Owen Wright day 1. Photo Dan Howard Ocean Artwork
Marcus Aboody styling. Photo Steve Robertson Surfing Australia
The Rip Curl Kirra Teams Challenge starts this Thursday and runs thru to Sunday. The team is Stu Kennedy Ht 9, Owen Wright Ht 14, Stephen Walsh Ht 24, Marcus Aboody Ht 34, Jonni Hewitt Ht 45, Joe Hudson Ht 53, Adam Melling Ht 63 and James Wood Ht 67. That's a super strong team and the heat draw looks favourable this year so it's going to be a big weekend for Le-Ba. We took this event out in '07 and it would be sweet to claim it again. Club members get up there if you can and cheer the boys on.
UPDATE Day 1
Unfortunately for Stu Kennedy in his heat today he ran into a Snapper surfer on a mission
Surfing Australia's media release said -
"Vasicek defeated one of the favorites at this event in Le-Ba who placed second. Le-Ba was represented by Stuart Kennedy in this heat and it was a heat they would have expected to win."
That's cool cause Stu still came second.
Owen Wright was next up for Le-Ba and he continued his '09 form and combo-ed everyone to easily win his heat. This kid, along with Stu is destined for big things in the future.
Stephen Walsh went to town in his heat and just flogged 'em. From the start of the heat Walshy dominated. That Black Knight award could be his soon, if he can get past Woody.
At the end of Day 1 Le-Ba are in equal 1st with 4 other clubs out of 36. That's a bloody great start fellahs. Bring on Day 2 !!
Day 1 video highlights of Stu and Owen click here Video courtesy Armedia productions
UPDATE Day 2
Marcus surfed a great heat in small conditions at D'Bah today. He was chipping away to catch up to the surfer from North Steyne and towards the end of the heat they were tied for first. With 2 minutes to go Brains digs deep, gets the score and wins. Onya mate !!
Jon Hewitt did the best he could on the waves that came to him. He was winning his heat until the last couple of minutes but was unluckily knocked into 3rd.
Joe Hudson's heat had all the drama. After getting away to a slow start he managed to get himself into 2nd behind a young fellah from Dee Why on a mission. From there Joey copped an interference call and things could have gone pear shaped but Joe held on and still finished 2nd.
Update Day 3
Adam had probably the hardest heat of the event and got off to a slow start. He worked his way from 4th to 3rd to 2nd. He needed an 8 to take the win so the Le-Ba mongrel started howling and the commentators started calling for the Iceman. Adam held it together and got the score for a brilliant victory. Good job Mello.
Woody, like Mello, got off to a slow start in his heat. With 4 minutes to go Woody had a 6 and no backup and was sitting in 3rd. Woody then casually smashes the crap out of one , scores a 9.23 and wins. He then followed it up with a carve 360 on the hooter just to show off. Epic Woodstock !
FINAL RESULTS
North End has won the Rip Curl Kirra Teams Challenge 2009 by 1 point . Le-Ba , Kirra , Snapper and Noosa tied for 2nd. On a countback of highest heat scores Le-Ba finished 2nd overall. Todays results were the closest in the events 25 year history and this years event was the biggest yet. When the final aggregated heat totals were tallied Le-Ba actually scored the highest overall score which would indicate that we were the best club over the entire weekend. The eventual winners North End came 4th. The heat draw in this event is crucial. To get 2nd place in the worlds biggest teams event is plenty to be proud of .
For all the photos click on Photo Album up the top
click here for the website
Full heat draw click here
