Stephanie Gilmore being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Photo: joliphotos.com
It’s been a busy couple of weeks with two big awards ceremonies and the hype surrounding the first WCT events of the year, the Quiksilver Pro and Roxy Pro’s here on the Gold Coast.
This gallery is all about the 50 year Anniversary of Surfing Australia and the Australian Surfing Awards which incorporate the Hall of Fame Awards It was a black tie function held in the Darling Harbor region of Sydney attended by Australia's surfing royalty, politicians and leading industry figures.
Mark Richards and Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan. Photo joliphotos.com
Four times World Champion Mark Richards was named Australia’s Most Influential Surfer 1963-2013. The Top 10, in order of votes received from the public and the Hall of Fame members, was: Mark Richards, Simon Anderson, Nat Young, Michael ‘MP’ Peterson, Midget Farrelly, Tom Carroll, Layne Beachley, Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew, Mark Occhilupo and Bob McTavish.
Five times Women’s World Surfing Champion, Stephanie Gilmore was inducted into the Hall of Fame as well as receiving the award as Female Surfer if the Year while 2012 World Surfing Champion Joel Parkinson was the Male Surfer of the Year.
I was honored to take out the Nikon Surf Photo of the Year award with a shot of Mark Healey’s surfboard stuck in the lip of the a Cloudbreak monster shot during that massive swell last June. It’s the second time in four years that I’ve received the Award and I can tell you I was stoked.
Peter 'Joli Wilson-The proud owner of a new Nikon D4. Photo by mrsjoli
Here’s the list of awards handed out during the night:
2013 AUSTRALIAN SURFING AWARDS WINNERS
Australian Surfing Hall of Fame Inductee: Stephanie Gilmore Australia’s Most Influential Surfer 1963-2013: Mark Richards Male Surfer of the Year: Joel Parkinson Female Surfer of the Year: Stephanie Gilmore Rising Star: Jack Freestone Waterman of the Year: Jamie Mitchell ASB Surfing Spirit Award: Misfit Aid Peter Troy Lifestyle Award: Bob Smith Surf Culture Award: The Reef - by the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Tura New Music Simon Anderson Club Award: Kirra Surfriders Club Nikon Surf Movie of the Year: Storm Surfers 3D Nikon Surf Photo of the Year: Peter ‘Joli’ Wilson
It’s been a busy
couple of months of surfing action both in and out of the water here in
Australia to start 2012.
The contest action
kicked off with the Billabong World Junior Championships at Burleigh Heads,
then the Breaka Burleigh Pro, the Australian Open of Surfing at Manly Beach,
Sydney and then it was back to the Gold Coast for the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro.
On dry land,
Pipeline legend Gerry Lopez, with good friends Wayne Lynch and filmmaker Jack
McCoy were here, having traveled the east coast of Australia doing a ‘Talk
Story’ book signing tour.
Lopez packed out
the Surf World Gold Coast Museum for his night of reminiscing and surf stars
from the past and present were in the audience to listen to this softly spoken
Hawaiian ‘chat’ about surfing and his trips to Australia. He told of his first
meeting with Bob McTavish in Hawaii, when Dick Brewer was just starting to
shape short boards. He also commented on being amazed when he saw Wayne Lynch
surf for the very first time in Australia.
The audience
ranged from fellow surfing legends, Bob McTavish, Rusty Miller, Cheyne Horan,
David Baddy’ Treloar through to current World tour surfers such as Dan Ross.
A few days later,
at a gala function in Manly, in conjunction with the Australian Open of
Surfing, Ross Clarke Jones was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame.
Clarke Jones’s
acceptance speech was the ‘best’ anyone had heard in the history of the awards.
He started off slowly; a bit nervous, explaining Quiksilver had sponsored him
for nearly 30 years and as he was warming up, he pulled out a pair of shorts
from a plastic bag, the very first pair of Quiksilver board shorts he had ever
received as a sponsored surfer to show the audience. Board shorts he might be
struggling to get into today.
It didn’t take
long before the big wave hell man wound up ‘roasting’ his tow-in partner, and
former world surfing champion, Tom Carroll who was on stage to hand over the
award.
Ross spoke for
nearly 30 minutes and had the audience hooting with laughter, dead quiet, then
clapping loudly at his stories and thank you. At one stage Ross stopped and
asked, “Seeing as I’m being Inducted tonight, can I be
De- ducted if I
don’t stop soon?’’
The night also
handed out awards to Owen Wright and Sally Fitzgibbons as Male and Women
‘Surfer of the Year’. Owen’s younger sister, Tyler Wright won the Rising Star
award, Jack McCoy won Nikon Surf Movie of the Year, for Deeper Shade of Blue and former world champ Barton Lynch won
the Surfing Spirit Award for his work with grommets.
Within days, many
of the same group of surfers and industry people were pulling on formal attire
and fancy dress for the ASP World Surfing Awards, held on the Gold Coast just
prior to the Quiksilver Pro, which kicks off to the 2012 world tour.
Surf stars, past,
present and future walked the ‘Blue Carpet’. The unconventional character of Matt Wilkinson, better known for his
‘colorful wetsuits’ was dressed in top hat and tails with his ‘date’, filmmaker
Nick Pollet dressed as a drag queen in bright red dress.
It was a huge
night with Kelly Slater getting his hands on his 11th World Title
trophy while Carissa More carried away her first. After the serious proceedings
of trophy giving was done everyone rocked to the Australian rock band,
Wolfmother.
The next morning
there was change of pace but an event that will have far reaching significance
for a long time to come. In a small ceremony on the top of the Greenmount headland,
overlooking the Quiksilver contest site and the Superbank line up, the
Queensland Governor, Ms Penelope Wensley officially declared the area
encompassing the three Gold Coast point breaks of Burleigh Heads, Currumbin and
Snapper Rocks –Kirra as a National Surfing Reserve; the first ASP world tour
event site to ever be dedicated a National or World Surfing Reserve.
The Reserve
borders are from 500 meters north of Burleigh Heads headland stretching south
to Snapper Rocks on the Queensland-New South Wales border.
Former world
surfing champions, Mark MR Richards and Pete PT Townsend joined National
Surfing Reserve patron Rabbit Bartholomew at the ceremony.
Kelly Slater, the
groups Global Ambassador and who rates Kirra as one of his most favorite waves said,
“I’m very stoked
to be working alongside World Surfing Reserves to lend a voice and help ensure
we honor and recognize the beaches that have brought all of us the lifestyle we
love so much.”
Once the
Quiksilver and Roxy Pro’s wrap up, the contest scene moves to Margaret River in
Western Australian for the Telstra Drug Aware Pro Men’s Prime and Women’s Six
Star event and there are a few star-studded names in amongst the heat draw.
Bells Beach is the last stop in Australia for the Rip Curl Pro over the Easter
break so there is plenty of action to continue both in and out of the water.
