Sandon Point Is Going Soft!

The soft apocalypse has infiltrated the once core coal coast. 

It was bound to happen with Drag’s HQ sitting in the ‘Gong, only a matter of time before the soft converts shifted from nearby beachies to the birthplace of three-finned shralping south of Sydney that is Sandon Point. 

This Sunday (tomorrow) however, Sandon’s turning soft for a charity event for Ruby McLean.

Ruby, a young local and daughter, is turning five this year, and is afflicted by spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). “SMA is a degenerative genetic condition that affects the nerves that control muscle movement. Ruby cannot walk, crawl, roll or sit independently. Slowly the condition will rob Ruby of the little movement and strength she has, including her ability to breath. There is no cure.” 

Ruby requires 24-hour assistance to make her life as pain-free as possible, and all that care comes at a significant cost to the family. To assist, Drag came forward with the idea of turning the hi-fidelity shred centre that is Sandon into a softopia for a day.

Some of the locals are notoriously anti-alternate surfing, but no one would pass down the opportunity to help out Ruby and her family.

So, how the fuck does a soft comp even work? 

Drag ambassador, simply known as Maddog, is himself unsure of the exact set-up, although he insists it will be pumping. There’s four-ish feet of ESE swell coming straight at Bulli and some friendly westerly breeze. All conditions conducive to lo-fi sliding.

Anyway, here’s what we’ve been told about how the comp works:

It’s strictly softies. You can bring one of those more shreddable ones if you please, but the less functional the better. Fins are allowed, if you must, but they’ll be frowned upon, and according to Drag there’ll be random finbox stompins (RFS) on the day to squander any HP hopefuls. Traditional performance booging is also highly recommended.Most who’ve dared take Sandon on with flippers and 60/40 rails have been buried on the shore, so Drag encourages all still pursuing the deceased sport to come and spin to their hearts content this Sunday.

And for those who’ve never considered purchasing a foamie, there’ll be plenty of Drag demos ranging from the 8’0″ coffin to a 41″ polypropylene prone blade. 

There’ll be no speed, power, or flow here, either. The judging is “crowd-based”, which we’re presuming just means by the general noise of the crowd, and there’ll be no text sent out to Pritamo in the morning reminding competitors and judges of scoring criteria. 

If this all sounds too good to be true, it’s not! The comp kicks off at 7am this Sunday at Sandon point, of course. You can sign up for a ‘charitable donation’ – which will all be given to the McLean family – on the sand at 7am before the comp, and you’ll also be in the running to win a Drag board that’ll be getting rallied off.

Sandon boardriders will be ridding the water of all non-soft watergoers for the day with that quintessential coal coast aggression, and there’ll be an afterparty at the surf club afterwards. 

If you’ve had an absolute gutful of Italo and Gabs tearing the balls out of D-Bah or you just hate performance surfing in general, then this is the day for you. It’s the first all soft comp we’ve ever witnessed (excluding traditional booging) and we’re well and truly behind it.

If you can’t make it down on the day, but want to donate a few spare dollars to the McLean family, then you can do so by clicking here.