Southern Surf Festival 2019 wrap up

What is the Southern Surf Festival?

The Southern Surf Festival is a celebration of surfing and surfing culture both in and out of the water. There is so much going on including the surfing competitions over the 3 days, there is a festival fair of activities with great food and the action kept going as the sun went down with local hotels and businesses running film nights, live music sessions and creating that perfect post surf evening with a few brews that to all the fantastic supporters of the festival.

What part of the festival were you apart of?

I was very fortunate to be able to be the voice of the festival, commentating the 3 days surfing event that happened down at Middleton Bay. This involved crowning State champions in the Juniors, longboard divisions and a nostalgic competition that saw SA’s best surfers riding twin fins and thrusters.

What were some of the highlights from you time over the 3 days of action in the water at middleton point?

Well, to summarise the days actions into a few highlights is a challenging one as there was so much happening over the 3 days. However I can’t go past the surfing of Josh Lindsay, eventual winner of the twin fin division who took an old school twinny and showed us that these boards are still relevant in surfing competitions. He carved his way with power and flow through his heats with scores in the excellent range including a perfect 10 in his semi final heat. It was an absolute pleasure to commentate that wave.

Any other highlights to mention?

I would have to say a special mention would go to the longboard crew for taking on the huge conditions on Saturday. The surfers look like ants for us sitting in the judging and officials tents as the waves were breaking over 500 metres out to sea. Getting those longboards under one breaker is hard enough, let alone 20 breakers. I do have to mention in all the action of that Saturday Peter Cox, living legend in Australian surfing history catching a wave from way out back with seconds to go in his over 70’s final and riding that beast all the way to the rocks was up there with moments of the festival.

I could go on about the action in the water all day, but I think another of my great highlights was seeing the surfing community coming together and putting on a great show for all the crew that had travelled down from Adelaide and showing them what the surfing lifestyle was all about. This definitely included the hard working crew from Christian Surfers, who led by Middleton locals Dave and Naomi O’Brien worked from dawn to dusk setting up tents, creating a festival atmosphere and being there to help any crew that had come down to experience the Southern Surf Festival

Results - check out members of the Surf & Sun team featured in bold!

Open Women: 1st Karen Riley, 2nd Erika Oemcke, 3rd Ellen Watson, 4th Catherine Seal Yates

Open Men: 1st Craig Potgieter, 2nd Adam Barley, 3rd Tom Bowen, 4th Zac Drury

Junior Girls: 1st Aurora Furbank

Junior Boys: 1st Scott Thomas, 2nd Cooper McEwan, 3rd Chaska Glockner Karoo

Open Men Logger: 1st Adam Barley, 2nd Tom Bowen, 3rd Robin Ponzoni, 4th Zac Drury

Open Women Logger: 1st Catherine Seal-Yates, 2nd Erika Oemcke

Over 40 Men Logger: 1st Darren Oemcke, 2nd John Amos

Over 40 Women: 1st Louise Kelly, ,2nd Erika Oemcke , 3rd Vicki Centofanti 4th Karen Riley

Over 40 Men: 1st Craig Potgieter, 2nd Nigel Hill, 3rd Nick Duke, 4th John Taylor

Over 50 Women: 1st Erika Oemcke, 2nd Cathy Griffen

Over 50 Men: 1st Wayne Gurney, 2nd Jason Russell, 3rd Timothy Thompson, 4th Andre Carrison

Over 60 Women: 1st Anna Markey, 2nd Sue Bennet, 3rd Robyn Brown

Over 60 Men: 1st John Amos, 2nd Phil Ball, 3rd Sam Avaramidas, 4th Paul Galbraith

Over 70 Men: 1st Sam Avaramidas, 2nd Peter Cox

Single

1. Gary Haworth (Moana)

2. Zac Drury (West Beach)

3. Bailey Lodge

4. Robby Munoz (Middleton)

Twin Fin:

1. Josh Lindsay (Port Noarlunga South)

2. Khai Adams (Middleton)

3. Michael Newport (Middleton)

4. Stephen Manners (Brighton)