Keahi De Aboitiz finally wins the Noosa Festival of Surfing
Keahi and his hound at the Noosa Festival of Surfing.
Battling it out in muddy, dirty and choppy water off first point in Noosa. The Stand Up Paddle surfing event took place last weekend amidst the Noosa Festival of Surfing. The event organisers packed the entire weeks SUP event into one day, calling it the SUPER SUP Sunday in order to attract more out of state entrants. Previous, it was complained about that the SUP guys and girls sat around all week watching surfing, waiting for their event to get called out. Then they had their heat or two and then it was all over! With the Sunday event incorporating the BOP racing, surfing, long distance race, dog surfing and the opening ceremony. What more could you ask for?
Well, according to those competitors who went, and those who decided not to go based on previous years experiences. The Noosa Festival of Surfing still hasn't quite embraced the spirit of Stand Up Paddling. A few mentioned the lack of SUP sponsorship and prizes up for grabs. Others were talking about the small things like the fact that the inside buoy moved during the BOP race. Small entrant numbers in the BOP race also raised some eyebrows, as with the long distance racing.
Despite the negative feedback being bandied around in the forums, there's also a stack of great reports from the event. Huge crowds, great conditions (if a little murky) and stacks of motivated and stoked stand up paddlers who'd made the trek from all corners of Australia.
But back to Keahi's win, understandably he was pretty stoked after the event, telling Seabreeze.com.au:
"Yea I'm really stoked to finally win the Noosa Festival. I've done it for a few years now and to finally get one feels great. Although the waves weren't all time, we still had some pretty fun waves and it was good to be out there with the rest of the guys. The dog surfing was pretty cool also. I have never seen so many people at first point in my life. It was almost like an asp event or something. You couldn't even see the beach from the water there was so many people. It was great fun to be out there with my dad and the other guys.
With all that time spend winning the kitesurfing world tour, it's a wonder he had the time to train for such an event. But then again, there's a certain home town advantage to a surfing contest as unique as the Noosa Festival of Surfing. What's in the pipeline for next year?
Check out the constructive criticism about the event on the Stand Up Paddling forums.
Bondi, NSW
