Australian SUP titles enjoy clean waves at Woolamai

IT WASN’T spectacular but it was “clean and user-friendly” for the Australian Stand-Up Paddleboard titles in offshore conditions at the world-famous Woolamai Beach on Thursday, October 8.

And event organiser Max Wells of Inverloch was delighted with the support for the event and the conditions to get the event up and running again after two years off for COVID.

“The fact that we’ve attracted surfers of the calibre of Ty Judson, who won the marathon event on Wednesday, and James Casey, who was second and competes in a range of other events, both from NSW and others from around Australia shows how much they respect this event and the location here at Woolamai,” Mr Wells, a former executive director of Surfing Victoria.

“The waves are small but they’re user-friendly and clean, in offshore conditions, so it could be a whole lot worse, that’s for sure.

“Everyone is enjoying it and it’s just been great to get things going again after COVID. It makes you realise how much we’ve lost in the past couple of years, across all sports, so it’s good to be back.”

Talented stand-up board rider from Sydney’s Northern Beaches, James Casey, gave his seal of approval for the event.

“We had a great run in the marathon event, with the strong easterly behind us, coming across from Coronet Bay to Cowes. With the wind behind us like that, there was less paddling to do and we could work on surfing the waves running ahead of the wind.

“It was a lot of fun.”

Casey finished little more than a minute behind Ty Judson, who finished third in the world last time the worlds were run in 2019.

“Ty is world class, so yes, I was really happy with that.”

Casey is through to the quarter finals of open men’s SUP surfing event, the main event of these Australian titles, but he’s also a entrant in the ‘Tech Race’, a sort of combination of a surf-club, SUP surfing event where competitors run down the beach, pick up their boards and head out to complete a course in the water, plus a teams’ event.

According to Max Wells, entries are down from the best for the Australian SUP Titles, again the result of two years of COVID, but there have certainly been good signs for the sport this week with Phillip Island turning on very good conditions for all aspects of competition.