Peninsula Boardriders Club hot shot Callum Nicholson in action in the lead up to the Jim Beam Surftag
TIME HAS COME FOR PENINSULA BOARDRIDERS CLUB TO TAKE ON THE NATION
They have fallen short each of the last five years but with a younger, fresher team the Peninsula Boardriders Club is confident they can make the step up and qualify for the national finals when the Victorian round of the Jim Beam Surftag comes to the Mornington Peninsula’s Gunnamatta beach on Saturday.
The Surftag format sees five-member teams square off in a relay style event with the top three teams from the Victorian round progressing through to face the country’s best clubs in the Jim Beam Surftag Australian final.
The final is expected to witness elite ASP World Tour surfers including 2007 World Champion Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Taj Burrow, Kai Otton and numerous other elite competitors line up for their beloved clubs at Sydney’s North Narrabeen beach on February 13/14.
In previous years the Victorian round, which is also contested by clubs from South Australia, has only earned two spots in the finals but the standard of surfing in recent times has forced organisers to add an extra position.
Peninsula Boardriders, who surf out of the host beach and will enter two teams on Saturday, last battled against the country’s best club teams in the Australian final in 2003 and club board member Chris Fowler says that has been far too long between drinks.
“It’s been a while (but) our confidence level is pretty high and hopefully the guys can do the job,” Fowler said of his club’s top squad that will include club president Lachy McDonald, Caiden Fowler, Liam Jolly, Callum Nicholson and Adam Morris.
“The teams will be very evenly matched and it will depend on the waves and depend on the day.”
Fowler said his club has spent a lot of energy over the last few years developing their young surfers and now it was time for that strategy to pay dividends.
“We have our youngest team ever with some of the guys just turning 18” Fowler said.
“The club had a big gap between young and old and we have spent the last few years focussing our energy on the young guys.
“We have had a couple of High Performance camps a year and they have worked wonders with the kids. We now have a lot more competing in the junior ranks than we did ten or even five years ago.
“The goal for this year is to make the national final and if they do that they will be very happy boys. We think we just might be able to do it.”
If they are to go all the way and win the event, the Peninsula crew will need to defeat defending champions Seaford Boardriders from Adelaide.
The South Australians won the Victorian event last year and will be represented by World Qualifying Series professionals Dion Atkinson and Jarrad Howse who finished 23rd and 33rd in the WQS this year – narrowly missing entry into surfing’s premier World Championship Tour for 2010.
Howse, who spends much of the year travelling and competing for his sponsor O’Neill, said his team might well be stronger this year than they have been in the last two seasons.
“We love the Surftag event in Victoria because it’s like our annual surfing get together trip,” Howse said.
“Dion (Atkinson) and I travel all year and don’t get to compete in every club contest but when we all get together for this trip we get to hang out together, support each other and come together as a club.
“We haven’t finalised our team yet and it will probably be a similar team to last year but we have a couple of young guys coming through that might just make us stronger.
Howse was also keen to let his state’s eastern neighbours know who is boss.
“We are pumped and want to get that hat trick of national qualification and follow up well after winning last year,” he said.
“We want to stir up the Victorians and while Torquay are strong on paper and all the clubs down there have a heap of depth we have the luxury of knowing we have won it before.”
Seaford and Peninsula Boardriders will face tough competition from traditional Victorian powerhouse Torquay, dark horse and last year’s runner up 13th Beach (Ocean Grove/Barwon Heads) and 07/08 season state champions Phillip Island.
The Surftag format sees five-member teams given an hour in which each individual must catch three waves, with the second being a “powerwave” worth double points. All three waves for each surfer count in the scoring and bonus points are awarded for teams that finish before the 60 minute mark.
Another feature of Saturday’s action will be the FCS Manufacturers Cup.
A competition for surfboard manufacturers, the event is run to a similar format to the Surftag series. Four man teams, made up of two factory employees and two team riders, will compete for the right to contest the national Manufacturers Cup final. Two teams will progress from the Victorian event.
Saturday’s surfing will get underway at 9am and is expected to wind up around 3pm.
The next event in the series will be the men’s Western Australian Surftag event at Yallingup on January 9.
2010 Jim Beam Surftag Australian Series
23rd Oct - Industry Challenge – Winner: Hurley29th Nov - Women's Surftag - Winner: North Narrabeen
19th Dec - VIC Qualifier
9th Jan - WA Qualifier
15th Jan - QLD Qualifier
23rd Jan - NSW North Qualifier
30/31 Jan - NSW South Qualifier
12/13/14 Feb - Australian Final
The 2010 Jim Beam Surftag Australian Series is proudly supported by FCS, Tracks, Swellnet, Sanyo, Beever and Global Surftag.