It was the sort of beach break, contest scenario you dream about – five feet of swell, whistle clean conditions and a bank that was bending the coiled lines into drag-race barrels. Not to mention four CT-level surfers pushing each other to go deeper and harder.
Leading the charge was born-again contest surfer, Josh Kerr, on his own brand of twin fins. Kerrsy put in more tunnel time than a team of wombats on speed , complementing his tube act with roaring roundhouses and full rotations. Mark Richards lives about a hundred yards away from the Newcastle contest bank and must have been having flashbacks to his four world title victories on twin fins.
Kerrsy, George Pittar and Dylan Moffat all got some serious behind the curtain vision as the commentary team fizzed with delight; labelling it a ‘super-heat’. However, despite the heat’s hollow theme it was Jacob Wilcox who won the battle with his whip-crack backside snaps. The judges were still shuffling the abacus when the heat finished but in the end it was Wilcox and Kerrsy going one and two.
When Newcastle was announced as !the location book-ending the Challenger Series ( two events) some were sceptical but in a single day of inspired surfing, Newy more than proved its worth as a venue for contemporary, world-class surfing.
