Winners are grinners - Todd Prestage, Matt Cattle, and Simon Haskell, Team Hurley
TEAM HURLEY WIN JIM BEAM SURFTAG INDUSTRY CHALLENGE
Team Hurley has taken out the Jim Beam Surftag Industry Challenge in clean one foot waves at Curl Curl on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
The team of Mitch Ross (21.0), Matt Cattle (13.0), Todd Prestage (14.7) and Simon Haskell (10.4) scored 61.1 (including two bonus points) to win a tight final by 2.3 points from Manly Surf School, who’s Christo Hall scored a final high 24.3.
The squad from O'Neill (51.3) was third with Quiksilver, led by former world champion Tom Carroll, fourth in the final with 44.9.
Hurley’s Prestage, himself a former world championship tour surfer, said his team went into the event just hoping to have fun against quality opposition.
“There were a lot of good teams entered (and) when you break it down we just wanted to have a good day and see where we ended up,” Prestage said.
“It was a fun day and all of the Hurley boys are stoked because when you go into a competition it’s always good to win, regardless of what it is or who you’re up against.”
Prestage also paid tribute to the competition’s format, believing the Industry Challenge was a unique event that allowed team’s like his to enjoy a spirited day of surfing.
“Everybody enjoyed the day and had a fun time,” Prestage, from the NSW’s Werri Beach said.
“Not too many other industries get together as an industry for the day and have fun but also have a competitive rivalry.
“We all work for different brands but we’re all surfers and all love the water. It’s a tight knit industry and applause should go out to event organiser Steve Harrison and Jim Beam for supporting the concept and putting this together.”
Earlier in the day former top pro Richie Lovett made his comeback to competitive surfing following a harrowing four years since he was diagnosed with, and beat, cancer.
Lovett helped team FCS progress through the first round, scoring highly on one of the longer right handers of the day before the team was bundled out in the quarter finals.
The Industry Challenge kicked off the annual Jim Beam Surftag series that will also feature a women’s event, state based qualifying rounds for the men’s teams and the big three-day final at North Narrabeen in February.
Prestage’s Werri Beach team are the defending National Surftag champions, something new to the south coast outfit.
“Werri is psyched for this year’s Surftag, we’ve never been in a position to defend a title before but we’ve got a strong team, stronger than last year and we are looking forward to the challenge.”
The next event in the series will be the Women’s Surftag event at Curl Curl on November 29.
23rd Oct - Industry Challenge – Winner: Hurley29th Nov - Women's Surftag
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 and Global Surftag.