By Phillip Island Boardriders Club
The Phillip Island Boardriders Club (PIBC) Longboard Classic, held on Saturday, February 19 brought together the longboarding community from across Victoria to Cat Bay to watch some epic surfing at the idyllic surf break Shelly’s.
This is the first time the PIBC has held an event at Shelly’s Beach since 1964 and Cat Bay turned it on!
The sun was out, it was a light offshore wind and a good size swell which provided an epic day of waves.
We’ve been a bit starved for these types of days of late, with lack of swell and terrible winds, so it was so pleasing that the conditions showed up for the day.
Shelly’s beach carpark is the ideal location to watch surfers. On most weekends the car park will be full for the day. Competitors said that sitting in the line-up looking back at the full carpark with people everywhere enjoying the sun, good vibes and great company was an awesome sight.
This type of event is unique, with surfers aged between 7 and 70 years old all competing with one another and having fun with the family friendly atmosphere.
The event was one for the spectators. With quality surfing up close you could see all the fancy footwork, and creativeness that each of the surfers. The rules were simple and the boards traditional with a dedicated single fin and 9 ft plus in length.
The visual spectacle of Single Fin Longboards on display in the car park was also impressive.
One of those special rides was a 9’4” Flock Surfboard Log that was up for grabs on the day. Chris from Flock Surfboards kindly donated the hand shaped board with a Prima wooden fin for the Best Nose Ride on the day. Huge thank you to Chris!
This board was won by Bailey German who showed us what nose riding was all about, Bailey also narrowly won the open division with a score of 11.57 with local surfer Eli Curry in second place with a score of 11.26. Other finalists in the open division were John Stephen, Will Solly and Harry De Roth.
The nose riding and graceful surfing from the women was the highlight of the day, with some good energy amongst the women out in the water. Bea Conroy won the Women’s final with a score of 17.54 with local Eb Maier runner up with 15.03. Other women finalists were Sam Suendermann, Nala Jitdamrong, Karis Simmonds and Lily Batterbury.
Cartoonist, Zev Landes, joined us for the day and documented the highlights. Zev’s work is amazing, and we are very lucky to have him in the surfing community. Check his work out on instagram @zevlandes.
Andy McHenry PIBC Longboard Club Captain said “with the growing Longboard scene locally, it is only natural for PIBC to host a special event in this category and reinvigorate the atmosphere in the club after the turbulent past two years due to Covid and restrictions”.
“We have a great bunch of longboarders on the Island; with the girls dominating the line ups who are all staying true to traditional style.
“We really want to encourage more women and girls to get involved. The competition was open to the public. Allowing non-members to enter enables the club to expand and attract more people who can join our future longboard division competitions or just join as social members.”
The PIBC Committee were a little surprised that the event sold out in just seven days. We were limited with the number of participants because of the tide, signing up 50 people. Interest was so great that we could have signed up many more.
“I’d like to thank all the people that made the day possible and acknowledge their part in making it a success,” Phillip Island Boardriders President, Hannah Eisen said.
“It takes a small army of volunteers to put on events like this on and I want to take a moment to thank the judges, camera crew, operations support, our committee and our fabulous sponsors.
“The generosity from sponsors and donations has been so humbling. We have Bang Bang Bar and Restaurant, McHenry Motors, Eisen Property and Archisign being our main sponsors then so many companies and businesses helping with our raffle and prizes.
“We’d like to thank the following companies who supported the event; G Force, Social Surf Club, Beach Fox Sunscreen, Rip Curl Phillip Island, Mario's Resturant San Remo, We are Feel good Inc sunscreen, The Good Towels, Pallion Point Hats, Narval Wetsuits, Surf Zero and Woolamai Pizza.
“The PIBC Committee and members are extremely grateful to Phillip Island Nature Parks for allowing us to use the beautiful beaches they maintain, and we thank them for permitting us to host these special surfing events.”
PIBC acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, work and surf, the Bunurong people. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future.