In the fifth year of the Waveski Australian Open being held at Yamba the standard of surfing reached new heights in 2023, with several divisions coming down to the last wave of the final before the champion could be crowned.
Sanctioned by the World Waveski Surfing Association, the 2023 Waveski Australian Open at Yamba from October 16 to 21 was the culmination of the national series, with 53 competitors from all over Australia and one from New Zealand, competing for double points in the race for an Australian title.
Organiser and competitor, Dave Andrews said the level of competition this year was the best he’d ever seen across 12 divisions, from Juniors to Cadets, Womens, Masters, Grand Masters, Legends, Grand Legends, Champions, Grand Champions and Opens.
“We had competitors from Western Australia, Victoria, NSW, Queensland, we had some come up from Tasmania and we also had a lady from New Zealand, so it was an international field of competitors in a very strong competition,” he said.
A large swell and strong winds early in the week saw testing conditions, with the competition moved to Brooms Head on some days where the surf was more accommodating.
“The conditions were quite testing, particularly earlier in the week, we had a low way off the coast, but it was generating very heavy swell and strong winds, so the event started at Turners Beach on Monday and due to the conditions we had to go to Brooms Head for a couple of days,” Mr Andrews said.
“It’s great that we’ve got that opportunity in this part of the coast that we can handle an event such as this regardless of the weather conditions and we can find a beach to hold it with more favourable conditions.”
With former world champions competing, Mr Andrews said the competition was hot, as Australia’s best battled it out to be crowned Australian Champion while competing for a spot in next year’s world titles to be held in South Africa.
“In the women’s we finished up with a five-person final, that was hotly contested, and this was the first time that we had live heats, were people could watch the scores online in real time, and in a lot of the finals it went down to the last wave,” he said.
“Yamba local Chris Cook won his final on the last wave, and also Rob Wilson, he’s a Yamba local and he won the Challengers division convincingly due to local knowledge.
“Former world champion Lisa Ryan won the Women’s division which was very hotly contested against a Western Australian surfer Jacqui Dillon, which was very close and came down to the last couple of waves.
“Rees Duncan, multiple world champion was a standout in the Open division, which he won, but the competition in the Opens was some of the tightest we saw all week.”
Mr Andrews said each year since Yamba first hosted the Waveski Australian Open in 2018 the event becomes more popular and the competition more intense, with some competitors staying an extra week to holiday in the Clarence Valley.
“We have had fantastic support for the event over the years from Clarence Valley Council and our four major sponsors, the Pacific Hotel, Yamba Shores Tavern, Sassafras, and the Wobbly Chook, but also the whole business community of Yamba has got behind it and embraced it,” he said.
This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 25 October 2023.
