The 29th Australian Titles was held from Sunday 26th of October through to Friday 31st of October, 2008 on the beaches of the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. The early arrivals to Victoria were treated to perfect peeling uncrowded 3-4 ft clean conditions. However by the first day of competition the conditions deteriorated allowing only some of the divisions to be started and a lay day was held on the Tuesday waiting for better conditions to commence the Open division. By Wednesday the event went mobile to Big Left at Flinders on the Western portside of the Mornington Peninsula. Then on Thursday the surf gods shone over the Peninsula providing clean 4-5 ft conditions at Moana at St Andrews Beach allowing the remainder of the event to be run. The finals were run on the Thursday given the concern of onshore conditions returning on the Friday and some incredible displays of aerial and barrell surfing were seen throughout the day.

This years event was the first time the Australian titles had been held outside of NSW in 6 years and possibly due to fear of the cold there were smaller numbers at the event than previous years. Despite this the number of new Victorian and South Australian competitors attending the event was a great sign to show that Waveski Surfing is alive and well in Victoria. The smaller numbers allowed for a adaption of the open format to incorporate man on man heats similar to the format run by the AWWP for the World Waveski Tour and the first time priority rules were introduced into man on man divisions at the Australian Titles.

There was a great representation of Victorians in the finals in particular with the return of Danni Hand, Bernie Huigsloot to competitions for the first time in years. Travis Best defied the odds with being contest organiser and winning his first Australian title and a second in the seniors division at his home break. Reigning World Champion Rees Duncan missed out on claiming his ninth Australian open title after being narrowly beaten in the semifinal by local rider Danni Hand. However Rees still managed to clinch the highly competitive seniors title after getting his biggest aerial ever.

The Masters final was hotly contested with Bernie Huigsloot taking the title with one of his waves with a massive aerial and then went into a barrell before completing his wave. The Veterans division included both the grand masters and veterans this year and was an impressive performance of surfing from our older colleagues. The B grade division was taken out by the new WSA secretary Russell Hudson from Queensland. The womens title was won by Mel Hardy and also saw the first new female competitor in 7 years - Lauren Best (Trav's sister) who was riding a waveski like she had been at it for months despite it only being a week.

Given the Friday was free, some of the tired competitors partook in the local wineries, brewery and chocolate factory before heading to the presentation night which was held at the local tavern and the night finished off with a band and some dancing. Thanks have to go to our sponsors providing some fantastic prizes including the Ocean Calendar tide charts. The East Coast Circuit champ was also announced that night and the winner of the inaugural circuit was Dale Randahl going home with a $200 travel voucher. Divisional prizes also went to the Veterans - Graham Roberts, womens - Mel Hardy and Juniors - Ben Buckley. The Best Judge trophy went to Graham Roberts and Best Aerial to Rees Duncan.

Thanks go to Travis Best for all the work that went into organising a great week and everyone who attended and helped out from carrying gear to the beach to judging. Looking forward to another comp in Victoria real soon.

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Results

To see complete results click here - Excel Spreadsheet (122kb)

Photos

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Kevin Marshall	Comp Central	Graham Roberts
Lauren Best	Bernie Huigsloot	Bernie Huigsloot
Travis Best	Travis Best	Travis Best