After three large days of competition at Bells Beach/Djarrak in Victoria, the Australian Indigenous Surfing Titles presented by Rip Curl concluded with Queenslanders Landen Smales and Summer Simon victorious in their respective divisions on Sunday 28 May.
Summer Simon from Rainbow Bay (Coolangatta) claimed the trophy in the Open Women division while Landen Smales from Noosa Heads had the competition of a lifetime, taking the trophies in the Open Men, the Men’s Longboard, and the Junior Boys divisions.
While Landen claimed the top spot with relative ease in the Men’s Longboard and Junior Boys divisions, he was forced to perform some of his best surfing on the road to his Open Men triumph. The win didn’t come easy as the top three ended up with total wave scores of 13.80, 13.60 and 13.07 in the final.
Landen was stoked about both the perfect surfing conditions and of course, his triple-victory
“It’s been a big couple of days with Bells putting on a show for everyone” said Landen and continued with “I’m very proud to be indigenous and be able to come down to this comp and surf with everyone”.
Summer Simon put on an equally impressive display on the women’s side. With an 8.33 ride, she was able to shut down the heat and take home the victory with a total wave score of 15.83 after some remarkable surfing.
“It felt so surreal, Bells is one of my favourite places to surf so to take out the Indigenous Title this year is really special to me” Summer said after her win.
“I was super stoked to get Bells pumping and catch heaps of good waves,” she continued. “We were cheering each other on out there and all the girls were shredding which makes it that bit harder to win”
Other notable Queensland performances include Kauri Heuston-Conner from Reedy Creek coming in 2nd in the Open Women division and 4th in the Junior Girl division, Kaiden Smales from Noosa Head claiming the 2nd place in the Men’s Longboard division, Bohdi Simon from Rainbow Bay coming in 3rd in the Junior Girls division, and Kyroan O’Donnel from Tewantin getting 3rd place in the Junior Boys division.
All scores, video and photos from the event can be found at www.australianindigenoussurfingtitles.com
Event Dates:
May 26th – May 28th, 2023
Bells Beach / Djarrak – Victoria
The Australian Indigenous Surfing Titles was presented by Rip Curl and Head Sox supported by the Victorian Government, Surf Coast Events, VicHealth Surfing Australia, Play It Safe by the Water, Wadawurrung Tradional Overseers, Indigi-Print, Space Cubes and Feed Me Surf Coast.
