SURFING BY MURRAY TAYLOR
PHOTO: JAKE WHITE/SURIFING AUSTRALIA
Tim MacDonald displays spectacular aerial surfing in the Open Men’s final at the Australian Surf Festival.
fter a pretty average winter for local surfers, Main Beach has started to get some sand back into the right position to produce a few of those left barrels that have been absent for the last few months. While the Gold Coast has been blessed with great conditions and epic surf, at all the points and South Straddie, winter on Straddie was not the greatest for waves. There have been those few gems, if you were lucky enough to be onto it. But in the main, local surfers had to put up with very average conditions. Cylinder has had great banks, but hasn’t liked the southwesterly winds that have come with the swells. Frenchmans has had a few great days, but even these were very tide affected and Frenchmans doesn’t like the easterly swells we have been getting this season. Some of the boys have scored solid waves down Main, when conditions were right. As SIN went to print Straddie's Bede Durbidge was sitting 9th in the world after finishing 25th at the Quiksilver Pro New York, held off Long Beach, New York Next up was the Hurley Pro, Trestles, California. Other local surfers scoring well include Lincoln Taylor who was sitting 77th in the One World Ratings and due to compete in a Six Star Prime event off Cornwall, England.
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Following Cornwall, Lincoln was readying himself to compete in the Azores, then events in France and Spain during August and September. Tim McDonald finished 10th in the Australasian Pro Junior Series, giving him a great seed into next year’s events. Tim also represented Queensland at the Australian Open and Masters Titles being
Junior Titles to be held off Coffs Harbour in November. Ethan Ewing and Leo Rago flew the flag for Point Lookout at this year’s Rusty Grom Fest at Lennox Head. This event has always been great for grommets and parents alike, enjoying the hospitality of our southern neighbors and waves in the region. It was Leo’s last year in the event and sadly he
held off Port Macquarie in August, and finished third. Nathan Specht placed second in the under-18s Queensland School Surfing Titles at Agnes Waters and will represent his state at the Australian
was eliminated in a tough first round heat that lacked waves. Following Ethan’s second placing in the under-12s last year he stepped up to the under14s and surfed well enough to make it through to the quar-
30 STRADDIE ISLAND NEWS — 10 YEARS OF LIVING IN SIN
terfinals. Next year he will be in the same division, so look out. The Point Lookout Boardriders’ Club also sent a team of juniors to take part in an interclub event with North End Boardriders. Dion Stevenson placed second in the final, his best result to date. Ethan was the highest placed junior, getting knocked out in the semis. Nathan Specht and Trey Clough made the quarters. Jamahl Clough, Nattie Van Leeuwen and Leo Rago were the other Point Lookout members who took part. For a lot of these groms it was their first time surfing for the club and they all gave 100 per cent and did the club proud.
Lincoln Taylor demonstrates the importance of a solid bottom turn as he gets in practice in at Duranbah, northern NSW.
SPRING 2011