North Narrabeen Boardriders have dominated the 2023 WOODHILL ESTATE AGENTS SURFTAG winning the Men’s Division and finishing Runners Up in the Women’s and Masters.
In pumping 4-5 foot waves at North Curl Curl Beach on Sunday, 10 September, North Narrabeen’s Davey Cathels, Dylan Moffat, Cooper Chapman, Benny Wilson and Jack Bannister posted a total of 80.10 to finish well ahead of North Shelly – 65.04, Avoca – 64.05 and Curl Curl – 59.24 in the Men’s Final.
Both Davey Cathels (8.07) and Dylan Moffat (8.93) scored in the excellent range early in the fifty-minute Final with Moffat winning the Phil Courtney Highest Wave in the Final Award for the 8.93.
“Glad we got some waves today for the SURFTAG, it’s always fun the boardriders events and it’s high stakes and everyone wants to win so for Northy to get the win in these conditions against these hard teams is really good I’m frothing”, Moffat said.
“It’s a pleasure to surf alongside Davey and Cooper as you know they are going to bring their best which makes you want to bring your best”.
North Shelly and Avoca Boardriders both started the Final with big scores, North Shelly’s Johnnie Keith securing an 8.17 on his opening wave and Avoca’s Sandon Whittaker locking in a 8.27. Both Central Coast Clubs tussled with Curl Curl for second place with North Shelly finishing narrowly ahead of Avoca by 0.99. Curl Curl finished strong with both Ed Aubrey & Carter Harris scoring well but suffered a slow start on home turf.
In the WOODHILL ESTATE AGENTS Masters Final the Elouera Boardriders (48.04) team of Darren Curley, Luke Palmer, Mitch Warren, Jono Arnold and Dave Martin won the Club’s first ever SURFTAG Title finishing ahead of a star-studded North Narrabeen (44.85) team that included former World Champion Damien Hardman and World Tour surfers Nathan Webster and Brett Bannister – Current Australian Over 50’s Champion.
Long Reef (41.18) finished in third position with the MOB – MacMasters Own Boardriders (37.99) finishing fourth on debut.
Elouera’s team captain Luke Palmer praised his teams game plan of time management, “Tag team surfing is all about time management and that’s what we concentrated on today. We have a big group of older surfers in our club and we had to dig deep to come up with a team and this win shows the depth we have”, Palmer said.
Dave Martin secured Elouera’s spot in the final after locking in a 7.5 Power Wave (doubled up) in Semi Final No.2. that took Elouera from fourth position to second late in the Semi Final.
North Narrabeen’s Nathan Webster won the Phil Courtney Highest Wave in the Final Award with a 6.70.
In much smaller conditions on Saturday Long Reef Boardriders (46.13) won the WOODHILL ESTATE AGENTS Women’s Division with North Narrabeen (38.99) finishing second ahead of Cronulla Girls Boardriders (37.46) and Ulladulla (31.74).
The Long Reef team of Fiona Bamberry, Sydney Chevalier, Gabi Spake, Annalise Wong and Uli Kapferar set out to improve on their third-place finish in last year’s Women’s SURFTAG which was the first time the Northern Beaches Club had entered a Women’s event.
Gabi Spake was the standout surfer for Long Reef posting a 6.83 and 7.10 Powerwave in the Final, “It feels so good to win this year as we came third last year and we always want to better our results”, Spake said. “Before the heat I wasn’t nervous but on the paddle out I started feeling super nervous but I got it done”.
Ulladulla’s Bella Wilton won the Phil Courtney Highest Wave in the Final Award with a 7.33.
2023 SURFTAG SERIES RANKINGS
1st North Narrabeen 2720
2nd Long Reef 2285
3rd Avoca 1895
4th Bondi 1670
5th Queenscliff 1610
6th North Steyne 1543
7th Werri Beach 1505
8th Elouera 1450
9th North Shelly 1415
10th Curl Curl 1120
2023 WOODHILL ESTATE AGENTS SURFTAG Heat Draw and Live Scores www.liveheats.com/surftag
2023 SURFTAG SERIES SCHEDULE
9th & 10th September – WOODHILL ESTATE AGENTS SURFTAG, Queenscliff Beach, Sydney
28th & 29th October – GYG JUNIOR SURFTAG, Queenscliff Beach, Sydney
Follow 2023 SURFTAG SERIES
www.instagram.com/surftagseries
www.facebook.com/surftagseries
The 2023 SURFTAG SERIES is proudly supported by WOODHILL ESTATE AGENTS, GUZMAN Y GOMEZ, GSHOCK, DRIPPING WET SURF SHOP, ATOLL TRAVEL, SWELLNET, MANLY OBSERVER, TAWNY FROGMOUTH & LIFELINE NORTHERN BEACHES.
This is a sponsored post in support of local news and good local surf coverage.
