NSW, You Are The Weakest Link

Yesterday, Destination NSW laid the Australian Open of Surfing to rest. 

Since 2012, the AOS’s has charmed us with performances by Dane Reynolds, Julian Wilson, Kolohe Andino, Andriano De Souze, plus loads more decorating the North shore.

Just like that, it is gone. The AOS confirming the cancellation of 2018’s event after beating around the bush in regards to the retraction of government funding, which was meant to be a 400K commitment, with this Facebook post:

“The Australian Open of Surfing will not take place in 2018. IMG and our supporting partner Destination NSW have enjoyed bringing this world-class event to the iconic shores of Manly Beach for the past five years and thank the Manly community and everyone involved in the event for their support. IMG remains committed to action sports and we look forward to sharing more about our plans for this event in the future.”

This competition cashed in an estimated 2.5 mil annually for the community (and provides QS hopefuls with the early opportunity to snag 6000 points). In February, Jesse Mendes took out the competition, which catapulted his impressive year on the Q, which should see him on tour in 2018.

Which begs the question, what will the World Surf League do to combat this? How will 2018 look with only four 6000 events? And will they announce another competition to serve as preparation for Snapper?

“This has been a great event but I’m not going to take my foot off the gas at all, I’m going to keep getting ready for Snapper.” Kolohe Andino acknowledged to us after his win in 2015,

This supposed future commitment feels unlikely, but let’s wait and see if this NSW Gov can piece together a suitable replacement.