Slydefest 2021 Australia Powered by DaFiN

by Travis Davies June 07, 2021 3 min read

Slydefest 2021 Powered By DaFiN, was months in planning with a virus that won't die and borders that won't open we fought hard to bring you the ONLY, Handboard event in Australia!

Everything was ready for the big event, the day arrived and the waves didn't, we were greeted with 1 to 2 foot Gold Coast beach breaks, but the sun was out and we had 50 excited competitors and a massive crowd to watch the best hand boarders show their skills.

The main event the Opens was a hard fought event, with the big names such as Dylan Kelly a past winner, Runner Up in 2020 Paddy McNally and a late entry of Uga Mihailovic along with the Goldie Sliders guns Ben Oakley, Hamish Christie and Simon Svenson were all out to have some fun and take the title.

Slyde Handboards legend Daniel Carr (AKA @captain_kookman) headed up to teach the young bucks some lessons with his years of experience.

it was a tough event as every heat was stacked with quality hand boarders and some heats being split by under half a point and some instances a count back!

The dark horse of the event was the unknown name of Lachie Rombouts, he arrived and showed his skills all the way to the final with some amazing wave riding and tricks.

The final 4 was Lachie Rombouts, Dylan Kelly, Ben Oakley and Uga Mihailovic.

Dylan Kelly showed his years of experience winning all the way to the final and taking the points in the Opens final with an impressive display of hand boarding.

Uga in the dying seconds claimed the highest score of the final but falling just short to finish second, Lachie ended a great event third and the Goldie Sliders skipper Ben finished forth.

The Over 45's event, had 16 warriors enter and the battle was on in the small clean conditions, Daniel Carr snuck a late entry to the old boys but was feeling the legs after making the semis in the Open event, but he showed his true colours making the final.

Last years Winner Lee Smith again showed skills and made the final, along with lasts years finalist Harry Gordon and Matthew Durie who traveled up from Newcastle and Daniel Carr from team Slyde.

It was a back and forth battle with the lead changing 4 times in the final before Harry Gordon claimed the heats highest scores to take the win as Over 45's Champion, leaving Matthew Durie second, Lee Smith third and Daniel Carr with forth!

Juniors this year grew to 8 kids which was fantastic for the event and our sport, all the kids went and had fun and loved every minute and after the semi finals we were left with 4 finalists, Slyde's very own Ace Davies along with Cooper Smith, and Frank Gordon and then there was Ben Sheppard.

The kids went ballistic they were spinning and flipping everywhere, when the hooter went, the experience of the orders boys shone through with Cooper Smith first, Frank Gordon second, Ben Sheppard third and Ace Davies claiming forth.

Women for 2021 were low on numbers but we got a final done and won, Allana Glowaski took it out from Lynda Franklin and Nikki Rose these three ladies were within a point of each other, our forth place getter was the Goldie Sliders own, Debbie Young our number one helper she put the Slyde vest on grabbed a from and hot the water with a Handboards for the first time which was great. Its great to see the ladies go at it, well done Allana on the win.