SA KNEEBOARD PRO-AM

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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