Surfing

On the last day of abalone fishing this season reporter Chris Van Der Merwe visited Yanchep Lagoon while the Yanchep Surf Life Saving Club was patrolling the beach. As well as keeping people safe the club performs rescues and educates the community.

Shaun Hollis. There have been more than 5700 surf rescues recorded across the nation since the start of summer, but there are no records for Yorke Peninsula. Statistics for drowning rescues on the peninsula are not known because there are no surf lifesaving clubs ... One group which does rescue people who get into trouble in the powerful surf of Berry Bay is the Yorkes Junior Surf Club...

A visit to the beach is not something that happens everyday for many of the young people in West Wimmera. For most it is around a 2 hour drive to the nearest beach.

Surfer Callum Robson has done it again. At the World Surf League Series Lexus Pipe Pro in Hawaii, Robson scored 9 points in his heat ... The 23 year old Evans Head surfer described what the winning wave at Oahu was like.

After two years of rough conditions that forced the Yamba Ocean Swim to be held at Whiting Beach, smaller surf this year saw the event return to its spiritual home of Main Beach with almost a record number of entries.

Isi Campbell is doing what most teenagers only dream of… she’s travelling the world to go surfing ... Isi’s wins have been many including being named as last year’s WA Junior Surfer of the Year and collecting the 2022 Under-18 Girls State Championship Title. She has also achieved a silver medal as part of Team Australia at the International Surfing Association’s World Junior Surfing Championships in El Salvador.

Alison Bennett Taylor. Denmark Surf Lifesaving Club came home champions from the Rainbow Coast Carnival at Bremer Bay after fielding its biggest team of competitors ever. Club president Sam Williams said it was the first time the club had won the friendly carnival between south coast clubs Albany, Esperance and Denmark in nearly 20 years.

The 2023 NSW Coastal Safety Report has highlighted a stark increase in bystander rescue drownings along with the finding that more than half of coastal drownings are happening in regional and remote areas ... The rise in attempted rescues by members of the public who end up drowning themselves (bystander rescues), is a worrying trend that lifesavers don’t want repeated this summer. 

Surf Life Saving NSW’s flagship educational program, Beach to Bush, has hit the road again for 2023, with nearly 50 volunteer lifesavers heading inland to promote surf safety to primary school students across regional and rural NSW ... more than 11,000 students will attend an Ingenia Holiday Parks Beach to Bush session...

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 ... “Rees Duncan, multiple world champion was a standout in the Open division...": Organiser and competitor, Dave Andrews.

It’s the Byron Bay Film Festival, so there's always going to be surf films ... Topping the bill is Emmy-winning filmmaker Paul Taublieb’s documentary Ground Swell: The Other Side of Fear, which poses the question: what prompts big wave surfers to travel the globe to find absurdly colossal waves to throw themselves into, tackling natural forces in a contest that any rational human would see as insane?

Clarence Valley beaches now feature a splash of pink after the Far North Coast Surf Lifesaving Nippers season began and children don their pink rash shirts. Nippers at Yamba is open to children between the ages of six and fourteen, and the surf skills program teaches lifesaving techniques, surf safety, CPR, and rescue experience, while completing fun activities in the surf.

Yorkes Classic 2023 champions were crowned amidst powerful, clean waves at the iconic Chinaman’s surf break in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park on Saturday, August 19. This year’s 40th-anniversary celebrations did not disappoint, as light onshore wind combined with a southwesterly groundswell to provide perfect three-foot slabby surf all day long.

Emma Perrier’s aunt in Brisbane died from breast cancer four years ago, spurring Emma to create a sporting event to raise money for breast cancer awareness. On Sunday, June 25 at Main Beach in Evans Head, Emma was surrounded by a sea of pink at the Breast Comp Ever, a female surf competition.

Over 220 kilograms of Margaret River Produce has been enjoyed by the world’s best surfers and the World Surf League crew during the opening days of the Western Australia Margaret River Pro. Margaret River Produce, the newly formed brand of the Margaret River Producers Association, manned a tasting station that featured over 25 producers and local farmers, all from within a 50-kilometre radius of the competition site, Surfers Point.

Pro surfer Callum Robson from Evans Head hit a perfect score on a smashing wave in Portugal, Sunday, March 12 ... “Got my first ever 10-point ride when I needed it. That feeling was incredible,” Robson wrote on his Facebook page.

Serena Kirby. Renowned surfboard shaper, big wave rider and local identity, Warren (Wazza) Thompson was farewelled with a heartfelt tribute at Ocean Beach last month ... Organised by long time friend and fellow board shaper, Patrick McCarthy, the tribute included a paddle-out and the forming of a circle of surfers in the water.

Rodney Stevens. They’re the eyes in the sky saving lives – drones – and Yamba Surf Lifesaving Club is fortunate to have some of the latest technology and highly skilled pilots controlling these amazing aircraft. Chances are, if you went to Yamba’s Main Beach or the Yamba Ocean Swim over the holidays, you would have seen a drone, monitoring swimmers’ safety and alerting lifesavers to any problems.

Taj's Small Fries presented by Board.Store concluded in emphatic fashion yesterday in Yallingup, with eight champions crowned in classic summer conditions in Yallingup marking the end of three days of amazing surfing at WA's biggest, best and most prestigious junior surfing tournament.

Rodney Stevens. The Yamba Ocean Swim kicked off 2023 with a splash as a record number of entrants hit the water across all age groups, cheered on by a crowd of hundreds on a stunning summer’s day ... “We had 397 entrants this year which is well up on our previous best of 354 in 2013,” said Yamba Surf Club Surf Sports Director and Race Organiser Jim Dougherty.

Excitement is building as Western Australia’s biggest, best and most prestigious junior surfing tournament prepares for a start next week, with Taj's Small Fries set to splash down in Yallingup for the 18th consecutive year. First run in 2006, Taj's Small Fries has become a rite of passage for many of the Australia's best young surfers, launching the careers of numerous surfing stars since it's inception.

Rodney Stevens. When you hit the Clarence Valley beaches this summer you can rest assured you are being watched by the best, after Recce Dobbin was awarded DHL Lifeguard of the Year at the Surf Life Saving Australia National Awards of Excellence ... Having saved the lives of more than 20 people during his life-saving career, Mr Dobbin said this wasn’t the first award he had received.