The Beyrick and Shane Show (Takes One To Know One – Vic Bay)

Yesterday’s prediction of a drop in swell couldn’t have been more off, as closeout sets rumbled into the picturesque Victoria Bay throughout the final day of the final event of this year’s Quiksilver Takes One To Know One Series. To add to their closeout dodgin’ challenge, competitors also had to deal with an onshore chop running across the face.

Although not at its best, Vic Bay was still offering highly contestable waves.

Regardless of conditions the final day kicked off with the Pro Junior quarter finals, and Slade Prestwich started his day the same way he ended the previous. He scored another 17 point-plus heat total with some powerful full rail carves and fin free cracks on solid six footers. Dylan Lightfoot, Shane Sykes and Jarryd Veldhuis also carried on with their previous day’s form and easily stepped their way into the Pro Junior semis.

Slade Prestwich was racking-up some massive scores all weekend.

In the first Open Men’s quarter final heat, Beyrick De Vries continued his impressive run in the event with a series of fin throws, punts and massive alley oops to earn his spot in the semi finals. Dylan Lightfoot and Slade Prestwich were the last two Juniors left in the Open Mens division, and they too advanced to the semis. Meanwhile, one of the older guys in the comp – local legend David Pfaff – was teaching the less experienced competitors a lesson or two in rail work and carved his way into the semi finals.

There were no surprise upsets in the Pro Junior semi finals, as Lightfoot, Sykes, Prestwich and Veldhuis all advanced to set up a stacked Pro Junior final. In the first Open Men’s semi and to the frustration of those waiting on the outside for a set to milk out a score, Beyrick picked up the inside waves and turned them into eights to advance to the final. The powerful right point waves suited Casey Grant’s surfing to a tee, and he banged out two big scores to book his spot in the final with Beyrick. In the second semi final, Dylan Lightfoot and Mikey February caused the first mini upset of the day by knocking out Slade Prestwich, who appeared to lose steam after a long day of surfing both divisions.

Dylan Lightfoot was awarded the ‘Surfer of the Contest’ award.

It didn’t get any easier for Slade in the very next heat, as he recorded his lowest heat total of the event in the Pro Junior final to finish fourth. In third was Dylan Lightfoot, while Jarred Veldhuis battled it out with Shane Sykes for first. But 17 Year-old Sykes, whose surfing has gone from level four to level 12 in the past six months, lead the final from beginning to end to earn the biggest win of his young career.

Watch this space. Shane Sykes is on the rise.

The Open Men’s final started off as the Beyrick and Mikey show. It also ended as the Beyrick and Mikey show, as Dylan Lightfoot, who surfed six heats on the final day and won Surfer of the Event, as well as Casey Grant couldn’t find the waves to challenge them. Straight off the siren and the first exchange between Mikey and Beyrick saw Beyrick take the upper hand with a high eight, a fraction higher than Mikey’s low eight. They both paddled straight back out and swung into another bomb each. Beyrick finished off with another high eight, but Mikey went the extra mile with some smooth pocket laybacks to nail himself a nine and the early lead.

M-Feb launched into an early lead in the Open Men’s final.

All weekend long, Beyrick had claimed that he was just there taking it easy and not getting too stressed out about the event. Mikey’s nine-point ride must have struck a serious competitive nerve in Beyrick though, because on his very next wave he launched into a massive air reverse and linked up a series of fin throws before ending with a death stare at the judges. If the death stare wasn’t a clear enough indication that Beyrick was not in Vic Bay just for a little holiday getaway, then the chest pound towards his support crew sitting along the point once his score was read out had everyone convinced.

Beyrick wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

With Beyrick in the lead and Mikey needing an 8.30 in the final minutes of what was already the most exciting PST final this year, Mikey got one final sniff. He managed to sneak a set from Beyrick’s inside and pulled off another massive layback and two big hits to start racking up the points. But the wave went dead too soon and Mikey finished just 0.2 points short of victory. This meant that Beyrck had grabbed his second victory in the TOTKO Series, which has raised the bar on the local Pro tour. Hopefully next year’s Series will be even bigger and better.

Beyrick and Shane, Vic Bay champs!