By TOMMY LEITCH
RETURNING to the Cricks Noosa Festival of Surfing for the second year, the Jeep Challenge and the Vans Duct Tape Invitational will bring a feast of excitement and entertainment to First Point, Noosa.
The Jeep Challenge will bring its multi-discipline spectacle to First Point for the first time, last year’s inaugural event having taken place far from the crowds and spectators at Double Island Point. In 2015 the public will have the chance to witness the eagerly anticipated event and see some of the world’s best watermen in action.
The Jeep Challenge incorporates shortboarding, longboarding, finless surfing and bodysurfing. Testing their diverse talents in 50-minute heats, competitors are judged on their single best ride in each skill. Such was the overwhelming response in 2014 that the division’s structure has been reassessed for this year. With the four finalists from last year’s event seeded directly into round two, round one will feature a sudden death elimination, eight surfers selected from a wealth of applications vying to progress into one of the four remaining places in round two.
2014 finalists Harrison Roach, Josh Constable, Harley Ingleby and Nic Jones will await round one’s results to see who will join them in the $2500 winner take all, from former world longboard champion Taylor Jensen, France’s Delpero brothers, Antoine and Edouard, Noosa’s Matt Cuddihy, Lawrence Harkness, Clinton Guest, Ruben Roxburgh and one remaining surfer selected from the Vans Duct Tape list of invitees.
The Vans Duct Tape Invitational is a specialised international event designed and hosted by former world champion and legendary traditional longboarder, Joel Tudor. The Duct Tape, which made its Noosa debut to rave reviews in 2013, aims to showcase the world’s best traditional longboarding. With its own judging criteria, the Vans Duct Tape Invitational offers a $10,000 prize purse to 15 invitees plus one wildcard entrant – the highest placed non-invitee in the Noosa Logger Pro division.
Tudor’s closely guarded invitation list has yet to be made public, but is expected to feature the cream of the crop of international log-riding specialists, and may include Noosa locals Harrison Roach, Zye Norris and Jai Lee, Sydney’s Matt Chojnacki, James Parry from the UK, and Americans Justin Quintal, Jared Mell and Alex Knost. Other possible invitees include Matt Cuddihy, CJ Nelson, Devon Howard and Mikey DeTemple.
In other news, with the Cricks Noosa Festival of Surfing documentary 8 Days of Pure Stoke about to hit the airwaves, Panga Productions has released the first short “webisode” from the show, Takes Two To Tandem, with Layne Beachley. Catch it on Youtube now, or visit the Facebook page for the link.
Join the Cricks Noosa Festival of Surfing on social media on Facebook www.facebook.com/NoosaFestSurf and Instagram @noosa_festival_of_surfing
