Lightweights throw
down the gauntlet!
Day three of the
Global Surf Industries Noosa Festival of Surfing was greeted with beautiful
blue skies at Noosa Heads and small, clean surfing conditions.
It turned out to be a case of size does matter today as one after another
the fly weights of the field in the Noserider Pro progressed thru, many of
the heavyweights on paper suffered elimination, failing to find that
something special in the small half meter waves.
The youngest competitors in the entire Festival have managed to cause two of
the biggest upsets to date! 13yr old Noosa local Zye Norris and his older
brother Ezra (15yrs) raised eyebrows today as they easily advanced through
upstaging their more highly fancied opponents.
Standout surfer in the Pro Noserider division also belonged to a local
surfer with talented Sunrise Beach surfer Harrison Roach managing the small
waves with ease to post one of the mornings biggest heat wins.
Pronoserider is all about time spent on the nose and judges are geared up
with stop watches which click on and off as surfers walk to the nose and
either hang ten or hang five to amass time on nose – widely regarded as
longboarding’s most seriously testing skill.
Others to impress in round one of the Pro Noseriding division included
Queensland surfers Fraser Biden, Mitch Surman and Gold Coast’s Jackson Close
along with international’s Michael Detemple and Alex Esposito (Both USA).
Not so fortunate amongst the international competitors were Randy Rarrick
(Hawaii) and UK junior longboard champion Ben Haworth (Devon/UK) ,both
eliminated in their opening rounds today.
Rarrick is world renown in surfing circles, competing with distinguished
results in Pro Surfings early era of the 1970’s and now runs Hawaii’s
biggest surfing events which includes the Pipeline Masters and the Sunset
Beach World Cup.
Not at all disappointed with his result today Rarrick commented after his
heat -
“It’s been 9 years since I was last in Noosa for this festival and it’s
great to be back. There’s an amazing array of activities going on around the
event this year which I’m very interested in and I really only competed in
the Pro Noserider division hoping the surf might be pumping on the points
like last year and I’d get the chance to surf with just three other guys in
the water! Obviously that wasn’t the case but I’m having a great time here
and really looking forward to the rest of the week – Hopefully the waves
will come up a little as well!”
For Ben Haworth, his elimination from the Pro Noserider leaves him with just
the amateur open division to compete in and of his chances he said – “ While
I’m the UK Junior Champion, it’s a lot tougher competing here but that’s why
I’m here to mix it with the world’s best and I’m having a great time despite
getting eliminated in the Pro Noserider division this morning – It was
better for me in the Open amateur where I progressed in 2nd place in my four
man heat and I’m hoping to go further and basically get as much experience
here as possible – Like everyone else here I’m hoping it gets a bit bigger
but we’re longboarders and we can ride big and small waves!”
Quarter finals of the Telstra Men’s Pro and the Banana Boat Women’s Pro were
placed on hold as the organizers patiently await a slight swell increase
which they believe will kick in over the coming few days and provide more
ideal conditions for these blue ribbon pro divisions – the outlook is
promising with the weekend hopefully seeing super clean small waves on the
Noosa famed points!
Hawaiian surfer Angela Vernon styling in the Pro Nose Rider division
at Main Beach Noosa today
Joe Aaron (USA) impresses despite the small 0.5m surf at
Noosa today to advance to round two