Sydney, 2nd March 2007 - Sydney’s Northern Beaches are guaranteed a finalist in tomorrow’s Jim Beam Boardriders Cup after North Steyne’s Paul Evans and Long Reef’s Steve Clements set up an all local semi final following today’s fourth round at Curl Curl.

Evans, the 26-year-old former Scotts Head surfer was on fire throughout the day, tearing apart the one metre waves, placing second in his first round heat before winning each of the next three rounds.

The natural footer was most impressive in the fourth round, eliminating reigning Australian Open champion Jirah Laws from Torquay and relegating red hot Le Ba (Lennox Ballina) shredder Marcus Aboody into second.

Clements finished second in his fourth round clash, knocking out one of the contest’s favourites, Snapper Rocks’ Shaun Gossman, and finishing behind Wollongong’s Nick Squires.

The other semi final tomorrow will feature Aboody and surprise packet Squires.

Squires was only added to the elite field last night, having to take a flex day from his building job at the last minute and now finds himself in the running for the title of Australia’s number one club surfer.

“I got the late call up to compete and I love to surf in any competition I can,” 24-year-old Squires said.

“I had to have a flex day to do this today and I needed to make it to the semis to make sure I made enough money for it to be worthwhile.”

Despite Clements’ powerful display, Evans will head into the semi finals as the man to beat after choosing his waves carefully to clinically defeat his opponents.

“I went pretty well today, I was pretty lucky in a lot of the heats, just waiting for the waves and making sure I caught the right ones,” a modest Evans said.

“I focused on catching a few good waves in each heat and things worked out.”

Evans said he was exhausted after surfing four heats in one day but said he was excited about tomorrow.

“I’m pretty tired and might have to have a few Jim Beams and then go to bed early,” the natural footer said.

“I’m looking forward to the semi finals and of course the teams event tomorrow and hopefully the waves will stick around.”

Earlier, defending champion Drew Courtney of Central Coast club Umina and local favourite Matt Bemrose (Curl Curl) made a shock early exits when they finished third in their respective opening round heats.

It will be a busy day tomorrow for Evans, Clements and Aboody who will all be involved in their club’s Jim Beam Surftag National final campaign.

The Surftag is the nation’s premier club teams surfing event and is run under the popular tag team format with each club being represented by five surfers.

In relay style each surfer catches three waves and then returns to the beach to tag the next surfer. All three waves ridden count towards the team’s final score with each surfer’s second wave a “Powerwave” worth double points. Bonus points are also on offer for each team’s fifth surfer returning to the tag area before the one hour time limit.

The 2007 Jim Beam Surftag National Series is proudly supported by Jim Beam, Face of Australia Sunscreen, Mentawai Resorts, vmoto, Oporto, Coastalwatch and Australia’s Surfing Life.