Twelve months is a long time in surfing and this past year has been a perfect case in point. At the mid point of last season we were enjoying an unprecedented run of epic surf and had managed to score great conditions for many of our club contests. This year however we have been dogged by generally poor conditions and the run of winter surf has been one of the worst in memory. Having said that our competition schedule is on track with multiple comps having been run in both the Malibu and short board divisions. While for the most part events have been held in marginal conditions the standard of surfing has been outstanding across all divisions, but most noticeably in the Open Mens. Cam Renzenbrimk and Lachy Kerney seem to have lifted to the point where they make the most trying of conditions look easy and continually leave spectators on the beach shaking their heads in disbelief.

While the club enjoys its winter break scores for all divisions are as follows.

In the Malibu Division Mitch leads with Chris O'Dowd in second and Ken Ferrier in third.

In the Womens Mal Division Shayley Ray holds down top spot followed by Gayle and Elise Renzenbrink respectively.

In the Open Mens Division Cam Renzenbrink leads followed closely by Lachy Kerney and Chris Martin.

In the Over Forties Division Wes Bowler leads after three comps followed by Darren Allbutt and Graeme Briggs.

Junior Mens division is lead by Stewie Ferrier followed by Ben Malouf and D Bauer.

The Cadet Division has D Dales Sutton in the number one spot followed by Jackson Wylie and Tom Wellerman.

In the hotly contested Junior Girls Division Elise Renzenbrink holds down the number one position closely pursued by Alley and Molly Kenwood respectively.

The Open Womens Division sees Shayley Ray in the top spot with Elise Renzenbrink second and Alley Kenwood in third.

The final two short board competitions will be completed after the end of the winter competition break with the first of these taking place in late September. All dates for the final rounds including the Mal Division will be posted on the board club web page at www.ripview.com.au so stay tuned!

In other news around town Michael Pinney recently took out the Open Long board division at the State Titles making him the current State Champion. Jade Ogilvy is the current Open Female champion which makes a relatively small surfing community top heavy with State Champions! Stewie Ferrier has been having a red hot dip at the State Scholastic and Cadet Titles while the Kenwood girls have achieved some impressive results in the Thirteenth club comps. Congrats all round.

Speaking of congrats all round, or more particularly what the heck is in the drinking water, Shayley, Jade and Phippsy's wife Christine are all expecting to add to the Point Lonsdale grommet population in the near future. I reckon that there could well be an opening for some enterprising individual to start the town's first beachside creche. Knowing how keen the girls are I would not be at all surprised if they werenπt sorting out baby sitting rosters already.

A well done also to Ant Stephens who has gotten behind a few of the local kids with board sponsorships. This has been an area that Phippsy has covered brilliantly in the past but there is always room when it comes to looking after the groms.

That's about all for this month. While we continue to shiver our way through winter it's worth remembering that summer is always only a few months, a long drive or a short plane ride away!

Stay Wet Stay Warm

Sparx (Graeme Briggs)