By Phil Jarratt
In spite of ongoing snap lockdowns as Covid rolls into its second year, the 30th annual Noosa Festival of Surfing, which starts next weekend, is anticipating one of its most successful events in several years.
After early fears that competitor numbers would be way down because of almost no overseas surfers attending, Australians have filled most divisions and almost 400 are expected to compete over the nine days of competition. Along with their families and other spectators, festival tourists will fill the town for more than a week of “pure stoke” in and out of the water.
Having been brought forward to February last year to fit in with the World Surf League calendar, the 2020 festival narrowly missed the introduction of Covid restrictions, but according to event organizer Josh Allen, when sponsor and underwriter World Surfaris had to make a decision on the 2021 event back in November, the future still looked very uncertain. “We knew that there’d be no internationals,” said Josh, “and that might hurt our numbers overall. But a 30th birthday is pretty special for an event that has grown from a couple of tents on the beach to the world’s biggest surf festival, so we just decided to push ahead and hope for the best.”
The uptake across 11 age divisions, six open divisions, plus teams and family challenges, the return of stand up paddling and the popular surfing dogs shows that the courageous decision has paid off. And with Noosa hospitality businesses, like Heads of Noosa, getting right behind the event and playing host after the Solbar on the beach finishes its sunset trading, it’s going to be one big surf celebration.
Along with seven-times world champion Layne Beachley, a longtime festival supporter, and other celebrities, veteran longboard champion Ray Gleave, who won the first Noosa Malibu Classic 30 years ago, will return to defend his title at age 62.
The 30 year history of the Noosa Festival of Surfing will be included in a new version of Noosa World Surfing Reserve’s documentary Cuppa Tea With God which will be seen during action/adventure sports TV platform Fuel TV’s streaming of the festival and over the next year. Directed by Shaun Cairns and produced by Tewantin’s Panga Productions, Cuppa Tea Redux showcases Noosa’s surfing culture and explains how it came to host the world’s biggest event and become the 10th World Surfing Reserve.
Said Fuel managing director Jay Palmer: “The stunning world class location is sure to deliver an amazing background the equal of the incredible talent in the water. To be the broadcast partner on such a historic event is a privilege, and everyone at FUEL TV global is excited.”
Full details of the Noosa Festival of Surfing 2021 can be found in the lift-out program inside today’s paper.
