Well done to Australian Dream Team Rider Sam McCullough for a fantastic weekend’s results in the 2020 Western Australian SUP Surfing Titles that took place in Geraldton this past weekend!
At only 17 years old, Sam put in sterling performances all round and managed to make it to the finals of both Open Men’s and Open Men’s 10’ divisions where he placed 3rd and 4th respectively.
This is a mighty effort as there was a strong field of SUP surfers there, here are some more words from the rising Aussie star:
“I had an awesome time up in sunny Geraldton which is about 5 drive hours North of Perth, Western Australia.
The event was held over 3 days with elimination rounds, repo charges, semi-finals and then the finals, overall I must have surfed about 12 heats and finals. The first two days were at Geraldton back beach then the last day (finals day) was at Sunset Beach.
After two great days of surfing beach breaks at Back Beach, the finals shifted towards Sunset Beach which provided ideal long reef break left and right waves for the finalists in 10 ft and opens divisions on the last day of competition.
I only entered the 10ft division for a bit of fun and to kill a bit of time between sup surfing heats.
The 10ft longboard division is really growing in Australia with the first Australian titles held last year.
With all states in Australia now holding 10ft longboard division included in their state surfing titles and crowning state and national champions.
Recently there was a huge 10ft competition that was going to be held in Bali that got cancelled at the last minute due to Covid which was going to attract sup surfers from all states of Australia and all over the world.
I competed with the Starboard Whopper 10’x34” the same board that I learnt to sup on 9 years ago.
It’s such a versatile board and is super rippable in the surf and for being such a big board, still being easy to throw around in the surf, cross step and nose ride. It’s a great family board, I taught my friends how to sup on it and I even take the dogs for a paddle on it. It’s a keeper and the one board everyone needs in their quiver.
I ended up making the 10ft longboard state sup final which I was really surprised about, taking out 4th place.
I also competed on my 7’5 Starboard Pro in the open men’s final, once again making the final with a field of very experienced surfers and taking out 3rd place.
It was such an awesome 3 days of competition with all the local SUP community. It was so good to be competing again after a long break.
A big thanks to Surfing Western Australia for putting on such a great event.”
~ Sam McCullough
Drone Aerial shots by photographer Downsey.
