2008 vic titals results

4th Neil Owen

3rd Place Red Ceglowski

Runner up Vic Titals Mark Foxman

2008 Vic Champ Stan Kofoed

On Saturday 2nd of May Surfing Victoria held their state titles contest. So I was up early in the morning 5am, throw my Stump Kneeboards and wetties in to the back of my trusty ford panel van while my wife prepared other goodies for our trip to the Island, then we were off.

The kneelo’s had to get there first as they had the biggest amount of entrants in the state titles event… More than any of the other age group stand-up surfing entrants and they were sending us out first “normally we are in last”.

So I get to the island at 715 am and the first heat starts at 730am I was greeted by an onshore six foot swell with the odd bigger heavy bomb and no define bank, there would have been some better more contestable places to hold the event so competitors could have fun, but surfing Victoria have a policy that if the event states a beach they cannot change the event to another location “this policy sucks” and is why there has been a decline of entrance in surfing Victoria events.

People want to have fun in the surf not cop a pounding in treacherous conditions like the Victorian coast line can produce, especially the beach breaks off the Mornington Peninsula and Phillip island, but the island has some great waves in protected locations that would of promoted a great fun enjoyable event.

Anyway enough of my winging, the first heat of the event was paddling out kneeboard heat 1 with Red, Garry Clark, Mark Foxman, and Irish.

A very heavy shory greeted them for the first 30 meters of paddling with a rip sweep travailing at about eight knots pulling the competitors in to some very heavy close outs. Mark and Red got out in time to just be missed by some big bombs but Garry Clark wasn’t so lucky with bomb set waves punishing and pounding him, these waves would have knocked the wind out of anyone’s sails.
By this stage Gary had been taken by the sweep to a location where he could not recover just getting pounded for the entire heat he showed so much curage and determination to keep going and cop a 20 minute pounding.

Red and Mark picked off the best waves of the heat with Red catching a 6ft left hander, slaying some powerful critical slashes finishing off in to a heavy 5 ft bottomless closeout shory turning in to the lip to execute a power reo, sending up a 12 foot spray off his board as he broke his fins out of the wave lip and a descending freefall at great speed to land his final turn. The judges scored him a 8pt ride. He finished up winning this heat and straight in to the final with the rest of the competitors in his heat having to go in to the repechage semi final.

I was in the next heat with Anthony Jewl this was his fist surfing Vic contest in 12 yrs. It was great to see him compete he had represented Victoria at the Aus titles on a few occasions in the past, so he knows how to handle conditions like this with confidence Neil Owen, Gary Finger and a no show.

I was paddling out with Gary Finger just copping a pounding paddling through a shory. You could feel the white water prying your fingers backward off the board and turning your eyelids inside-out as you were trying to paddle under the waves, pulling you back 20 metres with every pounding. The white water felt like a sumo wrestler was jumping all over your back contorting you body in to all different positions.

Finally I get out with the rest of the competitors and I watch Gary Finger take off on a 6 ft right hander as he was heading in to his bottom turn the wave bottomed out putting him in to a bone crushing nose dive wipe-out. I remember looking at him thinking I hope that doesn’t happen to me “yeah that nearly psyched me out”. A few seconds later he popped up from this pounding smiled paddled out and caught the next wave showing a ton of curage. Tony and Neil were getting a few good lefts. I had got a few one manoeuvre waves and then had lucked on to a right hand wave that ran of and allowed me to get some turns, the wave then reformed and went left and allowed me to get a few more turns scoring 8.33pt ride witch got me in to the final with Tony 2nd Gary 3rd and Neil 4th.

Mark Foxman, Gary finger, Neil Owen & Tony Jewl were in a semi final to surf off for the two vacant positions in the final to join Red and myself.

The surfing in the semi was AWESOME with each of these competitors taking it up to each other in bad heavy bone crushing conditions. They made the conditions look good with an excellent kneeboard surfing display.

Mark Foxman cought a filthy right hand wave in the semi with some great smooth moves and a power floter in the shory to finish this wave off. It was going to be hard for the other competitors to peg him back. Mark won the semi Neil Owen 2nd just edging out Tony Jewl 3rd and Gary Finger 4th so it was Mark and Neil to join Red and myself in the final.

In the final the Tide had got lower and had made it harder to find any waves running off. A lot more bottomless Woolie closeouts I got out past the shory with the rest of the lads Red was paddling about 20 ft behind me on a shallow bank when I had taken of on a 6ft closeout that only allow me to get one turn but these things were breaking on a rib smashing head spinning 4 ft deep sand bank and landed directly on Red giving him the hiding of his life leaving him disorientated and out of position for the remainder of the heat.


Mark and Neil were getting some reform rights with Mark getting the pick of the bunch by this Stage I had lucked on to a wave that ran off instead of closing out and needed one more wave to consolidate my position. As I was paddling out one had just suck up in front of me. Mark also had his sights on this wave but I got on to it and it ran off allowing me to get a few turns

The final results for the Victorian titals were 1st Stan Kofoed, 2nd Mark Foxman, 3rd Red Cegklowski, 4th Neil Owen.

The kneeboarders really put on a good show at this event normally dominated by stand up surfing and the surfing Australian governing body with there anti kneeboard and amateur surfing policies Eg. if its not profitable lets not have them in our events. With the kneeborders having the biggest division of the day and 2 of the 3 highest scoring waves of the day.
Thank to all the kneelo’s for turning up and showing surfing Vic that we are a valuable force in surfing.

because there is nothing like that kneeling off the ceiling feeling..
HAVE FUN & STAY SAFE