SA KNEEBOARD PRO-AM
28-08-2010
Well folks….. here we are again! The South Oz comp is alive and kicking. Get on board and score points for the Kneelo circuit, get on board and help ya self qualify for the world titles. If ya recken you can give last year’s winner a flogging then come and get your $500 !!!
Last year there were a few upsets sooooooo if you were upset come back and square the ledger, wipe the smile of Phil’s dial and put him in his place. I think I heard Phil say “that was easy money”!! Mmmmmmmm well maybe he didn’t say that but if you think you have a chance (with only 24 competing) then I’d say you have a great chance to walk away with some coin. The contest is open to all open surfers, so first in first serve. Unfortunately we can only run an open division due to this being a one day comp. We wanted to keep the costs down by allowing everybody to get home on the Sunday. Don’t be worried about taking places away from the south oz and west oz crew, there is plenty of room for everyone but get in quick just to make sure.
The contest is run by surfing South Australia with all officials being paid in their respective positions in accordance with Surfing Australia regulations; as such we have a contest director, head judge, 4 judges in a rotation system, tallier and head work crew manager.
The Hotel Elliot have jumped on board again as the main sponsor and the presentation will be held there as per last year. Cockles on north, Victor Harbor Security, Onboard Surf & Skate, South Coast Print & Graphics and Farmers Union Ice Coffee have all chipped in to help make this contest a success.
Last year we were hit with a big swell on the Friday and it didn’t back off enough for the contest to be run at our 2 main open beaches but my goal is always to try and run the comp at these 2 locations as these 2 beaches offer the most powerful and contestable waves on the south coast. These beaches are approx 15 km from Port Elliot and out of town, in a national park area, so there are no shops close handy but if you load up your backpack with some rations you will be ok. They have toilet facilities so no need to stress there.
We have deliberately kept this comp a one day thing so that the travel costs stay down for all competitors so get ya entry in, jump in the car or book the flight and have a crack at south oz. The entry is $75 but you get a t-shirt with that. When you fill out the entry form just mark the size you want.
If you need more info just give us a ring and I will do my best to sort you out
Cheers
Phil “pinebox” Arthur
0412 811 945
Entry Form 2010 SA Kneeboard Pro-Am
2009 Write Up
Howdy everyone Pinebox here, sorry about the late update on the South Oz comp but here goes it!!
Obviously we were stoked that we had some interstater’s come over the border to have a crack at taking the money off the south oz boys. When the close of entries came around we knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for anybody in the comp. With Albert Munoz, Pommie Anderson, Glen Bitton and the sneaky Red Ceglowski making the trek, it was going to be interesting.
Glen arrived on the Thursday to a solid 6ft plus swell maxing out the joint. The only place to go was “The Dump”. I got the arvo off work and met Glen there. I gave Glen the heads up on where to paddle out and hit the water. I made it out the back in about 10 minutes but Glen got caught on da inside. 20 minutes plus later he got out the back, but he was smiling which was a good sign!!! “Welcome to Adelaide” I said, “your lucky it’s only small here today where have you been??” He did make comment about the paddle out but I can’t repeat it!!
Saturday morning came and thankfully the swell
was hanging around, the only issue was if the swell was too big for the
beaches and too small for the reefs but I had to make the call and
Middleton was it. A front was due to hit at lunchtime so Middleton was
good for protection and the surf would hold up with the onshore to help
us finish the comp. It was 2-4ft and slight off shore conditions but the
swell was slow moving so it was hard to pick the right ones to peel off
properly.
The opening round went to plan for the seeds but unfortunately Glen
Bitton, seed no. 3, had a shocker in the quarters and got knocked. He
did say, after coming out of the water, he wasn’t gunna go drinking the
night before a comp ever again!!!
The standard 3 man heats changed to man on man in the semi’s to give
everyone a good crack at the waves and it was a nice change to the
standard 4 person format. Now this is where it got interesting. Albert
and Pommie were against each other with Pommie cruizin thru with a good
2-wave tally. Albert was a bit unlucky as he had the higher scoring ride
but couldn’t get the back up wave to send him thru. Seed no. 1 goneski!!
The door was well and truly open for the locals to get amongst it!!
Jake (the stud) Hadcroft was on a roll and took care of Paul (aka
raymond) Francis. Red (crazy horse) Ceglowski had a fight on his hands
but scaped thru with only half a point splitting him and Simon (cootie)
Coote. I had Kim (never say die) Lasscock and had to get 2 good ones to
get thru.
So for the 4th time in the day, the finalists paddled out pretty knackered and glad there was only 20minutes to go!! It was Vicco’s versus Crow Eater’s and there wasn’t much talking on the paddle out!! The swell was still hanging in there and the big sets were closing the bay down. Jake was playing the mind games and just before the start of the heat, paddles up to me with a wry grin and says “ I’ve been waiting a long time to have a crack at you in a heat Pinebox”!!!! Shit I thought, this kids trying to psych out crusty old Pinebox!! Bloody young kids of today got no respect, don’t he know who I am!!
The final was pretty tense with everyone struggling to get a good one on the board for the first 5-10 minutes but I had some luck and paddled into a pearler and grabbed me an 8 pointer. At the end of the heat the only thing that separated the top 3 places was just over 3 points. I jagged 1st (11.13) Jake got thru by the skin of his teeth for 2nd (7.56) from Pommie 3rd (7.26) with Red in 4th spot (4.86). The weather held out until the last 5 minutes of the final at which point a squall hit smashing everyone. 10 minutes later it was gone!! Par for the course I guess, it’s not a comp unless you get rained on!!!
We all piled into the Hotel Elliot for the
presentations and a bloody good feed. Plenty of amber fluid was used to
wash down the great food and everybody wandered off to their resting
place with a smile.
I would like to say a massive thankyou to all the Sponsors of the event,
The Hotel Elliot, Cockles on North, Victor Harbor Security, OnBoard,
South Coast Print & Graphics, Spook Hill Wines, Beemede Group & Mako
Sunglasses.
A special thanks must go to Simon Coote and Paul Francis for helping to
put this contest together with me, to my partner Lynn, for the fantastic
food for everyone and putting up with my stress attacks and Craig Jacobs
for the sensational handmade glass plate trophy’s. I would also like to
thank the Southern Kneeboard Association and all the club members for
giving up their valuable time to help out with the comp. Without
sponsors and volunteers the contest would never have gone ahead.
Don’t forget that next year the comp will have points towards the Aussie Circuit and hopefully I can up the money stakes for the finalists. Hope to see more of you interstaters come over and grab yourselves some coin and have a great time in little old South Oz. You will need to get in early cause I’m still going to keep it a one day comp with 24 competitors only. This gives everybody a chance to get here, compete on the Saturday and then relax and cruise home on the Sunday.
Cheers from Phil “Pinebox” Arthur
1st Phil Arthur SA
2nd Jake Hadcroft SA
3rd James Anderson Vic
4th Red Ceglowski Vic
5th Albert Munoz NSW
6th Kim Lasscock SA
7th Simon Coote “ “
8th Paul Francis “ “
9th Glen Bitton NSW
10th Cade Taylor SA
11th Max Simionato “ “
12th Dan Polson “ “
13th Steve Beach “ “
14th Craig Jacobs “ “
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