By PAUL PETERSON
OVER 67 Noosa Boardrider Club (NBC) members competed in Round 3 of the local event at North Sunshine on Sunday 10 April, with another three competing across the country over the weekend.
Star competitors included 17-year-old Connor Lyons who surfed the World Surf League (WSL) junior in Port Kembla and is looking to progress to the more professional ranks, plus a number of surfers competing in the Health Insurance Fund (HIF) Agnes Waters competition.
Nine-year-old Landen Smales from Peregian Springs was the standout, winning the Under 10 division and then stepped up to take out the Under 12 division.
Kalani Wulf, 16, one of the club’s newest members, surfed up and took out the Premier Under 18 final.
The NBC round had 25 events from the micro-grom divisions of the 8 and Under through to the strongly contested 16 and Unders.
The strong turnout has cemented the NBC as one of the strongest junior surfing clubs on the Sunshine Coast.
Not to be outdone, the senior club will commence its competition season on 14 May with Round 1 of the Shotgun Shootout. This series boasts a prize pool in excess of $4000.
The NBC has swelled in numbers over the last season with young groms looking to follow in the footsteps of Peregian local Julian Wilson and the club’s own Dean Brady and Harry Bryant.
Next week will see four of the club’s up-and-coming travel to Coffs Harbour for the biggest grom competition of the year.
The Billabong OZ Grom Comp runs over six days and attracts surfers from all over Australia and a few from overseas.
Harper Smales will contest the Under 8 Girls while Mitchell Peterson will contest the Under 8 and Under 10 Boys. Landen Smales will line up in the Under 10 Boys and Toby Lyons will contest the Under 14 Boys.
