Star sponsors the local Mandurah boardriding club - Mandurah Board Riders (MBR) - and the club fell one place short of winning the sixth event of the Original Source Australian Boardriders Battle in tricky swells at Trigg Point on Saturday.
Five of the state’s best boardriding clubs converged on Trigg where a unique and exciting event format saw six surfers from each club going head-to-head across three separate divisions.
In the end the Margaret River Boardriders Club finished on 7900 points ahead of Mandurah with 6825 points and Trigg Point third on 5562.
Margaret River will now progress to the national final in Cronulla, New South Wales in 2016.
A stacked field of current, former and aspiring Western Australia surfing champions revelled at the opportunity to represent their local club.
In the small and at times inconsistent surf, Luke Campbell (Trigg Point), Drew Everest (Scarborough), Zak Alexander (Mandurah) and Brad Harrington (Surf Beach) were among some of the best performers for their respective clubs in the men’s.
However, top honours were reserved for Margaret River’s Willcox, who made a welcome return to the competition showing no signs of an ankle injury that interrupted his year.
Rising Mandurah star April McPherson was narrowly defeated by Bronte Macaulay in the women's event.
The pinnacle of the day’s action was reserved for the team’s final, which showed the depth of the WA clubs competing with the best two scores from each surfer recorded from the 60-minute final.
Mandurah showed consistency to post a combined total of 48.01, ahead of Scarborough on 44.92, and Trigg Point on 29.02 however Margaret River was again too strong with 58.70 points.
A consolation prize for the Mandurah Club was The Milwaukee Heavy Duty Hack award which was presented to Alexander for his combination of style and power (Zak pictured at top of page).
Alexander was the only surfer to have beaten Willcox throughout the day.
“It’s been a ripper day,” Alexander said.
“It’s been small, but hey that’s surf comps and stoked the club performed so strongly.”
The Original Source Australian Boardriders Battle Series III will next travel to Victoria and is the country’s biggest grassroots boardriders event series with $110,000 in prize money.
The top finishing clubs from each competition will compete in a national final on January 23 in Cronulla.