The Noosa Festival of Surfing came to an exciting end, with many of Australia’s best long-boarders featuring in finals.
The annual nine-day event, which was celebrating 30 years, included great surfing, entertainment, a skate showcase and special guests, including seven-time world champion Layne Beachley.
The festival is usually held in March but was postponed this year because of COVID.
Former longboard world champion and local surfing identity Josh Constable said it was still well contested.
“It was colder, with shorter days and the surf was disappointing, but the atmosphere was still high and there was still some great surfing.
“People still came to Noosa, which is a beautiful place no matter what time of year, and everyone was stoked to be here.”
There were about 600 entries for festival events, despite the absence of international competitors.
“Unfortunately there wasn’t much surf on the point, so the majority of the competition was near Access 11, but it is always contestable there,” Constable said.
“The surfing calibre was really high, and the junior divisions were phenomenal to watch. That was a highlight for me, the kids surfing so well.”
The festival culminated near Access 11 at Noosa Woods. The small, relatively clean surf provided boardriders with a canvas to impress judges.
New South Wales duo Matt Chojnacki and Tully White stole the show with their displays, winning two marquee divisions each.
Chojnacki defended his title in the Open Logger event and won the Old Mal section, while the White won the Open Logger and Open Longboard crowns.
Chojnacki won the four-man Logger final with 16.33 points, to finish ahead of Ben Considine (13.07) and Matt Cuddihy (13.07)
His win in the Old Mal section was equally impressive. He claimed a two-wave total of 15.00 points in a six-surfer final, to beat Cuddihy (11.63) and Sunshine Coast’s Bowie Pollard (10.24).
Chojnaki was imposing throughout both competitions, winning every heat he competed in.
Meanwhile, White won a six-strong Open Longboard competition, snaring 11.46 points to hold off Mason Schremmer (10.90) and Luca Doble (10.27).
The 21-year-old then won a four-surfer Open Logger final, claiming 13.77 points and finishing ahead of Sierra Lerback (13.30) and Mason Shremmer (12.03).
White is regarded as one of Australia’s rising longboard stars and boasts a third placing at the Taiwan World Longboard Championships in 2019.
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Byron Bay’s Kyuss King won the Twin Fin section, an event added to the schedule this year, in which surfers had to compete on boards made before 1985.
Kuss finished the six-strong final with a score of 15.73, to finish ahead of Noah Stocca (11.97) and Cooper Davies (10.00).
Kuss is enjoying a strong year on the World Surf League’s Qualifying Series, with four top-10 results.
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Victorian Ben Considine rallied to claim a memorable victory in the men’s Open Longboard section.
He produced an eight-point ride with a hang ten, with about one minute left in the final, to finish on 14.20 points.
Considine edged perennial contenders from the Sunshine Coast, Clinton Guest (11.57) and Bowie Pollard (11.50). Considine won all his heats enroute to the title.
Luca Doble won the under-18 girls longboard competition, while Kaiden Smales won the under-18 boys.
Constable won the over-40 men’s division.
“I was just going to be hanging out and be a part of it (the festival) but then a spot popped up (in the field) and I jumped in there,” he said.
“It was nice to have a surf in my age division.”
