Round four of the Victorian WaveSailing Series was held at Sandy point on Sunday with great sunny & windy conditions! The forecast was spot on, and over 30 competitors taking to the water in both the intermediate & expert classes.

The wind was SE and started off around 25knots, but quickly picked up to a consistent 30knots cross off. The swell started off a fun shoulder high size but started dropping and getting less consistent as the tide went out.

Both classes competed in a 20min expression session, each with the top 4 going through into a man on man final.

In the Intermediates Darren Ross came out swinging with a fantastic forward loop – that unfortunately left him with a broken mast and a long swim! The surf club didn’t leave him swimming for too long though, as they went and picked him up in the surf IRB. I think the most disappointing thing for Darren was having to listen to Tom Rossoman rubbing in the fact he beat him!

Andy Donegan picked off a couple of set waves early on that ensured his place in the final, while his brother Ben Donegan got a nice jump and wave to put him through.

Tom Rossoman struggled to find the swells but still managed enough rides to get a spot in the final while the final place in the final went to Alex Knott who was going for some big glory smacks!

Stuart Nickels & James Miele got unlucky with their wave selection, just not getting the waves that linked up enough and didn’t advance through.

The final for the Intermediate division kicked off as the wind had really increased. Tom Rossoman was struggling holding onto his 5.4 while some of the other guys looked more settled on the 4.7s and smaller. Andy Donegan got off to a good start with a nice backloop attempt and some long rides that he linked all his turns up and really milked the most out of the waves, finishing second for the day by the narrowest of margins. Alex Knott ended up taking the win on a count back after scoring the highest scoring wave of the heat was an awesome aerial landed cleanly back on the wave. Tom & Ben both getting very unlucky and not finding any of the set waves in their final as the swells were becoming less frequent. Tom ended up finishing third from Benny in fourth which has now really mixed up the seasons overall points with Darren Ross not scoring any points on the weekend, and Tom and Andy now tied for the lead on 55 points. 

The Expert division raced against the dropping tide and swell to get their heats run while there was still some rideable waves left! 

The expression session was won by Joel Ryan who got 3 nice waves and a forward loop, followed by Andrew ‘Hock’ Hocking who got some long rides, Andy Ackland who got some forwards & good smacks on the waves while James Toth just scraped through for the final position in the final over Andy Bain who finished 5th.

Hock won the Expert Final with lots of very smooth controlled waves, that he just seemed to find every single run. Hock managed some good clean forward loops which made sure he scored well in the jumping category which gave him the win by only one point from Joel Ryan who scored some solid wave rides and several forward loops. Andy Ackland finished just behind Joel with some awesome Goiter attempts, one of which he landed in the water start position.. Andy will be tough to beat when he has this move dialed!

James Toth just couldn’t find a wave in the final, and didn’t get a jump so finished up fourth.

A great day and fantastic to see so many people out on the water. Thanks to Jodie from Whitecaps photography for capturing all the action. Please support her and buy a disc of all the images of yourself from the day! Just drop her an email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and she will probably have lots more shots of you that are not online yet. Jodies gallery from the day http://www.whitecapsphotography.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=12887139

Thanks to everyone for coming along, see you at the next round

VWS