Finally the waves were perfect at Noosa Main Beach on Sunday for the Noosa Malibu Club to run its monthly club surfing competition.
Covid-19 shut the club down from March to July then lack of surf cancelled the past two events but on Sunday about 60 surfers aged from 8 to 75 years joined in the competition.
The club has come a long way since it began in 1986 when two longboard clubs amalgamated.
Club registrar Darlene Gower said back then surfers would meet early one Sunday morning a month and decide where the best surf break was. “A note nailed to a tree would direct any stragglers,“ she said. There were two divisions – Modern Mal 8ft and Traditional Mal 9ft and women surfed with the men.
The tradition of meeting early on a Sunday morning continued until only last year, when the Club decided to embrace online technology of managing the monthly club meet and it became more practical to put a post on Face Book.The Club now has more than 150 members and divisions for Men, Women, Junior Boys, Junior Girls and Pee Wees (under 12’s).“The Noosa Malibu Club is a club for all ages and all surfing abilities,“ Darlene said. “It is a nurturing environment for the junior members, who have the older members as mentors. The Club’s focus is to provide a place where members can come together to socialise, compete, and generally enjoy the sport of longboard surfing. From its midst some amazing young surfers have emerged into the world of surfing and the club is proud to include World and Australian champions amongst its current and previous members. Today there are 50 junior members and the talent is outstanding.The club conceived and developed the Noosa Festival of Surfing, an event that has now earned international recognition and is coming up to its 30th year. The club also runs two other events through the year, the Wrecks & Relics competition (catering for those over 50), and the Noosa Logger, an event that takes us back to surfing’s more traditional roots. These events help the club provide support to their active members who wish to compete in State, Australian and World pathways, and provide equipment and training to support the membership to help improve their surfing ability.
“As with all sporting clubs a lot of work is involved in keeping a club functioning and the Noosa Malibu Club is no exception,“ Darlene said. Luckily they have an outstanding Committee, and a bunch of enthusiastic members who are proud to be a part of such a great Club.
