Local surfers in Noble pursuit to win Victorian title

A PAIR of local surfers will try to overtake a Phillip Island rival to win a Victorian open men’s championship at Bells Beach this weekend.
Jan Juc’s Jack Perry and Ocean Grove’s Josh Johnson-Baxter are the only competitors with a chance of overtaking Cape Paterson’s Steve Noble in the final round of the TOLL Victorian Open Series.
Noble leads after winning the Phillip Island round earlier in the year. He sits on a 3720 points, 720 points clear of Perry in second.
An uncharacteristic early loss at Phillip Island left Perry needing a solid result at Bells to overtake Noble for the championship. Perry must either win or place second and have Noble finish outside the finals.
However, the advantage of surfing at his home break could give the local surfer an edge on his rival from the other side of Port Phillip Bay.
Johnson-Baxter faces a harder task after missing the first event at Gunnamatta. He must win and have both Noble and Perry falter early in the draw.
Johnson-Baxter gave himself a slim chance when he finished second at Phillip Island.
The winner of the series will earn direct entry into the draw for the Rip Curl Pro Pre-Trials at Bells Beach during Easter.
The women’s division was wrapped up at the previous round when world number 23 Georgia Fish, of Flinders, won the title.
Surf forecasters this week predicted clean one-metre waves with offshore winds for Bells on Saturday but smaller onshore conditions on Sunday.