Crystal Cylinders
Two of our local clubs will be competing at the biggest, and richest, club competition in the world this weekend in Newcastle.
Byron Bay Boardriders managed to secure one of the five wildcards into the event after bombing out at the qualifying event back in August last year. They have a stacked team lead by Soli Bailey, Dan Wills and the ex WSL commissioner and Pipeline Master himself Kieran Perrow.
Lennox-Ballina Boardriders won the qualifier and also boast a strong team led by Stuart Kennedy with Nyxie Ryan, Marcus Aboody, Jye Glinderman and Mikey McDonagh.
The ‘Australian Boardriders Battle’ is a WSL sanctioned Speciality event run by Surfing Australia and has 24 of the country’s finest board-riding clubs battling it out for an overall prize-money purse of $110,500 including the qualifying series and $20,000 for the club that wins the finals this weekend.
The finals format features individual four-person heats on Saturday in opens, women’s, juniors and masters divisions that gain points for each club.
These points determine the seeding order for the tag style ‘nudie teams’ finals held on the Sunday.
With the surf forecast map for the weekend dominated by a purple blob off the East Coast it looks like some solid size and challenging conditions for all the clubs looking to win it this year.
Watch via www.australianboardridersbattle.com
