News Flash: We're Engaged!!

Hey Guys,
It has definitely been an exciting weekend for me. I proposed to my girlfriend Bianca Lee on Friday morning! We took my jet ski out for a drive down the coast and I took her into the beach at Nobby's Surf Club, where we met, and popped the question. Thankfully she said yes!!

Our celebrations were cut short for the weekend as I competed in the Roar Industries Ultimate SUP Championships on Saturday at the Seaway Spit. The championships consist of a surfing component and a paddling component, and it requires you to use the same board for each component. It makes it difficult to pick the right board to use as shorter SUP's are better for surfing as you can pull off more monouvers, however, they are slower for the paddle race. Longer SUP's are harder to monouver when surfing but are faster in the flat water paddling.

The conditions were testing with a 15-18 north easterly wind and 2 ft waves. I managed to make it through the rounds to the final and score a 7 and 8.3 riding waves. Keiran Taylor pulled out an amazing 9 point ride and a back up wave of 7 to take out the event, I finished 2nd and Jamie Willems was 3rd and Paul Jackson was 4th. Shakira Westdorp showed the girls are getting up there in SUP surfing by making it to the semi-finals and just slightly missed out on making the final.

With the surfing component completed we headed over to the broadwater to race in the flat water paddling component of the championships. The original course was set to paddle from the beach around the rock wall and into the Seaway. However, due to the windy conditions and safety hazards the race was set in the flat Broadwater. Mick DiBetta a renound paddle boarder lead most of the paddle on his 10'6" SUP, only to be tipped by Troy Pease at the finish. I was able to finish 5th on my 8'11" SUP.

Overall Keiran won the event, I finished 2nd, Jamie Willems finished third and Troy Pease was fourth.

I head off in less than a week and half to the Solomon Islands for a 10 day surfing and SUP trip. Stay posted this week as I post some pictures and background on my mate Scotty Wildin. Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Billy