by Peter Curilla

A weekend of tricky 3-4ft South Curl Curl waves was the location for the Jim Beam ‘Industry Challenge’ held over the weekend.

Competition was fierce with many a sponsored sticker apparent in the competition areas. Big names like Russ Maloney, Zahn Foxton, Daniel Vardy, Matt Toghill, Robbie France and Dan Karren were all there looking to take their respective teams to glory in the 2013 event.

Regular teams featuring in the event like Manly Surf School, Central Coast Builders, the retailers, surf media and the personal trainers were all there to do battle again. What these teams didn’t know was there was another X factor team with more on their mind than making up the numbers. I am of course talking about the boys from The Perfect Wave who spend their weeks sending literally hundreds of surfers to ideal locations around the world to find their ‘perfect wave’.

It is safe to say the boys did not expect such fierce competition and they were definitely not expecting to be surfing against past pro’s who were once making their living on the tour. However this was all part of the experience for the boys who took it with a grain of salt and still surfed and represented the Perfect Wave logo! The competition was never about winning but more about participation and learning from it all.

Their first heat was against Central Coast Builders, Surf Media and The Plumbers with 2 of the mentioned teams favourite to take out the whole competition! Needless to say it was a nervous start for our guys with Benny Horvath first into the lineup and getting a crumbling 2 footer all the way to the sand but with no real powerful turns due to the wave not co-operating with Benny’s usually fluent style. Next into the lineup was Charlie ‘Smorgasboarder cover shot’ Pierce who is better known for his big wave surfing at Cloudbreak and New Caledonia earlier this year found it hard to get a few turns linked together and on his power wave took a beating on the inside bank, trying to pull into a thick close-out! Our 3rd surfer was Evan ‘Toastie’ Copas, who looked about as awkward as a giraffe on roller skates and finally our French snowboarding import Lorenz gave it his best but maybe it was our broken English that failed to explain you only need to get 2 waves, Lorenz caught 4 waves before finally running up the beach for the tag…we still finished 3rd…….in the relay but 4th in the heat!

This was definitely a learning experience and we were happy to be their representing the company name.

Later that night, company CEO – Jamie Gray presented the most outstanding surfer on the day ‘Robbie France’ with a few spots on board one of our surf charter boats in the Maldives. All surfers then partied the night away at the new Salt house club in Manly, a good day and night for all, can’t wait to do it all again next year!

Written by:
Ben Horvath

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