The organisers of the 2022 Rip Curl Lennox Longboard ‘One Dayer’ are hoping it will be third time lucky after their event was postponed due to COVID and then catastrophic flooding. The event is now scheduled for this Sunday, 15 May.
Contest Director George Leslie spoke to The Echo this week as he was finishing final preparations and hoping for the best, weather-wise. He said the last Lennox Longboard Classic was a two day event, back in 2019.
COVID forced a reschedule of the follow up event, and then the March 2022 event had to be postponed due to the floods. ‘it’s been a bit of a long road!’ said Mr Leslie.
‘The good news is most of the competitors who entered back in September have stayed with us, which is awesome.’
There are currently 72 competitors from the local area and further afield.
‘We always get a lot of guys down from Burleigh Heads, from their club. And this year, we’ve actually got four hearing-impaired surfers from the Steel City Mal Club down in Newcastle. So that’s fantastic.
‘A few have had to pull out because of clashing dates. But in general, it’s all good.’
How are you feeling about the weather this time?
‘The weather will be what it will be,’ said George Leslie. ‘I don’t look at forecasts. I know a lot of people do and they start getting really worried. My attitude is turn up at the beach and see what’s happening!’
He says he’s feeling very optimistic. ‘I was at a meeting last night with the Healthy Minds club boys, and as I came down the hill in the dark, I thought 5.30 on Sunday morning, I’ll be driving down here. It’ll be offshore and it’ll be clean. It’ll be lovely.’
Mr Leslie says spectators and participants can look forward to a lot of really good surfing. ‘The open division has some of the hottest young guys around the area, and a few older ones as well.
‘With the ladies unfortunately, we’ve had three of our top seeded surfers pull out.
‘One of them, Mia Francis, pulled out because she’s had a wildcard entry into the World Surf League longboard event in Sydney, which is a great honor. She’s a very, very good surfer.
‘The over-40s division is very strong. The over-60s is always strong, and it’s always the one that fills up first. So yeah, we’re looking really good. We do have a few spare spots in the ladies in the 60s.’
Safety and sponsorship
Mr Leslie says the only way they’ll cancel the event again is if the surf is dangerous. ‘We have Lennox Surf Club and their rubber ducky as water safety, which is good. But yeah, if it was really big and really dangerous, then we’d get the opinion of the competitors taking a majority vote. If they want to do it, we’ll do it.’
Can you tell us about the sponsors this year? ‘We’ve got about $10,000 worth of goodies to give away from sponsors. Rip Curl, the major sponsor, put in $6,500 worth of stuff. We’ve got sponsorship from the likes of Lennox Surf, and Seven Mile Brewery, Inner Beauty. Yeah, heaps and heaps of stuff,’ said Mr Leslie.
‘We get great support from Lennox Butchery and Lennox Bakery. They provide us free sausages, the rissoles and bread and rolls for our barbecue, which is awesome.’
Healthy Minds
George Leslie said it had made a big difference this year with the Healthy Minds Club boys getting involved, finding sponsorship and helping with organisation of the event, all in the aid of mental health.
‘A lot of them joined our club this year or last year,’ he said. ‘And they’re really good bunch of young guys. They all play for the Trojans footy, so it’s a very localized group that have done amazing things.
‘They’re really prospering and they’re very supportive. They’re certainly going to be an integral part of our operation.’
He said on Sunday there will be about six tents and marquees, including a judges tent. ‘So it’s a big effort to get it going. And then with fantastic support for the Lennox Hotel. We’ve got our presentation planned over there at 3.30.
‘At that point we start giving away heaps of the product that our sponsors have provided us. Each surfer gets a little goodies bag with a Rip Curl product worth a minimum of $60, plus a contest T shirt and wax and a few other goodies. And then all of them go into a random draw for all the rest of the prizes.’
Lennox Centenary
The Rip Curl Lennox Longboard ‘One Dayer’ will be the first official event of the Lennox Head Centenary, which has also been delayed due to flood and COVID issues.
George Leslie said he’s been involved with the history side of surfing in the area for many years, together with Robyn Hargrave, Vic Leto, Phil Myers and Max Perrot.
What about your own history with longboarding and Lennox? What makes the older style boards so special? ‘I’ve been involved in surfing administration for forty years,’ said Mr Leslie, ‘and I was president of Avoca boardriders for about ten years. We moved up here in 2004. Avoca was becoming another suburb of Sydney!
‘Lennox is very much like Avoca was back in the in the ’70s. And because it’s natural, and it’s a good place, I got involved in a longboard club. I’d always ridden shortboards but longboarding suited up here. And yeah, I’ve loved it.’
Is longboarding having a bit of a resurgence? ‘It has for 20 years or more. There’s a lot more young crew getting into it earlier,’ said Mr Leslie.
‘In our club, we’ve got 10 and 12 year olds that are riding longboards straight up. We’ve got a lot of family groups in our club. And in any club, that’s where the future is, with the younger people. That’s why it’s great to have the Healthy Mind Club guys involved.
‘In the right situation it’s a very calming sport. It’s been part of my life since I was 12 and I have family as well. A lot of it depends on what’s going on in the water and the crowds and everything else, but like the old saying goes, the best surfer in the water is the one that’s having the most fun!’
Find out more
Surfers and spectators who want to find out more about Sunday’s event can check out the Lennox Longboarders website and Facebook page. There will be a heat draw put up this afternoon (Friday), on the above sites.
George Leslie is full of praise for the generous sponsors who have made the One Day event possible. ‘We’ve got about $4,000 in entry fees and sponsorship of $17,500. We’ve also got about $2,500 in cash support.’ New sponsors this year include Cape Byron Distillery, Mark Atkins Photography and LJ Signs, who have created ‘a beautiful big contest board’.
In addition to the prizes, Mr Leslie says ‘one of the things that we have always done with the Classic is donated money to local charities or local organizations such as the surf club, Westpac helicopter and Cancer Council.
‘We’ll look at other local charitable organisations too,’ he said. This year flood relief is also likely to be on the list.
The Longboard One Dayer will be happening at Lennox Beach this Sunday, across the road from the pub and the Catholic Church.
‘We’ll be here checking the conditions first thing,’ said George Leslie. ‘I’m 90% sure we’ll go ahead!’
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