Winners Werri Beach Boardriders.
Werri Beach Boardriders have taken out the O’Neill Cup and in the process stopped the North Narrabeen Boardriders from another hat trick of wins.
The Werri Club won the 2009 Australian Surftag Title, which NN had won in 2007 and 2008, and with history repeating the Werri junior team finished 6 points clear of NN who had previously won the O’Neill Cup in 2007 and 2008.
Former World U’18 Champion Dean Bowen was the standout for Werri with a three-wave combination of 20.6 that included an 8.07 powerwave (double score).
“It’s great to win as we didn’t have the strongest team and we had squeezed through a few earlier rounds,” Bowen said. “It’s good to beat Narrabeen as they are a talented club with some of the best surfers in the world, we are from a small country town so it’s good to show them up”.
Late in the one hour final Werri trailed NN by 7 points and it looked like the NN junior team had secured another Title but with conditions deteriorating Werri’s fourth and fifth surfers Tom Salverson (12.7) and Billy Wilson (12.1) made the most of the one meter South Avalon peaks with Wilson making it back to the tag box first to receive 4 bonus points taking Werri’s total to 68.43.
Dean Bowen bending back for his club.
With 3 minutes remaining NN’s fifth surfer Bodi Smith needed to score a 7.5 on his last wave but was only able to post a 1.13. NN had started strongly with Jordi Lawler (12.27), Dave Vlug (20.6) and Cooper Chapman (13.9) dominating the early stages.
South Coast Club Ulladulla finished third, with the Central Coast’s North Shelley Boardriders taking fourth. North Shelley had earlier upset the highly fancied Avoca Boardriders in the first Semi with the local Club Avalon also falling short in the Semi’s.
“We’re over the moon again,” Werri Team Manager Dave Hunt said. “The micro groms section of our club was set up over 20 years ago with all the hard work paying off as we have won the three major teams titles in the last 18 months”.
Werri Beach scores in the final, Doug Chandler (11.7), Bowen (20.6), Matt Gale (7.33), Salverson (12.7) and Wilson (12.1). 4 bonus points.
North Narrabeen, Lawler (12.27), Vlug (20.6), Chapman (13.9), Laura Enever (8.1) and Smith (6.57). 1 bonus point
Ulladulla, Ty Watson (11.09), Jordi Watson (13.27), Sam Wrench (11.57), Matt King (8.16) and Elliott Marshell (12.4), 2 bonus points
North Shelley, Shane Holmes (11.93), Sam Patterson (11.34), Saxon Lumsden (10.27), Johnie Keith (7.0) and Tom Fielder (14.5). 3 bonus points
2009 O’Neill Cup Results
1st Werri Beach 68.43 $1200
2nd North Narrabeen 62.51 $700
3rd Ulladulla 58.49 $600
4th North Shelley 58.04 $500
5th Avoca
6th Avalon
7th Queenscliff
8th Norah Head
Sanyo Powerwave winner – Max Ayshford (Maroubra) – 8.66 point ride
The O’Neill Cup is proudly supported by FCS, Sanyo, Swellnet, Tracks and Global Surftag
