australian Titles with a sixth-place finish.
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