After a year off, epic local surfing competition the DP Battle Royale returns this Saturday October 18.

Battle Royale is the biggest one-day invite-only surf comp on the East Coast with 32 male and 8 female surfers selected from southern Sydney to the far south coast.

Multiple beaches and points have been booked with the best surf option on the day chosen.

“We’ve booked Stanwell Park and every beach south through to Woonona,” says the man who lends his name to the event, Dylan Perese. “Sandon Point would be the dream run - six foot Sandon Point firing.”

The list of surfers reads like a who’s who of local talent with young rippers up against more seasoned pros.

“You’ve got local guys who might be winning your local boardrider’s pointscores, things like that, they could be up against somebody who has spent ten years on the world tour like Phil McDonald, so it’s obviously going to be a hoot for those guys,” Perese says.

Past Battle Royale winner Nic Squiers

The format for the men’s event is 32 surfers divided into four man heats for Round 1, with that number cut in half then switching to man-on-man for the remaining rounds.

The women see two semi-finals of four take to the water, then a four women final, doubling the number of women surfers from previous years.

Scarborough Boardriders have taken over as the main organisers with club president Christian de Clouett orchestrating the event.

“We are rapt to be bringing this surf event to our region,” said de Clouett.

40/20 Beer Co is the presenting sponsor for the men’s event and Sissterevolution wetsuits will present the eight-surfer woman’s division. The presentation afterwards will be held at Beaches Hotel Thirroul, with plenty of giveaways, including a DP surfboard.

To capture the event on social media follow DP Surfboards and Scarborough Boardriders on Instagram.

Who to watch:

• Shane Campbell the DP Battle Royale champ from 2017 hails from Cronulla Beach. He is actually of Canadian, Australian and Italian decent and earlier this year won the Canadian Olympic team selections and finished 2nd in the Canadian nationals. At his local Elouera Boardriders Club he hasn’t lost an event he entered since June 2016.
• Jay Brown, one of the most exciting and experienced ‘groms’ going around, is also from Cronulla.  He finished 3rd in the International Gromsearch Final in Brazil in 2018 after winning the Australian U16s Boys event.
• Nic Squiers, a veteran of the Illawara surfing scene, runs the Illawarra Surfing Academy when he is not travelling the world and the country competing in WQS events. In February this year, during his first ever trip to Hawaii Squiers surfed through to Round 5 of the Volcom Pipe Pro finishing 17th in the prestigious event. He then backed it up with a 5th at the Vissla Sydney Surf Pro in March.
• Phil McDonald hails from Tomakin on the far south coast but travelled the word surfing from the age of 13 until his retirement as a professional in 2009. He rose to the ranking of 5th on the ASP (prior to the WSL) after beating some of the best surfers in the world, including Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning and Any Irons.
• Kalani Ball is still relatively young but with a wealth of experienced having travelled the world on the QS for a number of years. The aerialist from Stanwell Park finished 9th in the US Open of Surfing this year when he scored an upset win over American Kolohe Andino, who was ranked No 1 in the world at the time.