The last comp for the year was held @ North Wall Ballina on December 14th in very small and trying conditions.  For something completely different, I decided to hold a SYNCHRONISED BODYBOARDING event – and now we think it should be included in the Olympics.

Each competitor was partnered to a different rider for each heat.  Points were awarded to the pair for how close they could perform each spin / roll / ARS on the same wave at the  same time. Each individual accummulated their  points for an overall score at the end of the day.

It was a total laugh at the start.  Some pairs had one guy going left as the other went right and some couldn’t even get their act together to catch the same wave. Snaking with 8 people in the water took on a whole new meaning because you had to have your partner there with you !

It was soon realised that one rider had to take charge and make the calls and once everyone got the hang of it, we saw some perfect forward spins then reverse spins with even a few rolls thrown in -  in 99-100% unison.

The overall winner was Dave Gallagher with 36.75 points, followed closely by Ben McDonald on 36.5, then Casey Robinson in third with 32.

It was interesting to watch how the different pairings worked together – some combinations working extremely well and others not even coming close.  And it just goes to show that up until now Bodybarding was a really individual sport as some of the Big Guns had some trouble synchron-ising at times – you know which ones you are !!

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Kristian Gerathy and Casey Robinson scored a perfect 10 with a sensational combo.  They quickly realised that Casey spins faster than Kristian so they used a delay factor on the calls and both came out of each movement in perfect unison.

2.  Meercat and Ben McDonald scored 9.5 by completing their last heat dropknee style and made it look like fluid in motion against the prone guys.  Looked fantastic !

LOWLIGHTS

1.  You’d think the Battersby boys being twins would have some kind of special connection going on but they couldn’t surf with each other – or come to think of it – with anybody else.  Oh well, perhaps it’s something they can work on !!

2. Sam Boulton and Josh Pollard turned up eager and prepared for a big day, but alas, usually being able to pull the moves on your own doesn’t work if you don’t get it together in this event. Sorry Guys !!

SOME COMMENTS FROM THE BOYS

1.  ” Great, lets do it again, it really makes you think !”

2.  ” I yelled ‘ FORWARD SPIN NOW ‘ and he yelled ‘ WHAAAAT ? ‘

3.  ” I couldn’t see Jackshit ‘cos of his spray ”

Anyway, Headlanders had a great year because we all had fun and didn’t take the competitiveness way over the top……  See ya in 2009 !

Cheers, Frank ………..