Port Stephens District Bodyboarders kick-started their season of surf with the successful running of Box-Fest this month.
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The 3000-point ranked bodyboarding calendar event drew bodyboarders from near and far to Box Beach on March 14 and 15.
"Box-Fest was an overwhelming success," Port Stephens District Bodyboarders president Chad Pisani said. "We had a total of 105 entries and great waves on offer. There was at least one local in every final.
"We had clean contestable conditions early on the Saturday but the wind turned pretty savage around midday making conditions tricky and several of our cabanas were destroyed. Sunday however was a beautiful autumn day and the waves turned up to provide the competitors with epic conditions."
There was at least one Port Stephens bodyboarder that appeared in six of the eight final events across the weekend.
Kane Brewer, 21, from Nelson Bay won the open men's final, doing so days after returning home from Hawaii where he took part in the Mike Stewart Pipeline Invitational.
Pisani said it was a "highlight" of the weekend to see Brewer take out the open men's final with a massive roll scoring an 8.67 and a combined heat score of 15.67.
Other Bay surfers that performed well in Box-Fest were: Kaylah Pisani who placed second in the open women's final behind four-time national champion Lilly Pollard (from Sydney), Brad Jackson, third in masters (over-35), Hayden Pisani, third in juniors (under-18), Tye George, fourth, and Jack Adkins, second, in cadets (under-16) and Nicholas Holz, fourth in grommets (under-14).
Masters was won by prominent Newcastle bodyboarder John Cruickshank, juniors by Sam Giddy, cadets by Harrison Podvinec and grommets by Marlin Riley.
The only events that did not see a Port bodyboarder place or win was drop knee, won by Ryan Duck, and grand masters (over-45) won by Matt Riley.
"From all accounts Port Stephens Toyota Box-Fest 2020 was a huge success," Pisani said.
"Port Stephens District Bodyboarders are already looking forward to bringing you next year's contest and making it even bigger and better."