The NSW Regional Titles To Go Ahead… Online!

Surf comps worldwide are currently on hold. Everything from the annual Easter festivities at Bells to your local boardriders are all being postponed/cancelled due to the virus that need not be named. 

To satiate our competitive surfing desires the WSL has opened the archives to past ASP and WSL comps; featuring everything from early 00’s Snapper to 2014’s historic Teahupo’o comp. Some local comps however have adopted a different strategy to make it through the pandemic-driven lockdown. For instance, the NSW Junior Titles is taking their competition online.

They haven’t gone the way of e-gaming—surfers going head-to-head on KSPS—but they are ‘holding a competition’ without jerseys, tents, or the essential 2000’s hits being blasted over a PA. What they are doing though is getting surfers to send in clips. To be exact, their two best waves from 2020 at a NSW beach. 

That spot can be anywhere from Sandon Point, to D-Bah, or even some south coast offshore reef. The only rule is that it be filmed this year within New South Wales. 

As registration for the previously cancelled junior titles has already been taken, Surfing NSW is urging anyone wanting to compete to put their usual entry fee towards the online comp. In addition to giving Surfing NSW a little extra funding to work through this dark time, it will also grant all competitors with a 12-month Surfing NSW membership. 

Anyway, back to the comp.

There are four divisions—under 12’s up to under 18’s—with a group of boys and girls in each. All the competitors need to do is upload two clips (one wave each) to Surfing NSW between the 4th and 10th of May. These clips will be scored out of 10 by an online judging panel and each surfer will then cop a score out of 20 as their total.  

The winner, podium placers etc. will then all be determined based on two waves and two waves only, with results dropping online on the 11th of May. Let’s hope these online judges are good at distinguishing an 8.50 from an 8.60. 

While this online surf-comp format is at this stage contained to the NSW Junior comp, it does spark ideas as to how surfing comps may survive (at least in some form) for the next few months. Perhaps WSL surfers could collate their best waves from the start of the year into a 3-minute or less clip, the WSL whacks it up on a pay per view livestream (since advertising won’t be a thing) and those of us fiscally able can throw in a few coins to watch and vote for our favourite clip. 

A brain-fart of an idea, but if Surfing NSW can make it work, then maybe there’s still a sliver of hope for competitive surfing amidst the worldwide pandemic.