Rip Curl’s Pro Search: Should it be held in our area?
The big talking point in local surfing this week is the news that surfwear giant Rip Curl is considering applying for permission to run its Rip Curl Pro Search in our local area, ideally at Lennox Point.
Talk of the possibility of the event being held locally, thereby attracting the world’s best surfers and pumping millions into the economy, has been around for almost a month.
I was at a meeting of the Lennox National Surfing Reserve committee last week when Le-Ba Boardriders president Rod Steeles outlined the proposal.
Originally, Rip Curl had planned to hold the Pro Search at Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, but the locals disapproved because of the area’s fragile environment.
Rip Curl, to its credit, took this opposition on board and looked elsewhere, approaching the Le-Ba club about the possibility of holding the event in our region.
Ideally Rip Curl would like to see its contest held at the world-famous Lennox Point, the best break in this area. However, apart from a very few local events, the Point has been a contest-free zone, and most locals would like to see it stay that way.
In approaching Le-Ba, Rip Curl asked the club to gauge public opinion — hence Rod Steeles attending the Lennox National Surfing Reserve meeting last week.
Rod went to great lengths to explain that Rip Curl’s attitude was that if the locals didn’t want the contest, Rip Curl would look elsewhere.
Rod also pointed out that Le-Ba stood to make a lot of money if the Pro Search went ahead in its area, but he told Rip Curl, and last week’s LNSR meeting, that if there was money to be made, it should go towards improving facilities at local surf breaks, and especially the Point.
It’s not news that the lower carpark at the Point is an accident waiting to happen. On a good surf day, all possible parking areas are crammed, and those drivers who aren’t interested in the surf are whizzing past at 80km/h (it’s on days such as these that a 60km/h speed limit extending south of Pat Morton Lookout makes a lot of sense).
And there’s also the issues of amenities (or more precisely, the lack of amenities) at the Point, poor access by foot, and weed invasion.
These are issues which have often been discussed as the LNSR committee worked towards its highly successful dedication day at the Point on February 16.
The general opinion of those at last week’s meeting was that the Pro Search could be good for the area, provided it was a one-off event.
News of the possibility of the event being held here broke this week after a local surfer wrote a letter to The Northern Star objecting to it. No doubt there’s a lot of people out there — along with people who might not even be surfers — who would oppose having an event of this magnitude in our area.
There will be a lot more discussion now that the news is out in the public arena.
But there’s now another twist: Rip Curl has decided to hold this year’s event in Bali and is looking at our area being host next year.
That’s a good development: It gives plenty of time to look into the advantages and disadvantages of having the event held here and to test public opinion.
And if the majority say yes, bring it here, then instead of having a tight timeframe to prepare for the Pro Search (held in late August), it can been done thoroughly.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Nice article, it would be pretty awesome to see it at Lennox next year. I just put up a little interview with Rip Curl’s Dane Sharp on http://ripesurfing.com about this years event.