| First Titles // Event 25 August 2009 By: Andrew Cassidy Location: Port Macquarie It's a long way from Sydney to Port Macquarie. Well, that's what I thought until I met up with the guys from Noosa, Torquay and even Adelaide who also made the trek by road. Those guys are super keen but then again this is the very first Australian SUP Titles and there are a lot of guys who would suffer much more than just a long drive to have a shot at that prestigious, history making, crown. There will only ever be one first Australian SUP champion.  We arrived about 2pm on the Friday before the comp on the Sunday. The family came along with me for moral support, the kids bribed with a couple of days off school. The longboard component of the Australian Surf Festival had already packed up for the day. They had cut their daily schedule short due to the tiny waves and hurricane strength onshore winds. Town Beach was unsurfable. Disappointing, as I had wanted to get in a quick practice session on the waves where the biggest SUP event of the year would take place. I decided to conserve energy instead and have a beer. The beautiful view of the sunset from our cabin's deck during our pre-dinner drink and nibblies session was soon rudely interrupted by something much less beautiful. A beer wielding Dogman, aimlessly wondering around the caravan park looking for some phantom mates, had spotted the paddle surfing stickers on my car. You know you'll be in for some intellectual conversation when the Dogman turns up so he was encouraged to stay. I think the green, basil and cashew dip was a bit too "city" for the simple country boy so he played it safe and stuck to his beers. The conversation centred around the upcoming event, SUPing in general, the new magazine, politics, religion and more SUP stuff - all the important things. As night fell, the dogman resumed his search for more raucous companions and the family and I hit the local Mexican restaurant for dinner. Saturday arrived and was now the only practice day I had before the comp. I woke early, hoping to beat the crowds and get in a decent stint before the longboard event cleared the water. There were already a few out by the time I'd walked to the beach, one of them was Dogman - such an early bird. The previous day's strong onshores had swung the swell around and picked it up a bit. The now light offshore breeze created a completely different scene on the beach. Horrible one day, very nice the next. I was keen to get out there and hoped that the conditions would last long enough for us to compete in the next day. There were some really fun waves. Almost head high on the sets, nice and clean and some great walls to work with. It got very crowded, very quickly, as all the longboarders obviously wanted to get their share of practice waves too. It was their finals day after a week of competition. Seven thirty came around before we knew it and the water was cleared for the first longboard semi of the day. Without a satisfactory number of waves under my belt, I paddled outside the contest area and got a few more. They weren't nearly as good there and I needed something better. Dogman was keen to keep surfing too so I suggested we paddle across the river and see if that nice wedge behind the breakwall was working. The conditions indicated it might be great. We paddled out to sea, anticipating the strong incoming tide as we edged across the river. Our calculations, however, were way out and by the time we had spanned the entrance, we hadn't quite made it around the tip of the other breakwall. The five minutes of frantic paddling without making any ground whatsoever was too much for me. I didn't want to pull a muscle now - what bad timing would that have been? I told Dogman I was spinning around and heading for the little beach up river. It was a much longer trip but also much easier. The determined Dogman kept pushing on against the tide. I eventually paddled, climbed, walked and paddled again to the wedging right hander. Dogman was already there - he's a machine. Disappointingly the waves weren't nearly as good as I thought they'd be. Pretty average really. Doggy had paddled up the beach a bit and was chasing a pod of dolphins around. Inquisitively I joined him, already bored with the pitiful waves on offer. There was one large female surrounded by lots of juveniles. They were just floating around very casually. Doggy had seen this a couple of times before and said they do this when giving birth. We got pretty close at one stage but didn't see the delivery before they moved further out to sea. Amazing creatures, so cool. We caught a couple of weak, little lefts and then went in. The rest of the day was spent watching the longboard finals, shopping with the family, watching Lummers, Matt Tackle and Keahi have a practice session next to the contest site and more conserving of energy. Three o'clock on Saturday afternoon saw the official welcoming of the SUP and shortboard riders to the Australian Surf Festival. Keahi, Tully and myself were the only ones there until they announced they were about to have a special briefing for the SUP competitors. A number of phone calls in rapid succession had all but a few of the boys in the hotel's conference room just before the meeting started. Lummers couldn't make it as he had, moments before, come to grief on the inside graveyard section and busted a fin out of his only board. With the comp only 15 hours away, he was madly ringing local board repairers in order to get the thing back in working order, ASAP. The meeting started, the SA boys arrived, the meeting started again. The event director told us of the minor changes they had recently made to the International Surfing Association's SUP rules and said we'd be trialling these in the event the next day. Changes included less emphasis on how you paddle out, not making paddle use mandatory on every turn and some wording changes to make the criteria a bit more all-round in terms of shortboard and longboard styles of surfing. Overall, a bit more streamlined, up to date and flexible. We were given the draw and the schedule for the following day. I got Lummers, Dogman and Josh Constable in my first heat - great. At least Josh will be an easy beat, I thought, he hasn't ridden a SUP for over a year. Sunday finally came. I'd been waiting in anticipation of this day ever since I found out I was on the NSW team. Now it was here. