Rainbow Beach at Bonny Hills will forever go down in Australian Surfing Championships history as the venue where the first-ever perfect score was obtained at the national titles.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Sunshine Coast junior Landon Smales registered an impressive two 10s in the under-18 junior men's logger titles on August 13.
Contest director Glen Elliott said it had never happened in national title history before.
"It's the first time it's ever happened at the Australian Surfing Championships or our national titles and they've been going since 1968," he said.
"We've created history [at Bonny Hills]."
It came after championship directors made the decision to move from North Haven Beach where the championships had been based since the competition started on August 5.
Elliott said a few factors came into play to help make the decision.
"We don't want to wear out our welcome," he said.
"The locals jealously guard their breaks and I think even though North Haven would have offered up some nice waves [on Saturday] we've got a pretty good option with Bonny Hills.
"We're pretty happy with what's happened down here."
An uncertain weather forecast had forced their hand where the Australian Lifeguard Service was unable to provide the competition with a full range of services.
But that proved to be unnecessary after the weather started to clear early on Saturday morning.
"With the drones and the lifeguard on the jetski that they normally provide, they (originally) couldn't provide us with a full range if they can't get the drones in the air," Elliott said.
However, it did allow them to move beaches and provided surfers with a different part of the Hastings coastline to master.
"We started a new division with the juniors as well so it was a perfect opportunity to do just that," Elliott said.
"It is (also) good to get a new venue and (have) a different variety of wave."
Town Beach and Lighthouse Beach in Port Macquarie still remain without any championship action although that looked likely to change for the national bodyboarding titles which start on August 21.
"We'd love to get to Town Beach for the bodyboards and if not Town, Lighthouse, but it will be determined whether or not we have the right winds," Elliott said.
"With a north-east swell we really need to be down this southern end to capture every single inch of what swell is there."
