Region’s bodyboarders clean up States

Margaret River region bodyboarders have impressed in clean and powerful surf at Gas Bay, at the final event of the SunSmart WA Bodyboard Titles ,with Ben Veitch taking home the open men’s division on Sunday.

“Thick and throaty” 2.5m waves favoured bodyboarding’s high-performance manoeuvres with what Surfing WA events manager Justin Majeks described as “bone-crushing barrels thundering into the reef”.

“WA has always produced great bodyboarding talent and we at Surfing WA will continue to support the code into the future,” Majeks said.

Margaret River’s Veitch jjlooked right at home, taking out the win in the blue-ribbon open men’s division by “threading multiple deep tubes” to amass an insurmountable combined total of 16.00 from a possible 20.

Veitch picked off the biggest and best waves on offer, linking major manoeuvres and dropping excellent scores to fend off Scarborough’s Kai De Legh, and Trigg’s Joel Hughan.

Veitch said he was “stoked” to be the State champion again.

“Thanks to Surfing WA for running the comps at two great locations,” he said.

“Mandurah Wedge and Gas are some of our best bodyboard waves and we scored both pretty good this year.

“Well done to all the groms giving it a crack out there today, the waves were heavy.”

Veitch was also awarded the Air Asia “Big Air” for a massive roll out to the flats.

Another Margaret River local, Ziggy Bulloch, proved he is the sport’s best aspiring talent in WA with victories in both the under-18 junior boys’ division and the under-16 cadet boys’ division.

Bulloch celebrated his 14th birthday in style, flaunting his knowledge of the Gas reef, powering through some amazing tubes and wowing the judges with his style and finesse.

Pushed all the way by close friend Max McGregor, Bulloch will spearhead the WA Bodyboard Team who will head to the National Titles in Tweed Heads NSW in August.

Bulloch said the waves had been really good during the competition.

“I’m exhausted, I surfed a lot of heats today,” he said.

“It was a good way to spend my birthday down here at the beach.”