Sunny skies, fun 2ft surf and a bunch of spooky girls were the order of the day at WBA’s final contest for 2009, held at North Bombo Beach on November 1st.

In the spirit of Halloween, around 15 competitors of WBA arrived for the event, all dressed in their best Halloween costumes.

Highlights included Bec Dunning’s pirate outfit, Zoe Edward’s jellyfish attire, Rani’s nerd devil suit, Kerry’s witch outfit, and Jane and Emily’s matching ghost costumes. But the winner of best dressed had to go to Julia “Gulia” Heasman for her creepy alien outfit.

As the girls set up the tents and equipment, Emma Roby turned up in her spooky work clothes (from Donut King), with a box of freshly made donuts for all! Em was swarmed in no time, as the girls chowed down their (healthy?) breakfast.

With thanks to Bi-Lo Warilla, we also had plenty of fruit and snacks for the girls to eat throughout the day.

First up in the water was the AA division. The girls paddled out to the outside bank, but good waves were slow to come by on the high tide so the girls soon moved into the shorey where some fun barrelling waves were coming through.

Zoe Edwards spun her way to victory over Emily Ryan and Ali Kriz in heat one, then Jane Keel managed some sweet spins and rolls to win her way past Julia Heasman and Kerry Head.

Next up was the hotly contested DK division. After a couple of successful DK expression sessions the past two years we finally decided on holding a serious division for the DK girls.

We were stoked to have Warilla local, Bec Dunning (’96 & ‘99 Australian champ) jump out of retirement to compete in this WBA event. Bec rips DK, and both Emma Roby and Emma Cobb have been working on their DK skills of late. The ever keen Julia Gulia jumped in to make up the fourth spot in the division, and managed to do pretty well on the knee.

Some sick looking waves came through for the DK girls on the shorey bank.

Bec, Cobb and Roby were all being super competitive in their heat. Bec banked a big carve on one. Roby was pumped, catching loads of closeouts, before scoring the wave of the heat, executing a smooth spin on her backhand into a sick barrel which eventually closed out. Everyone was hooting. 8.5.

It looked as though the heat was Emma’s, but right on the siren, Bec jumped up onto a nice right, did a smooth backhand turn into a barrel, scoring a 6 average from the judges and giving her the win!

Next out was the A final.

Rani, our amazing paraplegic friend, paddled straight out the back on her surf mat, while super grom, Jayda Sharp headed in for the fun shoreys. Jayda scored lots of fun rides, but it was Rani that came away with the win with two long rides all the way from the back into shore, almost pulling off a roll in the process. Yew!

A break from surf competition and the beach was set up for the land events. First up was the flipper race. Forever full of dodgey tactics, the flipper race is always an interesting race to watch. Right from the start, almost half the competitors were taken out by fellow racers who decided on tackling each other instead of racing for the prized fins.

Bec Dunning spectacularly took down Emma Cobb with a wild tackle, while Emily Ryan went completely out of her way to put me out of competition. Too funny.

Repeat winner of the race was once again Jayda Sharpe, who is also reportedly a star runner at her school. Congrats!

Next was the inaugural wheelbarrow race, where Rani, with her keen upper body strength was the event favourite for the win.

I was pumped to be teamed up with Bec Dunning, who also happened to be a rowing champion and personal trainer, with arms of steel!

On the hooter, 90% of the girls collapsed at the starting line; it really does take a lot of strength to be a wheelbarrow.

Bec and I raced off with Rani and mum Kerry right by our side, while the others fell by the wayside. We were neck and neck until the finish where Rani managed to launch herself onto the prize, a Riptide mag with Flux DVD included! Rani copped a face full of sand, but also came away with the win!

Back to the contest and out next was the AAA division.

Kaitlin “Wombat” Murphy and Julia Gulia were taken out by me and Bec in heat one, then the two Emma’s surfed well to advance ahead of Zoe Edwards into the final.

Up next was the AA division final.

Jane Keel was surfing amazing, busting out some sick rolls and spins for a run away win! Julia whipped into some stylish spins, as did Emily. While Zoe somehow couldn’t find a single wave to ride, instead choosing to hoot the other girls into the fun waves.

The wind started howling in from the NE as the AAA girls paddled out for the final.

Emma Cobb was straight into a couple of waves out the back, while me, Roby and Bec paddled around looking for the fun right hand shorey waves we saw from the beach. We soon realised the best waves were now coming through out the back. Roby found a nice right for a spin roll combo followed by another solid roll to take out 1st place!

Meanwhile, on the beach, the howling wind blew away the tent and table, unfortunately damaging Matt Young’s brand new tent he kindly lent to WBA (we will be reimbursing the cost of a new tent Matt –sorry!). The wind also flipping the table with Roby’s $2000 camera into the sand. Off to the camera store for a service and clean I think!

After the beach clean up, all the girls jumped into cars to head to Natural Necessity (Gerringong surf shop) for the presentation.
Everyone was ravenous and scoffed down the tasty finger food, as the winners of each division were announced, and the 2009 WBA tour champions!

Stacks of prizes were handed out from Milkshakes boards, Riptide magazine, and Hive Swimwear.

RESULTS Milkshakes WBA Kiama Halloween contest:

A division

1st Rani Head Toussaint (Sydney)
2nd Jayda Sharpe (Cronulla)

AA division

1st Jane Keel (Shoalhaven Heads)
2nd Julia Heasman (Seaforth Sydney)
3rd Emily Ryan (Shoalhaven Heads)
4th Zoe Edwards (Mona Vale Sydney)

AAA division

1st Emma Roby (Gerringong)
2nd Lilly Pollard (Gerringong)
3rd Emma Cobb (Milton)
4th Rebecca Dunning (Barrack Point)

DK

1st Rebecca Dunning
2nd Emma Roby
3rd Emma Cobb
4th Julia Heasman

Best dressed: Julia Heasman (alien)

Flipper race winner: Jayda Sharpe

Wheelbarrow race winners: Rani Head Toussaint and Kerry Head.

2009 WBA Champions!!

Based on best two results from 2009 the WBA winners were as follows:

A division:

1st Rani
2nd Jayda Sharpe

AA division:

1st Zoe Edwards
2nd Ali Kriz

Zoe Edwards 2009 AA champ with her new Milkshakes board!

AAA division:
=1st Emma Roby and Emma Cobb

Many thanks to Matt Young for lending the tent and much needed equipment for the event, Natural Necessity for the cool presentation venue and tasty food, the WBA committee for all their hard work, and also to all the girls for coming along and making the events so much fun!

SOURCE: WBA