Surfing: Matt Banting beaten by Connor O'Leary in the final of the Avoca Pro

O'Leary and Banting battled it out at Avoca Beach on Monday, continuing their form starts to 2019.

Avoca Beach turned on bumpy three-to-four foot right-handers for the final day with the biggest scores of the event going down in the last few heats.

Both have taken QS1000 wins over the last month and Banting was always going to be hard to beat.

Banting, the Port Macquarie surfer, looked razor sharp on the long wally right-handers of Avoca Point.

That was until the 2017 CT Rookie of the Year O’Leary got to work on his backhand and posted the highest heat total of the entire event.

He claimed a near perfect 19.50 two-wave combination which included the only perfect 10.00 of the event.

“This is a bit of a dream come true to start my 2019 like this,” O’Leary said.

“That final was definitely a solid confidence boost, especially coming up against someone like Matt who has been absolutely tearing lately.

"My whole goal is to hopefully keep the momentum going into the rest of 2019 and hopefully get a few more results over the year.

"This is my first time in Avoca also, so I walk away from here with a heap of good memories.”

Banting has spent the last 12 months reacquainting himself with competitive surfing after suffering a number of career-threatening injuries through 2016-17.

The technically gifted natural-footer is hoping to get back on the dream tour as soon as he can and this result will go a long way to getting him there.

Although he was left needing two big scores to take the lead in the final, Banting still posted an excellent heat total of 16.24 to finish runner-up.

It was only fractionally less than his 17.00 which was good enough to claim the Great Lakes Pro last week.

Banting was also awarded the Air of the Day award for a variety of impressive aerials over the course of the event.

“I didn’t have any expectations at the beginning of the year except I just wanted to start strong in the Vissla NSW Pro Surf Series,” Banting said.

“To make two finals in two weeks is a bit of a dream come true.

"This is such a good preparation coming into the QS6000 events at Newcastle and Manly and it has definitely helped the confidence.

"Connor and I have been competing since we were kids and I would have loved to beat him, but I walk away from here knowing I can trust my surfing in different conditions.”

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