Victoria’s best stand-up paddleboarders converged on the region over the weekend, to battle for the crown at the 2022 Victorian SUP Surfing Titles.
After moving the competition from Point Impossible to Thirteenth Beach for the final on Sunday, the competitors were greeted with a perfect two-foot swell and an offshore breeze, allowing for some fierce competition.
Throughout the morning Jan Juc’s local goofy-footer Matt Takle was on a tear, utilising the waves on offer as well as his whole board by walking up to the nose to style his way to multiple high scores.
As the tide sucked out throughout the day the waves became disjointed making it tricky for competitors to get good waves, however there were still some gems on offer.
Takle was able to find his way onto a couple of epic waves in the open men’s final and continued to use his impressive style to take the win with a 12.87 combined heat total (out of a possible 20) over Torquay’s Rick Pettifer with a 10.40 combined total.
Chris Clarke and fellow Torquay stand-up paddleboarder Mark Robbins also finished third and fourth respectively.
“It was a great day of competition with everyone scoring in fun conditions,” Takle said.
“I was happy to get onto some good waves that I could rip into.”
In the over-50 men’s division Matt’s father John Takle went all the way to take out the final over Allan McKellar, who placed second, with Brendan Ryan coming in third and Michael Jenkins in fourth.
Taking out the open women’s final was another Jan Juc local, Emma Webb, who showed her dominance on the day by taking out the open women 10ft division as well.
In open women’s final Webb surfed at a consistently high standard, scoring two seven-plus point rides for a combined heat total of 14.53.
The champions of other divisions included Torquay’s Rick Pettifer in the over-40 men, Xanthe Rivett in the master women, Damien Quinlan in the over-60 men and Michael Jenkins in the over-50 10ft.
