20 & 21 January – Readhead Beach, NSW, Australia
Starboard Dream Team SUP Surfer and World Champion Shakira Westdorp wastes no time and gets straight back into competition early this year with a SUP surf and race event at beautiful Redhead beach, just south of Newcastle. Shak had long ride home & some time to write a few words…
“A good size swell hit the east coast so I decided to drive down to Newcastle (normally an 8 hr drive) over a few days and scored some sick uncrowned waves at some lesser known spots.
The 2018 Surfest contest ran over the weekend and on Saturday morning we were greeted with beautiful clean 3 foot left handlers… my favourite!
Early on in the comp, I had a great heat performance with 2 high scoring waves and won the heat riding the 7’2″ x 24 Pro.
In addition to the surfing there was also a BOP format event, and yup, I got talked into doing it last minute. I hadn’t raced in 4 years and was up against Australia’s best SUP racers. By then a strong north Easterly came up and condition were quiet challenging. I lead the first 2 laps until Terrene Black overtook me on the last lap. Wow, hard work but it was a lot of fun and felt nice to race again.
Back to the surfing… Sunday morning and the swell had dropped off but there were still some fun ones coming through. After a great day one performance, I was motivated and charged hard to win in my round 2 heat, putting me into the semi’s, which I then went onto win too ~ putting me into the final round.
The wind picked up and the waves were really tricky. I had a slow start but found a nice one that linked up and managed to get a few turns in. It was not until the last 2 minutes did I manage to catch back up with enough to take the win. Stoked!
It was a great event and had a lot of fun. Now the drive home begins, sigh…”
Results for SUP Surf:
- Shakira Westdorp
- Terrene Black
- Barissa Malaga
- Hannah Finlay Jones
Results for Elite Women’s BOP:
- Tarrene Black
- Shakira Westdorp
- Karla Gilbert
- Ke’ale Dorries
- Chloe Walkerdene
