Bennett factory

Holiday time and time to visit the Bennett factory. Caught up with Greg and had a good look around the show room. Lots of great boards, designs, shapers and ideas.

Central Coast Open

8 foot finalists: 3: Dave Witt 6: Matt Cook 1: Mitch Fraser 4: Damien Farago 2: Nick Farago 5: Hugh Daugaard

Under 18s finalists: 2: Erin Dark 4:Bryce Williams 6: Jake Boyd Skinner 5: Micheal Nixon 3:Hugh Daugaard 1:Kai Ellice-Flint

Open Women's finalist: 3: Madi Daugaard

for full report see Wraps at www.australianlongboarding.com.au

Steve O'Donnell

Bennett Surfboards linked me up with Steve O'Donnell in 2010 and since then he's been shaping my longboards. He thoughtfully crafts his boards and they are amazing to ride. In 2012 Steve will be shaping under his own label and Bennett Surfboards is introducing me to a new Bennett shaper. I really respect Steve's board shaping skills but also appreciate the many hours he's been willing to spend talking about boards and surfing and the encouragement he's given whenever we've been competing at the same events. I'm stoked about meeting my new shaper and keen to learn different things board design but will be looking out for Steve to catch up at future comps.


free surfing on a Steve O'Donnell shaped high performance Bennett eight footer

The Snowy

A while ago i stayed down in Manly for my first year competing in the Snowy McAlister. We caught up with Greg Bennett and Steve O'Donnell from Bennett Surfboards. The surf was fairly average with messy onshore winds. I had decided to enter the U/18's, Open 8ft's and the open fish. The fish that i had brought with me was disqualified due to the tail being a swallow tail instead of a fish tail. Luckily for me Sage Joske was there with a van full of fish (the surfboard) and lent me an amazing little Valla board.

It was a very fun weekend and I ended up coming 4th in the open 8's and 5th in the under 18 9's on my very reliable Bennett surfboards.

Dad and Mad

Here's my Dad and little sister longboarding out at Wamberal

Free surfing

Some shots from a local beachie.

Water shots

Some photos that i took at Noosa this year with my go pro

Mike Brown

Boardies

Some shots from a session back in the warmer months

Photos by Mike Brown

Avoca Point

Avoca Point

Different boards

Different conditions

Night surfing

Just enjoying the uncrowded night waves

Banana Classic

Traveled south to the Farm for the Banana Classic. Some great waves and a cool mal club.

fun waves

Madzi in Blue

Mim in Red

Central Coast Regionals

Madzi and I had a fun surf at the local regionals.

a Grom’s view of the Magoo

The Magoo charity classic continued this year with another year of good surf and money raised for charity. For the week prior there had been the biggest swell of 2011. Only Fibbo was waxing up his log.

The first day of the classic was moved from an unsurfable Soldiers to a fun decent sized lakes beach. The set waves could offer some fast lefts and rights. The paddle out was fine but only once the very hazardous shorebreak was past. Mikey Brown snapped his board while paddling out. There were some great rides ridden and huge steak sandwiches eaten and day one was a good fun day.The second day was cleaner and about two foot bigger than the day before.

We started again at Lakes beach. The older surfers were sent out like guinea pigs to test the conditions. The officials then decided it was unsurfable and moved us to a much calmer cabbage tree bay. Upon arrival, Cabbage displayed some perfect looking left barrels. As riders threw themselves into these waves (sometimes literally) they discovered that they weren’t as easy as they looked. But, with the tide rising and lots of practise, there was some amazing barrels to be had.

A highlight of the day was Barry ‘Magoo’ McGuigan paddling out showing the same bravery as he shows during his current battle with cancer. All up a very successful event with good waves and over $82,000 made to donate to cancer research on the Central Coast.

(this is a piece I wrote for my mal club's newsletter)

Crescent Head

Up to Crescent again for another

Crescent Head Malibu Classic.

This year the surf lived up to the high expectations that the surf report had to offer of good south east swells.

Pumping waves all day everyday with some sets coming through from the point to the sand.

A highlight for me was watching Harley Ingelby in the Open Mens Final smashing the nicely formed waves.