EBB Pro - Smith’s Beach WA. July 26th – 27th 2008. Bodyboard Australasia Pro Tour Event # 7.

 

South-West WA delivers sun, surf, and some simply epic performances, as one of the events of the year unfolds.

           

: 2008 Exclusively Bodyboarding Pro champion Michael Novy (Coolum Beach, QLD), beat some more fancied opponents to walk away with the one thousand dollar winner’s cheque as the sun set on what can only be described as a perfect day of competition. Photo Credit: Surfing WA.

 

Attached Complimentary Image 2: 2008 Exclusively Bodyboarding Pro finalists: Michael Novy (QLD), Ben Delfs (WA), Ryan Hardy (QLD) and Dave Winchester (NSW).  Photo Credit: Surfing WA.

 

Attached Complimentary Image 4: Trent Sanford (Perth, WA) proved why he’s regarded as one of WA’s best on the knee, taking out close friend Kim Feast (Gracetown, WA) in an awesome DK final. Photo Credit: Surfing WA.

(Sunday, 27th July 2008) Western Australia’s most prestigious and longest running professional bodyboarding event, the EBB Pro was completed over the weekend, with some of the country’s best bodyboarding talent converging on the South-West corner of the state. The seventh event on the Bodyboarding Australasia Pro Tour will go down in the record books as one of its finest, as a combination of clean offshore winds and pumping swell greeted competitors.

The ‘2 star’ rated event which offered a total prize pool of $4000 culminated with Queensland’s Michael Novy taking out one of the biggest wins of his career. “Im stoked to have finally won an event, it makes the trip West all that much sweeter”, said Novy who secured his win in the dying minutes of the final with an 8.33 ride that he backed up with a 7.33 for a combined total of 15.66 out of a possible 20.00.

Novy took the title by less than one point from Dave Winchester (Curl Curl, NSW) who finished with a combined total of 15.00 points. The old saying close enough is good enough was not the case for Winchester who had to settle for second place, after looking to be the man to beat early. ‘Winny’ as his know to his peers on tour scored an 8.00 ride in the first few minutes of the final, and looked to have the win stitched up after locking away a 7.00 ride as a back up.

Former WA resident and long time pin up boy of the sport Ryan Hardy finished the final in third place, but wasn’t at all disappointed with the result. “It was great to get back to WA before I shoot off to Chile’, it’s good to be a part of the only WA event and I was definitely impressed with how smooth everything went and the hard work done by all” said Hardy, who will continue living the dream in his pursuit of World Title glory that has thus far eluded him.

Gracetown local Ben Delfs finished in fourth place, struggling to find the waves he required. Delfs had been one of the form surfers of the day winning each of his heats on his way to the final. Delfs provided the highlight of the day with a massive back flip that had the whole beach in disbelief, finishing the event as the highest rated WA competitor.

The 25 minute final was somewhat wave starved compared to earlier heats where Smith’s Beach produced some solid sets in the 3-4 foot range, allowing competitors to weave through some seriously deep tubes, as well as attack the lip with real ferociousness. With a diminishing swell and strong winds forecast for Sunday, event officials decided to make the most of the great conditions on offer Saturday and pushed through the pro divisions in one day. Competition Director Ian ‘Goldy’ Goldthorpe commented, “The forecast for Sunday was looking really bad, so we made the most of what was on offer and the guys seemed really pleased with the outcome.” It made for a viewing spectacular; great waves coupled with awesome riders, it was like nothing the WA bodyboarding scene had witnessed before.

Some worthy performances included that of Gold Coast ripper Tom Rigby who made it through to the semi finals with flair and style that has him touted as the next ‘big thing’. WA local’s Adam Luehman (Bunbury), Ian Fergusson (Scarborough) and Brad Hughes (Trigg) also flew the flag on home soil, all made it through to the semi finals with impressive and innovative surfing.

The EBB Pro Drop Knee final was a two horse race with Trent Sanford (Perth) showing great skills and taking out the title form close mate Kim Feast (Gracetown). Sanford and Feast went blow for blow, but it was Sanford’s huge repertoire of manoeuvres that guaranteed him the win ahead of Feast in second, Mark Boehm (Scarborough) in third and Liam O’Keefe (Trigg) in fourth.

It is so good to have a number of real superstars of the bodyboarding world on hand including Ryan Hardy, Dave Winchester, Brad Hughes, and Chad Jackson, it provided a huge opportunity for some of WA’s up and comers to see and meet their idols first hand and continue the sports development into the future. 2008 has seen the EBB Pro’s profile grow to one of Australia’s biggest bodyboarding events and is assured of becoming bigger and better in 2009. The great waves that WA has to offer along with a bigger prize pool and higher ratings points will see the event firmly placed on the minds of Australia’s best bodyboarders in the future.

