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Bells Beach, Victoria
(Friday, September 8th, 2006) – Local Surfcoast surfer Jirah Laws (Jan Juc
Victoria) and Boomerang Beach NSW surfer Jessica Hickson are the new Open Men's
and Women's Australian Surf Master champions! 
With a solid and straight two meter swell hitting the famous Bells Bowl the
event jumped to an early start and to take best advantage of the early low tide
conditions the Open Men's final hit the water at 7:30am.
The quality line up for the final included former World Championship Touring
surfer Glyndyn Ringrose from Phillip Island, along with highly rated Queensland
surfer Dave Reardon - Smith and NSW's Michael O'Rafferty, but it was the local
lad in Jirah Laws who set the scene for a day of great local Bells surfer performances.
Law's took the lead early in the final with an excellent 8 point ride and
backed it up with an outstanding 9.25 to take a very convincing win with Ringrose
second, Reardon-Smith third and O'Rafferty fourth.
"Such a great
feeling to finally win a big event" an excited Laws said after his win -"I've
had many close results in national events and semi final finishes but until now,
haven't been able to win. I figured Bells Beach would be my best and maybe last
chance to win one and I put everything in to this and it's paid off - It feels
great!"
The Open Women's final looked set to follow the same pattern as the Open Men's
when local Jan Juc surfer Amy Stewart opened with an excellent 8 point ride. Stewart
lead for most of the final but talented 18 year old NSW surfer Jessica Hickson
patiently selected her waves and it worked for her when she took one of the larger
sets of the morning, executed some impressive and powerful bottom turns and scored
an outstanding nine point ride.
Hickson later backed that ride up with a strong and required 6.5 second scoring
ride to take a narrow win over Stewart, with Byron Bay's Jenny Boggis coming in
3rd ahead of Phillip Island Victorian Ainslie Burt.
"I've had a great
time down here and even though the weather has been almost freezing, the waves
have been good and to win caps off a great week."
Today's national title wins were shared across the eastern mainland states
with Queensland taking two individual wins - John Truman (Point Lookout/Stradbroke
Island) winning the Over 45 Men's and Gold Coast's Mandy Roberts winning the Over
28 Women's. NSW took four wins with Robby Page (Crescent Head) winning the Over
35 Men's, Matt Gallagher (Cronulla) taking the Open Kneeboards and Central Coast's
Sandra English winning the Over 35 Women's.
Local Bell's surfers took the other four titles, highlighting their local
understanding of the wave on a day that delivered solid waves for all finals -
Nigel Muscroft (Jan Juc) took a popular and close win in the Over 28's when he
opened brilliantly with an 8 point ride, backed it up with an outstanding 9 and
just held out Glyndyn Ringrose who made a serious late charge!
Wayne
Roach (Torquay) was a popular winner in the Over 50's - Roachy has been competing
at national titles for many many years with a series of placings across all divisions
and was elated to finally win a title today.
Jan Juc surfer Jeff Sweeney took an emphatic win in the over 40's to complete
an outstanding day for the locals - Sweeny was never going to lose today. Solid
swells for a surfer who is certainly one of the all time great free surfers at
Bells Beach having ridden and conquered the break on the very biggest days over
the past 20 years and today's win was a reward to his affiliation to the wave.
The final event of the day was the Surfing Australia Teams Cup and in
a close, exciting and super high quality display, NSW took a narrow win ahead
of Victoria in second, Queensland third and Western Australia fourth with all
teams well in contention to the end!
Final word on the event goes to former World Championship Touring Surfer Robby
Page, a former Pipeline Masters Champion who returned to this event after 22 years
and took out the over 35 men's final - " It's been an amazing week for all
of us, great surfing through all the divisions and it's events like these that
reaffirm that Australia is the greatest surfing nation in the world!"
Full results can be found at Surfing
Australia's website.
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