Central Coast Beach Fest Bodyboard Results 2015
World tour bodyboarder and legend Lilly Pollard made an appearance to compete at the Central Coast Beach Fest in Australia over the weekend and has provided her wrap up of the event also featuring Teigan Gillett. We’re so glad to see momentum picking up for women’s bodyboarding in Australia. Hopefully it’s the start of something BIG! (Thanks to Lilly for her report)
While all the hype surrounding the Hurley Pro Manly was going down over the weekend, a slightly more humble and uniting event took place up the road at Avoca Beach. The Central Coast Beach Fest which included surfing, bodyboarding, swimming, beach running, and sandcastle building was an amazing weekend bringing together the beach loving community.
Saturday had super fun waves and some epic performances going down out in the line up of the bodyboard division. Sunday was more of a micro fun day, a bit smaller, a bit windier, but still contestable. It was a fun, no pressure kind of contest environment. For me, a welcome change to competing on the world tour, and also a great excuse to catch up with old friends. This year we have found a little group of happy frothers.
The level of stoke I feel when watching Shauna Gillett and her two girls Teigan and Sam out in the surf together is ridiculous, I don’t think they realise how much they are inspiring all of us. They are just such a happy healthy, fit family, and watching Shauna advise her girls on what waves to catch and how to perform, in a no pressure, supportive kind of way, is just awesome.
With the tide coming in and the swell going out, the conditions were a little bit tough. The lefts were longer, but generally fuller, while the rights were closing out a little but had more of a section to hit. Most of the girls were looking for the rights, and a punchy rollo was the key manoeuvre to getting a decent score.
Jane keel has a good competitive fire in her belly at the moment, and managed to find some nice spin/roll combos. The Gillett twins, Sam and Teigan are both surfing super stylishly and really going for their moves. It’s tough to tell the two apart in their surfing but the one key difference I noticed was Sam definitely feels a little more competitive than Teigan. It won her the national title in 2014, but on this occasion, it was Teigan who found the slightly better rides and higher scores to progress. Both girls are really improving and seem to be so stoked to be in the water. Full of smiles. Mum Shauna is looking fitter and faster than ever, and although seeming pretty chilled in the water, she still has all the moves. It was a bit of a trip down memory lane for the myself and Shauna as we realised we competed at this event together around 16 years ago. Shauna used to pretty much dominate the women’s bodyboarding events back then.
The final consisted of Teigan and Shauna Gillett, Lilly Pollard and Jane Keel. One of the Gillett twin sensations, Teigan made the final and said “The conditions throughout the heat made it difficult to get waves as the surfboard riders semi finals was being run on the same bank at the same time as our final heat so waves were limited and when the rare few alright waves came through there was an awful lot of hassling going on.”
“I think it was a pretty close final in the end, and everyone seemed to really just be enjoying that time in the water. Overall the heat was a lot of fun and was a really good experience. Lilly, Shauna and Jane were shredding it up. I was just stoked with placing in the final and getting to surf against 3 very talented and skilled and experienced female riders!” Said Teigan.
Big thanks to central coast beach fest, and specifically Scott Arena and Central Coast Bodyboarders for their work on the bodyboard division. And to the girls for the good vibes, good laughs and great performances.
BODYBOARD RESULTS 2015
Lilly pollard 1st
Shauna Gillet 2nd
Jane Keel 3rd
Teigan Gillet 4th
Sam Gillet 5th
