WRAP FROM FINALS DAY VIA STORM BAY SUP :
Coach Dave Banks went out for a half hour early surf session to see how the waves were for the early Over 50’s Semi-Final. The waves were around 2 foot and breaking extremely close to the shore. Conditions had slightly deteriorated over night.
Dave on his second wave managed to “kiss” the deck of his JP SUP (which can be seen in the images) on a re-entry turn and when he emerged from the water blood was pouring from his nose like a tap. We are not sure if Dave has broken his nose but after some first aid was administered appeared to OKish and ready to solider on to our total amazement. The Bank’s are built tough and he keep assisting Hamish throughout the day.
Hamish Robinson’s first heat was the Over 50’s men Semi- Final. This was a tough field with last years Australian Champion, Andrew Cassidy in the line up to compete. Hamish was running third in the heat and it looked like he was going to be eliminated with time running out.
Fortunately, in the final mad minute of the heat, a head high set was sent from the wave Gods to Hamish, where he manged to wheel of a round house cutback and a few other hacks to complete the wave on the beach. This put him in second place ahead of Andrew Cassidy and Hamish was sent him into the finals.
The Finals of the Over 50’s was held sometime later and the swell had dropped, with the waves being fairly gutless. As scores were extremely close 1 surfer decided to use a technical interference strategy on Hamish, much to the amazement of all. After a delay with the judges clearly considering this tactic, the interference was called.
With around 5 minutes to go recovering from this was to difficult but again, another massive learning on competition tactics for the Tassie boys
The end result was Hamish Robinson getting a 4th in the final of the men’s Over 50.
At the presentation Tasmania as a State came 5th out of 6 States which is a stellar performance.