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I might be. I just wanted to get out there and do my stuff, have a crack at the title. I hoped the waves were as good as the previous morning. After a quick breaky and a double check that I had everything I needed, I headed off for the beach. I hadn't planned on having a warm up surf that morning but when I got to the beach nearly all the boys were out there, slashing it up. I thought for a minute I'd done the wrong thing but then remembered that if I was on the slow track to the final, I'd have to surf five times that day. That's a big effort, something I needed to conserve energy for. There were a few shortboard heats on before our first round started so that time was spent watching the conditions, seeing where the best waves were coming through, listening to the commentators and the scores coming through. When there was only one heat left before our first heat, which I was in, I started getting ready. Lots of warm ups for my legs, arms and shoulders - I didn't want to get an injury, this was a big day of surfing for me. I collected my rash shirt from the event marshal and walked to the waters edge for more stretching. Robbo and Damo who had driven an hour down the coast to cheer on the NSW team were setting up their camera gear on the shore. They had some nice words of encouragement - something about Queenslanders and Victorians surfing like old ladies. Dogman and Lummers joined me on the shoreline for a chat. We were all pretty calm and looking forward to the next 20 minutes. Due to getting a last minute entry into the event, an ill-prepared Josh Constable was collecting borrowed boards and laying them all out on the sand, ready for a quick exchange if necessary. Ha, I thought, easy beat, he's even riding boards he's never ridden before. We paddled out and waited the few minutes for our heat to start. Three, two, one - uuuuurrrrrr. Our heat was on. Who was going to get the very first wave of the very first Australian Titles? Dogman. He got a 7.0. Nice score. He's winning so far. I waited for a good one, saw it coming, tricked Lummers into going for the smaller one before it, I was out the back, uncontested by the others with this perfect set with my name on it about to break. Yes. Lummers snagged a cracker in the last minute to come from behind and overtake the Dogman who had been leading from his first seven point ride.     Brett Mason from WA was the standout in heat two, moving straight through to the semis along with Scotty Mac from SA. A mate on mate tussle between Tully and his protégé, Keahi, took place in heat three. The grommet eventually getting the better of Tully but both moved through to the semis regardless.    Having two requalifying rounds is great for those of us who needed the extra chances but it is also very tiring, especially if you are carrying an injury or are getting old ... or both. Josh obviously found a board he was comfortable with as he smashed both his heats with very convincing wins. Three rounds down and only four guys had dropped out of contention. The semis. You know you have to surf well to get through the semis at an Australian titles event. I watched the first semi carefully and took note of where the best waves were coming through. When mine started I took in all that analysis and then proceeded to wait somewhere completely different. I was right out the back, bouncing around on the chop waiting for one of those really big ones with a long wall, all the way to the beach. It never came. In fact those ones had stopped coming through some time ago but I had it set in my mind that I had to get one from out there if I was going to beat Brett, Tully or Keahi. A good theory but I had less chance of beating them if I didn't get a wave at all. I eventually paddled in and got a few grovellers before the hooter sounded. I came last. My campaign was over. Bummer.  The final was set - all the Queenslanders and Lummers from Victoria. All very deserving finalists. Keahi with his new school moves and radical snaps. Tully with his mature smarts and smooth style. Lummers with his all-rounder bag of tricks - old school and new school. And Josh with all of the above. The conditions had drastically deteriorated throughout the day and unfortunately we were left with one to two foot slop for the most important SUP heat of the year. The boys made the most of the tricky conditions with both Josh and Lummers getting impressively high scores early on. Their combinations of off the tail power turns and up the nose trims and tricks were just what the judges were looking for. Keahi did some great turns but failed to get the length of ride thing happening. Tully seemed to struggle a bit and couldn't find anything big or clean enough to perform his magic on. With not long to go, Josh pulled an 8.4 out of the bag, increasing his lead from Lummers. Matt fought back but uncharacteristically fell on a few. He just couldn't quite get that last decent score before the hooter sounded. Josh Constable was the new Australian Champion.  | |
