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After
eight days of non-stop bodyboarding, the Human Australasian Titles and Pro Tour
event at Port Macquarie came to a climatic end last weekend. 
With
a $10,000 prize pool on offer in the Pro divisions and the chance for state and
country bragging rights in the nationals, competitors from all over Australia
and New Zealand were eager to prove their skills. Despite the
waves for the finals on day eight not quite reaching the quality experienced in
earlier days of competition, all divisions were fiercely contested. 
The
premiere event of the festival, being the Men's Pro Final, lived up to much of
its expectations and anticipation. The final saw a meeting
of current world tour leader Ryan Hardy, two times world champion and local boy
Damian King, world number five Dave Winchester and story of the day Cade Sharp
making his way through from round one of the competition. 
In the end New South Wales boy Dave Winchester took home the winners cheque,
making the most of the fun conditions. Ryan Hardy's second place was enough to
win him the 2006 Australasian Pro tour.
Dave Winchester said
after the event that even though the waves were small, it was still a very competitive
final. "Overall there were pretty good waves and some
good surfing but I was just happy to beat Kingy (Damian King) in his home town"
he said. The national finals featured some of Australia's hottest
young talent with competitors from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland all
out there to do it for their state. The New South Wales contingent
proved the stronger state again, with Jones Russell stealing the cup back from
Western Australia who won the open men's final last year. In
the other finals of the day Kaitlin Murphy took out the Pro Women's and Port Mac
local Mason Rose slashed his way to victory in the Pro Drop Knee division. The
eight day event saw two Guinness World records smashed with the "Most amount
of people to ride a wave" (75) and the "Most amount of people to ride
a Bodyboard" (8) both broken. 
Australia
also won back the Human Trans Tasman Challenge cup after the Kiwi's upset a star-studded
team last year. General Manager of Bodyboarding Australasia
Terry McKenna said this year's nationals were just a showcase of what was to come
for the sport of bodyboarding. "This event capped off
what has already been an awesome year for bodyboarding in the Australasian region
and things are only going to get bigger and better next year," he said.
Check out the Bodyboarding Australasia Website for a full wrap
of the events. | 
