The Byron Bay Boardriders (BBB) are brimming with positive energy after winning Surfing Australia’s ‘Club of the Year’ award last week in Bondi, and are well-primed to defend their national title at Burleigh Heads this weekend.
The Surfing Australia Simon Anderson Boardrider Club Award was for the BBB’s ‘…outstanding performances in the water and their contributions of all kinds to the benefit of its wider local community’.
The award was a great boost for the team ahead of the Australian Boardriders Battle final, where they will be defending champions and number one seed, after winning the event in Newcastle last year.
Eleven-year-old surfer Leihani Zoric is a new addition to the Byron Bay team that also includes Dakoda Walters, Danny Wills, Kieren Perrow and Soli Bailey.
‘We have a lot of confidence in Zeihani to get the job done,’ BBB’s Neil Cameron said.
‘All up we have a well of experience in the team. We are confident, but not overly confident,’ that the club can achieve back-to-back wins.
The Boardriders Battle final weekend will see a total of 32 clubs competing.
The new location is considered more challenging as surfers will need to run much further than before as the course starts at the top of the Burleigh Hill. They will also have to navigate rocks before catching a wave, then run again, past the Pavilion and back up the hill.
Heats are 70 minutes long (up from 60 minutes).
The ‘tag team’ style of the event, as well as the course, will require plenty of tactical nouse to negotiate successfully. But this style of surfing is really ‘exciting, everyone is amped up. It is a great spectacle,’ Neil said.
Other local boardriders clubs competing in the finals include: Lennox-Ballina, Cabarita and Kingscliff.
The Boardriders Battle is the world’s biggest team surfing event.
The finalists won through from eight qualifying rounds held around Australia invovling more than 80 Boardriding clubs.
