Teams Race Gives Club Best Day Ever
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday July 1, 1992
Southend Boardriders had good two-metre-plus waves for the eighth annual Paul Baxter Memorial Contest last Saturday.
Secretary/treasurer Mark Windon said he believed it was the best day of competition the club had ever held "because of the surf and the way everyone stayed there for all the competition".
Six eight-person teams were picked out of the hat for the club's first-ever teams event.
There were 16 heats, with only three surfers out in the water at once.
"We were going to make them 15-minute heats but increased them to 20 minutes because of the size of the surf," Mr Windon said.
The team format kept everyone on the beach for the whole day, yelling encouragement and giving directions to fellow surfers.
Peter Hollington's green team, which included Chub Farkas, Louie Buchan, Peter Wilson, Leanne Bonello and Greg Clifford, eventually won, ahead of Fish Buchan's white side and Ronnie Bevan's black team, which tied for second.
To break the tie, each team sent out one surfer, with Con Parris in white and Paul McAnaney in black.
The biggest set of the day, peaking at around three metres, came through during the tie-breaker, catching McAnaney inside.
While he struggled to paddle back out, Parris picked off a couple of waves and took the heat.
Two favoured sides - Mark Windon's blue team, which include Jason Platts and Barry Chenhall, and Ray Farrugia's red side, with Roy Buchan, Paul Ross and Craig Mashman, had earlier been eliminated.
Steve "Blackie" Wilson, up from Ulladulla for the week, scored the barrel of the day.
Maroubra Boardriders attracted 45 competitors for round four of their club competition in half-metre surf recently.
Conditions deteriorated during the day under the onslaught of a strong sou'easter.
Paul Moffatt was a clear winner in the final, linking the outside section in the rip with the inside reform.
Mark Reichelt was second ahead of Matthew Howard, who has now finished third four times in a row.
Steve Robinson was fourth, Jed Campbell fifth and Michael Robinson sixth.
They were good performances from the Robinson brothers and Campbell, who are all juniors.
Campbell knocked out Tony Seddon on the way to the final.
Warren Fox and Jim Seddon also surfed well, but were eliminated the semi-finals.
Tye Cochran was the highest-placed senior.
Quiksilver's latest video, the Mondo X-treme X-periment, has a laid-back feel combined with some great surfing action.
A highlight is the footage of Tom Carroll winning last year's Pipeline Masters in three- to four-metre surf.
Carroll makes some amazing late drops before pulling into some heavy pits. The video includes the whole sequence of a classic wave he took off Hawaiian Derek Ho.
There is also some brilliant small wave footage of Kelly Slater in Mexico whipping off 360s, aerials, floating re-entries and reverses.
The rest of the Quiksilver team also gets a look in: Ross Clarke-Jones, Dave Macaulay, Jeff Booth, Mark Bannister, Jake Spooner and Danny Wills, plus the Hawaiian crew.
And there's snowboarding, skating and some classic black and white footage
The 34-minute video retails for $9.95 in surf shops.
© 1992 Sydney Morning Herald