SURF SCENE with Andrew McKinnon

A STAR-STUDDED line-up consisting of Queensland's best boardriders clubs converged at The Southport Spit on November 5 for the hotly contested Nudie Australian Boardriders Battle where regional teams were met with clean knee-to-waist-high, A-frame peaks on the southside of the sand pumping jetty.

Opening rounds of competition kicked off with current WSL men's world tour surfer Joel 'Parko' Parkinson competing for Snapper Rocks Surfriders Club in the unique skins format. Despite bringing a wealth of skills and knowledge to the table, it was 'Parko' left chasing a score and upstaged by Burleigh Boardriders number one, Thomas Woods, who was considered the most outstanding performer throughout the competition.

Woods carried on his Burleigh blitz to not only score the highest single wave score of the event (9.27 out of a possible 10) but also winning all five skins heats giving his club an early lead on the event with his clean-sweep finish.

It wasn't until later in the day that Burleigh Boardriders were given a run for their money in the teams' event with last year's state champions, Point Lookout Boardriders, guided by WSL world tour pro Bede Durbidge who elected to coach and not surf for his PLB team. Meanwhile, former two-time consecutive national champions, Snapper Rock Surfriders were biting back to even up the team's cumulative points.

Point Lookout Boardriders nominated Tim Macdonald as their 'power surfer'. The Surfing Australia High Performance Centre coach, based at Casuarina, put his team firmly in second position while it was left to Snapper Rocks Surfriders Reef Doig to chase Burleigh and Point Lookout for the all-important first place position.

Eventually the teams' fields narrowed with Burleigh, Point Lookout, Snapper Rocks and D'bah Boardriders qualifying for the coveted state round final.

In the end, Burleigh Boardriders prevailed thanks to Woods lead scoring their first finals win and their fellow finalists PLB, Snapper and Dbah finishing second, third and fourth respectively.

All four teams carved up a slice of the $5000 prize purse but most importantly secured a spot in the coveted Nudie Australian Boardriders national final where they will match up to another 16 teams from all corners of Australia.

The Nudie Australian Boardriders Battle Series will involve more than 100 of Australia's best boardriders clubs in eight state qualifying rounds and will culminate in a national final in NSW in February for 24 clubs.

There's $160,000 cash and prizes up for grabs for clubs across the national series including $24,000 prize money split between the eight state events and $85,500 in prize money across the national final with the winning boardriders taking home a whopping $20,000 and an overseas trip for six surfers from the winning club thanks to World Surfaris, valued at $30,000.

Now that's what I call some big inspiration.