By Phil Jarratt
#1
Holed up in our soggy hideaway at a very wet Agnes Water last Sunday, I sought solace in the past, as surfers often do.
I was inspired by one of those memory thingies that pop up on your Facebook feed, this one from exactly a year ago when I was having a boys’ own excellent adventure in New Zealand while the rest of the world was going Covid-crazy. Looking at a picture of the Manu Bay lineup at Raglan, shot from the lookout, so many wonderful memories of that two-day swell came flooding back that I sought out the words I’d written then:
Like Noosa, Raglan gets so crowded during a swell event that you have to have a strategy for snaring a few ahead of the pack. Ours appeared to have faltered when we pulled into the car park at Manu Bay at first light and found only illegal campers and an occasional one-foot pulse disturbing the lake-like lineup. Further investigation of the outer points of Whale Bay and Indicators revealed more of the same, but an hour later at Manu, as the tide began to turn, we saw the first lines start to appear.
Rubbered up and hot to trot (if you’ll excuse the double entendre) we jumped off the rocks at the keyhole and paddled into a lonely lineup. There were long waits, but when the sets came they were small but perfectly formed, and on the rise. By lunch time it was head-high with bigger sets. By dusk it was consistently overhead at the takeoff.
And the next morning, when I took this picture, it had dropped back again, but conditions were still perfect, and we milked the last of it with just a small crew of locals.
I’ve had better surfs, but not many as memorable – travelling with a Europe-based mate I rarely see, lapping up the ambiance of that beautiful country across the ditch, back in a time when we took such things for granted. Can that only be a year ago!
#2
More from the vault. And with the 30th Noosa Festival of Surfing only six weeks away, I’ve been rifling through the archives looking for historic images for the organisers. A couple of these caught my eye.
The first is of a crew of young locals pictured after a heat of the Golden Breed Noserider Pro in 2000. These groms would go on to become some of Noosa’s finest surfers. From the left: Josh Constable would have picked up a swag of national longboard titles before hitting the big time with an ASP World Title in 2006, and at 40, he’s still highly competitive, as he showed recently at the Logger; Jai Lee would go on to win countless Golden Breed Noseriders and become widely recognized as the best noserider in the world; Julian Wilson had a few more longboard titles in him before putting his mals in the shed and focusing on the shortboard world tour, where he has snatched a handful of thrilling victories and remains in contention for a WSL world title, as well as an Olympic medal this year in Japan; and Matt Cuddihy is still one of the most stylish longboarders in town, usually finishing on the podium whenever there’s a logger or an old mal event.
The second photo has become known as “The Two Harries” and is justly world famous. For quite a few years we ran a costume surfing event at the festival, from memory because some sponsor thought it was a good idea and we wanted their money. But it was often a lot of fun, and no more so than 2013, when Sunshine Beach pranksters and leading free surfers Harry Bryant and Harrison Biden presented their take on tandem surfing. This was the ride of the heat, and Harry Bryant was lucky not to lose his teeth when he face-planted off the nose to end it.
Laugh, we nearly cried.
The Agnes Classic
So, back to the present, where the rebranded Agnes Water Longboard Classic certainly had its moments, although hampered by a couple of near-flat days and atrocious weather on the last day.
Your correspondent managed to get through a couple of rounds surfing as a ring-in local in the North of Fraser event – well, we pay rates in Gladstone Shire, so why not! And one of my heats was on the point in fair conditions, so happy days.
The serious action was over the weekend in the open and age divisions, with a big contingent from Noosa Malibu Club present and firing on all cylinders. The weather socked in on Sunday but at least it kicked up some more swell, albeit a little untidy. Evergreen Damian Coulter took out the open men’s, with Noosa’s adopted Hawaiian Mason Schremmer winning the women’s as her autumn charge continued.
Mal Club president won the legends’ trophy for two second places in the age divisions, and for devoting himself to tutoring tyro judges in the tent all week. Special mention here to Noosa’s Kirra Molnar who was all over the six-day event, coming second to Mason in the open women, second in the retro and third in the logger.
And once again, Noosa’s surf snapper Fenna de King was in the thick of it, providing the beautiful images you see here. You want more? Got to fennadeking.com