The forecast of gale force winds and a dropping swell rang true today, with the third and final round of the EBB State Bodyboard Series having to be postponed today due to horrendous conditions. The event will be rescheduled for the coming weeks with the National Titles approaching fast.

Be sure to check out the Surfing Western Australia’s website, www.surfingwa.com.au as well as www.ebb.net.au and www.ibaaustralisia.com.au for all the results and information relating to this awesome event.

The 2008 EBB Pro is proudly supported by Exclusively Bodyboarding, EBB Wetsuit Co, Bodyboarding Australasia, NMD Bodyboards, Stealth and Surfing Western Australia.

 

FINAL RESULTS:

Pro Men

1st – Michael Novy (QLD) – 15.66 pts

2nd – Dave Winchester (NSW) – 15.00 pts

3rd – Ryan Hardy (QLD) – 13.73 pts

4th – Ben Delfs (WA) – 12.14 pts

 

Pro DK

1st – Trent Sanford (WA) – 15.44 pts

2nd – Kim Feast (WA) - 13.60 pts

3rd – Mark Boehm (WA) – 9.17 pts

4th – Liam O’Keefe (WA) – 6.16 pts

 

 

Exclusively Bodyboarding Pro,

South West WA. July 26th – 27th 2008.

2* rated event, $3000+ prize money. Bodyboard Australasia Pro Tour Event # 7.

 : Brad Hughes (Trigg) is currently sitting in seventh place on the Bodyboard Australasia Pro Tour, and will be heading home to compete in WA’s biggest Bodyboard event the EBB Pro next weekend. Hughes will be one of the hot favourites coming into this event and will look to make the trip back West a successful one. Photo Credit: Mike Maxted.

(Wednesday, 16th July 2008) The race for the 2008 Human Pro Tour title will head to WA’s south-west corner next weekend as around 100 of Australia’s best Bodyboarder’s assemble for the Exclusively Bodyboarding Pro presented by the EBB Wetsuit Co. The seventh pro tour event for 2008 will run in conjunction with the final round of the State Bodyboard Series.

Using a mobile approach to the competition’s location, the EBB Pro will take advantage of the abundance of premier beaches that the south-west coast of WA has to offer. The event will be a fantastic opportunity for West Australian bodyboarders to mix it up in their home states waters with some of Australasia’s very best. WA’s own pro tour bodyboarder Brad Hughes (Trigg) explained how excited he is to have this rolling into his home state.

“It's great to have the event back on down south, it is such a great place for a contest because of the amount of good waves down there plus the swell it gets this time of year. So many bodyboarders go down there to surf places like The Box and so on, so it's great to be able to compete down there.”

Hughes, who is currently looking for a solid finish to the 2008 BBA Australasia Pro Tour, will be hoping that his local wave knowledge and experience in West Australian waters will help him to come up with a good result.   “It will be great to get a result back home, I am finally going to have an advantage over the east coast crew.” Hughes said.

Western Australian’s have long lead the surge in bodyboarding’s progression, with the likes of Ryan Hardy, Sean Virtue, Chad Jackson, Adam Leuhman, Joe Jordanoff and Hughes all pushing the sport into the 21st century. WA has no shortage of talent coming through the ranks either, with last year’s Open Men’s National Champion Alex Halsey (Woodvale), Ryan Hands (Mandurah), Ben Vietch (Margaret River), all likely to be in the lead group challenging for the 2008 EBB Pro title.

Surfing Western Australia Events Manager, Justin Majeks is looking forward to a new era in WA bodyboarding and the positive benefits that the EBB Pro brings to the state.

“Surfing Western Australia is committed to the development of young male and female bodyboarders aspiring to join the professional ranks, which these days is highly competitive given the outstanding level of competition mainly focused on the eastern seaboard,” he explained.

“Through the fantastic support of Exclusively Bodyboarding we are able to bring the best of Australia’s bodyboarding talent pool to WA and give our kids invaluable competition experience and opportunity to see what it takes to cut it with the very best. The Surfing Western Australia team of professional staff is thrilled to be in the position to deliver what is hoped to become one of Australia’s biggest bodyboarding events, and an ongoing feature on the Western Australian surfing calendar”.

The BBA Australasia 2 star rated ‘Exclusively Bodyboarding Pro’ will kick off from July 26th 2008, with over $3000 worth of prize money up for grabs in Open Men, Open Women, and Drop Knee divisions. Be sure to check out the Surfing Western Australia’s website, www.surfingwa.com.au   as well as www.ebb.net.au and www.ibaaustralisia.com.au for all the information relating to this event.

 The EBB Pro is proudly supported by Exclusively Bodyboarding, EBB Wetsuit Co, World Bodyboards, and Surfing Western Australia.

 

For more information please contact:

 

Justin Majeks

Events Manager

Surfing Western Australia

E: justin.majeks@surfingwa.com.au

P: 08 9448 0004

M: 0411 876 224