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Maroubra win Gromtag in big surf at South Curl Curl

montytait22015gromtag_0.jpegMaroubra have won the 2015 COVERED Magazine Gromtag with the five man team using smart tactics to finish ahead of their rivals in chunky six to eight foot conditions at Sydney’s South Curl Curl Beach. Elouera Boardriders finished runners-up for the second year in a row with North Steyne third and North Avalon fourth.

Maroubra’s Jackson Giles was awarded Man of the Match posting an impressive 23.40 in the four team final with his earlier scores in the Semi and Quarter Finals being 21.37 and 20.00 out of a possible 30.00. Giles two wave scores in the Final were 7.27 and 8.07 on his Powerwave.

“Super stoked to take out the comp for Maroubra, we had a solid team and were confident going in and we did our job,” said Giles. “Winning Man of the Match topped it off, I was happy to get a couple of good totals during the day and then get my best in the Final.” 

Giles was well supported by his teammates with Max McGuigan scoring 21.90 and Monty Tait 17.57 in the fifty minute final. Maroubra sent their three older surfers out the back in the heavy conditions to tackle the bigger waves with their two Under 14 surfers Tye Koolis (4.67) and Jason O’Rourke (1.37) getting the job done on the inside shore break, catching their two waves in quick succession. Maroubra were rewarded 4 Bonus points for finishing their 10 waves first, resulting in the highest heat score of the day – 72.90 

Maroubra Team Manager Matt Lawson was excited to head across the bridge as a unified Maroubra team. “We had a strong team on paper but we knew the competition would be red hot and still needed to put it all together out in the water,” said Lawson. “Whilst the conditions were pretty challenging we had a decent game plan and the entire team stuck to it resulting in a symbolic win for Maroubra.”

Elouera’s Jared Hickel was a standout all day scoring 8 point rides in the Quarters and Semi’s with his best coming in the final where he secured the highest Powerwave of the event, a 9.17 for a series of aggressive backhand manoeuvres. 

“Was stoked to be apart of this years Gromtag and represent EBC,” said Hickel. “The day presented some tricky conditions but I was stoked to find a few running right handers in all my heats to post some big scores, all the boys in the team put in a solid effort.”

North Steyne Boardriders were the giant killers of the event finishing ahead of Cronulla and North Narrabeen in their Semi Final and earlier Sandon Point and Southbridge Shellharbour in their Quarter. Jamie Krups was North Steyne’s best posting 16.50 in the Final that included an 8.50 on his opening wave.

“Making the Final wasn’t really something we planned to do, we were all just stoked to be able to compete together as representatives of our club and just had the aim to go on as a team and have fun really” said Krups. “The whole day the entire team just hung out together which was really cool, making the Final and coming out as the top Northern Beaches club was definitely something everyone was stoked about.” 

North Avalon started the Final strong with Darcy Crump (11.70) and Marlon Newling (14.53) but ran out of time with fourth surfer Forest Finley only managing to catch one wave resulting in fifth surfer Van Whiteman not having any time to paddle out. 

North Avalon had earlier in the day caused a massive upset defeating Curl Curl and Merewether in the first Semi Final. North Avalon was sitting in fourth position late in the Semi when Marlon Newling posted an 8.23 Powerwave to elevate North Avalon into second position and advance to the Final. 

2015 COVERED Magazine Gromtag RESULTS

  1. Maroubra – 72.90 - $1000
  2. Elouera “A” – 67.83 - $500
  3. North Steyne – 47.03 - $300
  4. North Avalon – 35.30 - $200
  5. Cronulla
  6. Curl Curl
  7. Merewether “A”
  8. North Narrabeen “B”
  9. Long Reef
  10. Sandon Point
  11. Wamberal
  12. North Narrabeen “A”
  13. Southbridge Shellharbour
  14. Queenscliff
  15. Bronte
  16. Mona Vale
  17. Elouera “B”
  18. Merewether “B”
  19. Scarborough
  20. Werri Beach
  21. Freshwater
  22. North Shelly – N/S

The 2015 COVERED Magazine Gromtag is proudly supported by Swellnet. All Images, www.throwingbuckets.com.au