Single-mindedly a Top festival Weekend
Once again it was the first week in January and it was time for the Burleigh Boardriders Single Fin Festival:- Summer skies, sunscreen, solar rays, surfing and single fins, a great weekend this year and every year. Once again Billabong was back to it’s roots looking after the Burleigh Boardriders and the event.
As always, the long weekend started on Friday with the charity luncheon, with MC Freddo Lang, Comedian Steve Alison cracking the crowd of 150 at the lunch, and the guest speakers were throroughly entertaining, Burleigh kid, male model, and winner of the amazing race, Tyler Atkins, gave a great insight into the world of modeling, and even gave the Champ a bit of a bagging as well. Nathan Bock, AFL player for the Gold Coast Suns, let everyone know about the life of a professional footballer. But topping all off was Occy, hilarious recalls of his dancing with stars adventures, and life on the surfing tour from the other side of the contest singlet. Shaper to the stars, Darren Handley wound up the day winning the single fin sprint, the man behind the shaping mask very quick on his feet.
2012 Billabong Burleigh Boardriders Single Fin Comp from surfonmars on Vimeo.
Saturday saw the event commence in pumping 2-3 foot classic Burleigh rock break, sunny skies smooth and glassy with some incredible surfing on boards more than 25 years old, and surfers from 11 to 50 years of age ripping in. Once again spectators lined the point to check out the event. Also well worth checking out was the event created by Peter Harris and his partner Ange, an outdoor museum of single fin boards from many era’s, some dedicated collectors showing their favourite items for all around to see.
Standout surfing on the single fins was there for all to see, although not making the final, Kyle ‘Dvex’ Robinson, Josh Hyland, Johnny Gillette, James and Jack Lewis, Luke Egan, Brisso, and many others really showed some style. Just surfing one of those boards on the rocky with 5 other guys out was worth the entry fee.
When it came down to it, 20 year old Cabarita ripper Jason Jameson took out the 2012 Single Fin Classic presented by Billabong, in a closely fought final, the result taken to a count-back to be given the win over local lad and 2011 runner-up Noah Lane.
Conditions on the final day were tricky northerly wind-blown peaks about half to under one metre, with marine stingers peppering the line-up making difficult for the 6 finalists.
The final wrapped up 2 days of competition, where surfers competed on boards made before 1985, with one fin, and the antique boards took a bit of a battering on the Burleigh Heads rocks. The surfing standard was exceptional, the surfers putting the surfboards through turns never thought possible when the boards were created.
The final was an up and down battle with all of the surfers taking the lead at various points of the 30 minute battle, 2011 Champion Clint Kimmins starting well early, along with perennial finalist and local, Ryan Grey. Noah Lane then kicked into action with a vertical backhand attack on two long wide waves, with Cabarita’s Jason Jameson and local and 3 time winner, Kyle Robinson scoring a good wave each as well. As the final came down to the final minutes, Lane scored what was one of the best waves of the final, only to watch as Jameson picked off a long running waves, which he aggressively tore into, finishing with a huge re-entry amongst a group of swimmers.
When the final was over, Jameson and Lane could not be separated by the judges on their 2 scoring waves, so the officials had to count back to the highest scoring wave from each surfer. Jameson won compliments of his last wave, which received an average score of 8.5 from the judges.
“I am stoked”, said the 20-year-old Cabarita surfer/shaper. “I will be back next year and every year”
Jameson received the glory of the win, and to return tickets to Bali compliments of Air Asia, which he will take fellow Cabarita surfer, and finalist Brent Savage with him for a holiday.
A new addition to the Single Fin Classic, was the Junior Division, which was a real hit with the spectators, with the young grommets surfing the old single fins to an awesome standard, some of the boards 2-3 times the ages of the kids riding them. 16 year-old local Josh Hyland won the Junior Final, busting out aerial moves not even thought possible when these boards were made. Cabarita grommet Dan Sinclair placed second and another Burleigh ripper, Kane Stone third.
Once again, over 2000 people lined the rocks and grass of Burleigh Point to watch an awesome weekend of surfing, entertained by local performer, Josh Lovegrove, as the sun went down.
Once again an awesome weekend of surfing for the 15th year of the Burleigh Boardriders Single Fin Classic.
Results
Open
1st Jason Jameson (Cabarita)
2nd Noah Lane (Burleigh Heads)
3rd Kyle Robinson (Burleigh Heads)
4th Ryan Grey (Burleigh Heads)
5th Clint Kimmins (Palm Beach)
6th Brent Savage (Cabarita)
Junior
1st Josh Hyland (Burleigh Heads)
2nd Dan Sinclair (Cabarita)
3rd Kane Stone (Burleigh Heads)
4th Lachlan Garland (Burleigh Heads)
5th Lewis Coulson (Burleigh Heads)