Noosa Festival of Surfing #31
Ladies and Gentlemen…that’s a wrap!
Event Generals have just completed another successful Noosa Festival of Surfing.
Working alongside the amazing team at World Surfaris and the Noosa Malibu Club, the 2022 Noosa Festival of Surfing has been hailed a great success and has gone down as one of the best, if not THE BEST festival of surfing ever.
With 10 days of stoke, the Surfing Festival kicked off on Friday the 4th March with the annual SurfAid Fundraiser with special guests Nick Carroll (MC), Layne Beachley, Brooke Farris & Pacha Light.
The fundraiser would see donations in excess of $15,000 which is enough to provide support to some 80,000 residents in remote communities overseas like the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia.
Saturday the 5th March was an amazing day. The beginning of the surf competition saw amazing quality waves at first point. Something that has eluded the Festival in its past two outings. The Juniors hit the lineup first and scored great conditions. By midday, the bar was open and jumping all the way through the afternoon and night.
At 2:30pm the VetShopAustralia surfing dogs stole the show as usual. With an estimated 7,000 spectators in attendance, the dogs didn’t disappoint in challenging conditions.
On Sunday the 6th, we saw the team challenge and family challenge take to the lineup for some fierce competition but all in the name of good fun. It was “The Crew” who took out the team’s event and the Gower family who stole the show in the family challenge. Congrats to all surfers competing.
On Tuesday, we celebrated International Women’s Day with our amazing friends at Sirromet Winery and the ladies from the She to Sea art display. The Beach Bar was the place to be for this event and we were blessed with amazing weather.
Noosa Main Beach wasn’t the only place seeing a lot of the action this year.
With the help of the Noosa Surf Museum. Event Generals put together an awesome event on Wednesday the 9th March. The Inaugural Creators & Innovators Night at the Museum. The perfect setting for us to showcase and listen to some of the best surfboard shapers from today and yesteryear.
The bill of guests did not disappoint with;
Hayden Kenny
Josh Constable
Stuey Campbell
Mitch Surman
Thomas Bexon
Peter White
and the effervescent Maurice Cole all the way up to join us from Victoria.
On Friday the 11th March it was the J Theatre that would be the place to be for a night of entertainment.
In partnership with Tracks Magazine, the offical 50th anniversary of The Morning of the Earth came to town. The film has been remastered in 4K and despite being 50 years old , was completely sold out weeks before the Festival started.
This was followed by the amazing keynote by Mark Mathews - Life Beyond Fear. Mark’s obsession with big wave surfing and fear create a story of survival, resilience and overcoming life’s challenges. Mark uses his real life experiences and lifelong obsession to pass on inspirational advice to the average man or woman in their own personal relationship with fear.
Back to the surfing. By the second weekend of the Festival, we were down to the finals. 23 divisions would see the remaining competitors battle it out for glory at First Point. A full list of eventual champions can be found on the Festival website >HERE< but it was Sierra Lerback who stole the show, breaking barriers and bias to upset a field of men in the Deus Old Mal division. Sierra would walk away with the perpetual trophy and $1,000 prize money.
Event Generals would like to thank a long list of people who made this Festival possible. Without World Surfaris and Noosa Malibu Club, we wouldn’t have an event. Our amazing division sponsors:
Luxico Longboard Open
Eco Evo Surf Logger Pro
Vissla Twin Fin Pro
Deus Old Mal
URBNSURF Juniors & Super Groms
Kennards Hire SUP longboard
GemLife Senior Divisions
World Surfaris Family Challenge
SurfAid Team Challenge
VetShopAustralia Surfing Dogs
We would also like to thank Tourism Noosa for helping us produce ON POINT as well as Tourism & Events Queensland for their funding and support.
Until next year. Cheers!